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Michigan voters have turned down a local billionaire’s attempt to stop, or at least delay, the construction of a new bridge between Windsor, Ont. and Detroit – a critical artery for Canada-U.S. trade.

Proposition 6 would have required all plans for new bridges and tunnels in Michigan to be approved in a state-wide vote. According to CBS Detroit, it was defeated by a vote of 60 per cent to 40 per cent.

The proposition was successfully added to the ballot by local billionaire Matty Maroun, the man who for decades has held a monopoly on the Ambassador Bridge – North America’s busiest border crossing. His monopoly has helped him rake in almost $80 million a year.

His monopoly looked to be coming to a screeching halt when, after more than a decade of negotiations, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed an agreement in June that would see a new bridge built by 2018.

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Had Maroun’s proposition passed, the new bridge would have been subject to a state-wide vote.

Prior to Tuesday’s vote on proposition 6, Canada’s ambassador to the United States, Gary Doer, had said he was concerned the “convoluted, retroactive” ballot box question could mislead voters into rejecting the planned bridge to connect Windsor and Detroit.

The New International Trade Crossing is intended to help alleviate congestion at the current Detroit River crossing – Maroun’s clogged, narrow, 83-year-old Ambassador Bridge.

The billionaire has spent upwards of $40 million campaigning against the planned bridge.

Voters in Michigan were asked to vote “yes” or “no” to the following proposal:

“- This proposal would: Require the approval of a majority of voters at a statewide election and in each municipality where “new international bridges or tunnels for motor vehicles” are to be located before the State of Michigan may expend state funds or resources for acquiring land, designing, soliciting bids for, constructing, financing, or promoting new international bridges or tunnels.

– Create a definition of “new international bridges or tunnels for motor vehicles” that means, “any bridge or tunnel which is not open to the public and serving traffic as of January 1, 2012.”

Doer has described the Windsor-Detroit crossing as the most important crossing in the world, as it helps transport one quarter of all goods traded between Canada and the United States.

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Doer said the crossing is critical to Canada’s environment, since it would ease traffic in Windsor, as well as two-way trade between Canada and the United States.

Canada has already agreed to foot the bill for the new bridge, even Michigan’s $550-million share of construction costs. Those costs are expected to be recouped through tolls.