I understand the Federal deficit is rolling higher than the $56 expected.

Great time to install a tax hike in Ontario, harmonization (great word for tax, isn't it?), and combine it with Prentice's impending Green Shift, which will increase energy/transportation/living costs (a tax on everything).

You'll get new taxes on new taxes!

Because, as we all know, deficits are simply deferred taxation.

Stick it to your kids!

You would never know we here in Ontari-ari-ario are drowning in red ink. Not only is the Guint pissing away tax dollars propping up "green" energy boondoggles, he is about to announce a multi-billion year-round kindergarten plan which is nothing less than daycare staffed by people earning teacher union salaries.

Fresh from wasting $1 B. on eHealth, McGuinty and Smitherman continue to squander millions on wind turbines and solar energy projects. McGuinty neglects to build the required nuclear generators, but puts all his faith in (smoke and) mirroirs and wind mills. The last time I checked nuclear power was clean, at least in CO2 terms, however, it is not blessed by the Green orthodoxy. McGuinty and Smitherman will never have to view wind mills in their neck of the woods,we in rural Ont. can learn to lump them.

Time for another Common sense revolution methinks.

Gotta feel sorry for the good people of Ontario . . . their sports teams suck and they have Dulton as a Premier.

Yep, ol' Dalton is systematically destroying the entire industrial base of the province (and therefore of Canada, we got pretty much all of it right here) and in doing so is -exceeding- the insane levels of debt that even Boob Rae and the New Dumb@ss Party managed to rack up in their one shot at bat.

But Conservatives are the ones with the "scary" agenda. Don't forget kids, conservative = scary.

This public service message brought to you by your friendly Ontario mainstream media. That'll be a buck fifty, please.

Actually, the Dulton Hole is much bigger . . .

"Ontario deficit to hit $25-billion, as tax revenue takes a plunge

Spending also increases by $4.8-billion

Lee Greenberg, Canwest News Service Published: Friday, October 23, 2009

TORONTO - Falling revenues and a burgeoning $24.7-billion deficit will force Ontario's Liberal government into a new era of fiscal restraint, provincial Finance Minister Dwight Duncan said yesterday.

McAsswipe the only surviving brain transplant donor.

A liar a cheat a coward.

Sorry forgot and a LIBERAL so what do you people expect from these Cretins?

That is MORONtario(TM).I only pray that when they come crying to Alberta for more bucks,that the WA will be in power and tell them where to stick it!!!And wind power seems to suck the brains out of people.Guess they(MORONtarions) want the Cretin back.

I got this from the National Post this morning.
Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan said the deficit would by $14.1 billion. By June it had been revised upward to $18.5 billion; on Thursday it was jacked up again, to $24.7 billion.

Read more: http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/10/27/matt-gurney-what-s-dalton-to-do.aspx#ixzz0V9Zt6hK7

Could someone please point out Ontario's Minister of Agriculture, assuming they still have one. All announcements on wind "farms" and similar developments come from city boys McGuinty and Smitherman. Just who is in charge of protecting prime agricultural land from industrial development?

The initial costs of an individual Wind Mill project are considerably lower than that of the sustaining cost of the configuration of a Base load functioning matrix of LPS (Little Piece of Shit) Wind generators. The initial cost of 19 cents will quickly become >48 cents if you tie them into a grid....The redundancy (failure) factor of a single unit in a matrix becomes complex.

The folks need to get real!

Dulton McSpendthrift is getting the attention of the powerful teachers union, going for all day kindergarten. What could be a bigger winner than all day daycare at public expense?

Whether there's any common sense left in Ontario will be noted when the next election rolls around.

PTCs are unfunded liabilities.

As the installed base of Giant Fans increase so does the liability, it is simple math and for investors the PTC is the prize not the generation of usable energy being sold into the grid.

Without a PTC Fund with a set allocation from a fixed funding source then you are inviting a situation where the entire process gets out of hand and the unfunded liability of PTC awards build exponentially.

When your subsidy is more than the actual market price of an item you create an incentive of producing for subsidy rather than meeting market demand.

But Conservatives are the ones with the "scary" agenda. Posted by: The Phantom at October 27, 2009 11:46 AM

Actually, since the Cons are sticking a Green Shift onto Canadians - that's the thing I find scary about them.

That, and the fact they brought in the largest multi-year deficits and net addition to debt this nation has ever had in it's history.

Dulton's only following the cue.

The federal Conservative government is backstopping the 'clean energy' expansion by 50% of installed cost (plus operation subsidies up to $0.04/kwh which happens to be the cost of a kwh generated by coal), so it's easy for the provinces to sit up and beg. Politicians get 'free' money from other levels of government, and numerous photo ops with the right lobbyists (and maybe even a directorship at a nice company in case they decide to move on).

It ain't Librano or Con. They are one and the same.

Can we somehow move Toronto with Dalton & company to some obscure place? Or build a wall around them and let them rule themselves into the ground. He should have been gone after the "no new taxes" disguised as a health premium, less than a month after he was elected the first time. Now my tax dollars are being eaten up by scandals, mismanagement and ridiculous programs. He's been taxing us, regulating us and spending like a drunken sailor ever since and it won't be over until he is OUT.

It has been asked before but has there ever been one alternative energy program that was viable without taxpayer's dollars?

Why feel sorry for Ontarians as a province, they voted these morons in, for the second time. I do feel sorry for those Ontarians who did not vote for the Liberals or NDP. But, somehow I think that "Progressive" Conservatives are no better when it comes to "not a tax they don't like" mentality.

Gosh darn, it appears at first glance that even Harper's people (read Prentice)have bought into the warming hoax and the green shi*t. Might have to rip the membership card.

Hey, you guys are being too tough on the ol' premier. Like Obama, he's facing unprecedented challenges. He's doing the best that he can under the circumstances. Cut the guy some slack. If you think you could do better then you run for office. Freakin' armchair quarterbacks. Sheesh!

Oh, I should have put satire alert at the top of this post. Actually, I just wanted to see if I could type 6 or 7 sentences in support of the premier and not pee my pants laughing. Came close.

Can anyone (Captain?) plot a graph comparing Dalton's track record with deficits vs the previous Conservatives? I think it would be very illuminating, considering Dalton has been blaming the inherited deficit and now the souring economy for their inability to balance a budget. If I remember, the Conservatives inherited a much larger deficit, and managed to turn things around much quicker.

"Cut the guy some slack."

After all, he inherited this mess from Mike Harris...

"Gosh darn, it appears at first glance that even Harper's people (read Prentice)have bought into the warming hoax and the green shi*t."

PMSH hasn't bought into anything except reality. Not environmental reality, but economic and political reality. Please do not fool yourself into thinking that abstaining from Carbon pricing will help Canada. That line of thinking is strictly ideological and it does not consider political and economic realities. We cannot bring checkers to a chess game and expect to play (economically speaking). We do not define the game, we must simply play it to the best of our ability.

Politically, accepting AGW dogma is genius. If you can put your bias aside, you can see that PMSH eliminated the only political football the Liberals and the Dippers had. With AGW off the debate agenda, the opposition has NOTHING, not even Afghanistan!

Conservatives need to wake-up and get off the sinking ship that is your opposition to Carbon pricing; our leaders have!

Remember, just because you might know AGW is a hoax doesn't mean that many others think it's real. Many of those people may be likeminded with you on other issues such as economics and foreign policy. As "c"onservatives we need the support of these people no matter how misguided they may be on this particular issue.JMO

I'm sure his biggest fan is Boob Rae. Rae is soon to become the second worst Premier of Ontario.

I forgot to mention that in my view AGW and Carbon pricing is the new vogue method of protectionism. In other words, Carbon pricing (or lack thereof) will be the new tool/excuse for left leaning governments to hamper trade. Emissions targets will be new battleground for international trade disputes. Governments will justify protectionism based on accusations of insufficient Carbon standards; then, the lawyers get involved.

And to think the last provincial election the most heated debate was faith based schools...thanks John Tory.
When the cost of the H!N! flu reaches the desk of the powers that be in Queen's Park will Mcguinty cut health care funding, or scrap the ridiculous green programs?

Yes Kate...it's all Mike's fault...for letting Eves take over.
Bring back Harris...time for another Common Sense revolution!

Hudak? Whodat?

We could solve some of our problems by not paying exorbitant salaries to those who least deserve it, getting rid of half the civil servants occupying desks, not funding any "Pride" events and trying to attract businesses to or back to Ontario.
Just my thoughts.

Pete, the graph of Ontario deficits is right here:
http://www.google.ca/archivesearch?q=ontario+provincial+deficit+history&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&scoring=t&ei=jjrnSqnvG8qYlAfu1O2KCA&sa=X&oi=timeline_result&ct=title&resnum=11&ved=0CCQQ5wIwCg

As you can see, deficits have been a part of Ontario's economic history for the past 30 years. The Harris Tories were better but not significantly so than the previous NDP. The knee-dips at least had the excuse of a recession, which was not the case with the mid-late 90s Tories, who were running $8 billion deficits through a revenue boom. They've all been bad managers of Ontario's public finances.

Kate said: After all, he inherited this mess from Mike Harris...

That's what I'm talking about. I mean, Barney Frank in the US is "trying on every front to increase the role of government" (see Drudge)after the Republicans ruined everything. I say give McQuinty the same shot. Fair is fair.

Dang, forgot the satire alert again.

We fought against a 380 acre solar farm on prime agricultural land in my township where the cost per kilo-watt would have been 50 cents (subsidized by the taxpayer) ... And a huge waste of excellent farm land.

Glad to see some common sense for a change.
http://www.barrieadvance.com/barrieadvance/article/148066

Osumashi Kinyobe...you are describing the essence of the CSR.
The problem with Mike's CSR...when he told each ministry to 'cut' he should have specified 'not front line employees.'

Hospitals cut nurse's and kept the high priced execs.

Ontario: leading the nation to the new Dalton Minimum.

Sorry Indiana, you make some interesting points, but to support policy based on lies is not only wrong but dangerous. The agenda behind the UN's IPCC (Mo Strong's baby) AGW push is not just to redistribute wealth, which it initially will, but to consolidate political power and control at an international level. The elitists will rule and no vote for you. Freezing this winter? Ah, too bad, you're out of carbon credits so put on another sweater, you don't want to kill all the polar bears do you? Does anyone really want a UNelected, UNaccountable, UNtruthful, UNbelievable set of progressive tyrants, thugs, and thieves dictating our entire lives? Greenies have murdered over 50,000,000 so far (ban on DDT). Just wait until we grant them authority to control energy usage and production. The cull numbers will be astronomical.

Bluetech, Harris inherited Rae's messes, and, quite frankly, there are overpaid nurses whose bedside manner should not be rewarded financially.
McGuinty will get rid of nurses.

Please do not fool yourself into thinking that abstaining from Carbon pricing will help Canada. Posted by: Indiana Homez at October 27, 2009 1:58

LOL

Higher Taxes (check)
Unproven science (check)
Wealth Transfer scheme (check)

So. Taxing Canadians on everything through their Green Shift is genius?

Did I miss something? Like Ontario's $24B deficit? Or the $100B deficit that we're heading to nationally?

And that we tax people to then subsudize un-economic power generation?

Gads. Better call a doctor. I think you've been able to tie yourself in a Gordian knot.

Best of luck with that.

I was told over a year ago that Alberta would be having a political deficit this year. It's very hard to take money from someone that supposedly doesn't enough for themselves. That comes from the same source that told me Stelmach would probably be the new premier long before anyone even knew who the hell he was. As it was explained to me, the Alberta deficit was like an insurance policy against it's own coffers being raided by the feds. I even thought that was a little far fetched, but no more.

and for absolute, crystal clarity:

'Carbon Pricing' = 'Carbon Tax'

Anything else is bullsh*t

Hard

I'm alluding to the fact that we export 70% of our goods to the USA. Do the Americans really need another reason (real or not) to stop our goods at the boarder? I understand your point, and agree ideologically. That being said, how would you or Marko deal with the aforementioned little tid-bit.

Marko

Agreed, except I don't think we are obligated at this time to transfer money to China due to CO2 agreements. I commented many times in the past that our and the American left is far too stingy to send "their" hard earned money overseas. I believe the Democrats and the Liberals are much more interested in a transfer of wealth from Red state to Blue state and in Canada from the West to Central Canada(this is the plan to save California).

That is the real game plan as far as I can see; and, a better plan it is.

Like I said Marko, what would you have him do, die on his ideological sword?

This, unfortunately is the compromise we're forced to make with the left in an minority government. As I said, it's taken the ONLY issue the left has off the table, that's smart. Remember we're playing chess not checkers, sometimes you must sacrifice a bishop to take a rook.

Sorry for the bad grammar,again.

Fixed:

"That being said, how would you or Marko deal with the aforementioned little tid-bit?"

After all, he inherited this mess from Mike Harris...

What did dear leader Steve inherit? A multi-Billion$ surplus which he squandered into the biggest deficit in history. But I'm sure that's the fault of the Liberals and Tommy Douglas and the evil, omnipotent MSM.
Lucky for Brad Devine he's managed thus far to ride the coattails of the responsible fiscal governance of the NDP. How long before he's running on empty?

Paying 13.5 to 19 cents for something that can be had for 4 or 5 cents - has Ontario run out of torches, pitchforks or, better yet, lamp posts?

Indiana: We'll have to disagree.

Increasing taxes because of ideology so we can be prepared for hypothetical situations, is just plain nuts.

Read some of the comments. There seem to be a lot of people in Toronto who think that the needs of the many for cheap power outweigh the needs of the few. The thing is though, the power from windmills is anything but cheap. Whatever happened to reading comprehension?

One last thing I have to ask; was it worth it to stop funding for religious schools? Nothing like cutting your nose off to spite your face!

Democracy: ensuring that people get exactly the government that they deserve, since 500 BC.

"Rae is soon to become the second worst Premier of Ontario."

One of my younger relatives still considers Bob Rae to have been the greatest premier of Ontario ever.

Mind you, he was in elementary school and high school during Bob's tenure and so bases his esteem for the man entirely on "Rae Days".

As long as we continue to pay huge numbers of people to do nothing but stay home watch TV and have more kids ... as long as we take five years to convict a criminal ... as long as we maintain the apartheid on Indian reserves, as long as we have an enormously boated civil service at ALL levels ... as long as we waste billions chasing pot smokers and growers, as long as we continue to allow socialism to prevail ... as long as we have unions gone wild ... bail outs forever ... we will continue to have the lunatics who are raping our economy in charge of our destiny.

Nothing new since Trudeau.

Kathryn .....be very careful what you wish for.
My burdan is that I have had the sad experience of witnessing this resort to violence too often, and too many places.
That said, I have been polishing my khukri and reloading "home-protection-loads".
Indiana has a point---all too often we have experienced US tariffs and non-tariff barriers....avoiding providing a non-tariff barrier is only wise....the CO2 insanity has not run it's course.....yet.
"It is difficult to keep your head, when all about you are losing theirs......and blaming you."

As Ronny Reagan said, "Government is not the answer, it is the problem." Are we ever going to learn that lesson? I suspect not in our time!

Whatever happened to reading comprehension? Posted by: Kevin Lafayette at October 27, 2009 4:20 PM

"felis corpulentis"

Dalton Minimum - bloody brilliant, felis!

I wish I'd thought of that, but I'm from Quebec where we don't speak minimum.

I recommend this phrase to Tim Hudak!!

A couple of points that need to be made. The Harris government had four consecutive balanced budgets going into the election year of 2003. A number of surprises, the most serious of which was the SARS medical emergency which killed more than 40 people, caused a shortfall of about $2 billion by the time of the election, halfway through the fiscal year. The Liberals won the election and proceeded to run up the deficit to $5.6 billion which they successfully blamed on Harris due to a compliant MSM and a shell-shocked PC caucus.
The Liberals, who campaigned on no tax increases and balanced budgets have increased taxes dramatically and managed only a single balanced budget in their time in office. It occurred as a surprise, when a projected deficit turned into a surplus thanks to dramatically higher than expected government revenues.
The current McGuinty shortfall of $24.7 billion is only a projection, changed twice since the budget was announced in March and almost surely to increase as the end of the fiscal year approaches in FIVE MORE MONTHS.
McGuinty is a disaster. His Liberals spent more than they had in good times and acted like those times would never end. Manufacturing in Ontario was taking a beating before the global economic crisis hit. However people here don't recognize the depth of McGuinty's mistakes and believe our current economic problems are not made-in-Ontario. If they do not understand the depths to which Ontario has fallen by the 2011 election, we are doomed.

We have some mediocre provincial governments in Canada, but none of the others even comes close to Dalton Minimum in terms of profligacy, waste, mismanagement and disastrously mistaken policy. Bob Rae's Ontario government was terrible too, but at least they stopped (or were stopped) before fully going over the brink.

It is just horrible to witness what is happening to Canada's erstwhile economic engine and to the good solid conservative people of large swaths of Ontario because of the incredibly deluded thinking of those who were elected by their largely urban "progressive" fellow citizens.

There is no schadenfreude here in the breast of this prairie dweller, because the mentality that is destroying Ontario is very much present in most parts of the country including the prairies, and is striving desperately to bring the Dalton Minimum to the rest of the country. Moreover, as Ontario is diminished, so are the rest of us.

Thanks for the encouragement, jlc!

Actually ... the more I see of McGuinty and his crew of incompetents in actio the more annoyed I am about that dumbass John Tory and the people who put him in charge of getting rid of the Liberals in Ontario.

And Felis C. is absolutely correct .... they are dragging us down with them.

This has been my major beef with Quebec for decades ... intransigent fools who see themselves as the center of the universe.. blame everyone else for their problems .... and do nothing but suck away at our national resources.

Never enough for these people either! Is it?

hey philboy, a couple of points. First off, Steve did the fiscally responsible thing with the surplus he inherited. He paid down the debt, saving us billions in future interest payments. And he reduced tax levels to be more in line with spending. Secondly, he is still in a minority position, and would be unable to implement any sort of deep budget cuts due to this simple fact. Third, the mismanagement of Ontario by Dalton is having a direct effect on the federal budget. Ontario has been losing manufacturing jobs for eight years in a row now. Red hot economies in Alberta, Nfld, and Sask have offset this up until now.

Finally, a question for you. If Ontario taxes are about a fourth of federal taxes, and Dalton has driven manufacturing in Ontario into the ground, does the $25 billion deficit he's experiencing because of it translate into a $100 billion deficit for the feds?

Time for a new conservative government in Ontario. Time for a conservative mayor of Toronto and time for a conservative majority in Ottawa. Let's stop whining and start talking to our families, neighbours, friends, co-workers, employees, whoever and make them wake up!!

"...time for a conservative majority in Ottawa."

Don't you mean "time for a conservative GOVERNMENT in Ottawa"? Good luck with that.

Is there a soul left in Ontario with an ounce of respect for that lying McSack of Sh1t!!!!!?

federal conservative governments have racked up deficits and debt far in excess of any Liberal government, for the past 38 years.

Government is the problem people.

Politicians are big government ambassadors, cheerleaders, and heralds.

I'll be the first to say that Harper and crew could be a lot more right wing. My views are fairly well known around here. All the same, with at least 75% of the media and a good part of the establishment in the back pockets of the liberals it is difficult to sell bitter tasting medicine to children isn't it?

Indiana, Marko and hardboiled, sorry to start something. It just irks me to hear Prentice mouthing that carbon whatever nonsense. I suspect it will irk me even more when my energy bills start to skyrocket.

All I got to say is the chickens are coming home to roost...and there will be no difference between Ontario and California shortly. None.
To borrow Kate's phrase..."Ontario Not Broke Enough"...you'll see it alot in the months to come.

No wonder they love Obama in Centrel Canada.
Like him there going to spend themselves into poverty while the State grows & grows. As this Provincial Government engorges itself on your Taxes. For social fads that in the end are bogus, but money eaters in an inevitable power pyramid con for legislators. To make Government yet bigger while burying your individual rights for a collective run by whoever is the most psycho. Of course any spare lucre would end up in their pockets, or friends.
This is what you get Ontario for voting Socialists & Communists.
Its why red Ed in Alberta, is last years Christmas tree.
The socialist knows it too. Political death is not far away for him.
You ought to let it be known in your Province it will go the same way. By the way? Why are we still subsidizing Quebec when where the ones with deposits?
JMO

Those who still believe in wind power should google IESO and then check out "Hourly Generator Output and Capability". October is usually a fairly windy month and yet the wind farms are only generating 25% of their capability. Imagine how little power they generate during the "dog days of summer.This is another green con game and the Ontario tax payers are filling the pockets of politicians and foreign companies that build the wind beaters. There are no green jobs here except for the manufacturers in Denmark, Germany and the USA.

Western Canadian

" As it was explained to me, the Alberta deficit was like an insurance policy against it's own coffers being raided by the feds. I even thought that was a little far fetched, but no more."

While I think you are giving the Stelmach government way too much credit for creativity it is possible that they might have blundered into a strategy that will have the same net result. Alberta may actually survive the Stelmach term provided we have the sense to install Morton as leader by the next term.

Something other residents of Ontario should be on the lookout for is MacSlippery's next move and that is the downloading of provincial responsibility's to the municipal level. There's already some back peddling going on to fund conservation authorities under the Clean Water Act by muncipalities instead of the province. Keep your hands on your wallets and purses and hold tight!!! they are out to wring every last dime out of us wherever they can. Beware.

The wind farm on Wolfe Island, East of Kingston, is being paid 27 cents/kWh.

Just noticed this sentence in a new light:

"[McGuinty] is using taxpayers' money to massively subsidize wind "

eh?

hardboiled, I'm sick and tired of your BS.

the truth

People of Ontario, Please do not come to Sask. looking for employment, just like Quebecors we don't want any of you to move out here.

"After all, he inherited this mess from Mike Harris...

What did dear leader Steve inherit? A multi-Billion$ surplus which he squandered into the biggest deficit in history. But I'm sure that's the fault of the Liberals .....
Posted by: philboy at October 27, 2009 3:20 PM"

It can't be emphasized enough, a "government surplus" is defacto.. o-v-e-r t-a-x-a-t-i-o-n.

Sheesh, economics majors sure aren't what they used to be.

A few points:

The windmill farm on Wolfe Island is due south of Kingston, and it has ruined the view from Kingston's waterfront. The tab is a half a billion and counting, and it is now a feature for real estate listings on Wolfe Island to be out of sight of the windmills.

You think it is bad for Ontario now?????

Just wait until the pension tsunami starts rolling through this province. Provincial, county and municipal unfunded liabilities are going to put Ontario into receivership.

There is no possible way that the province will be able to meet those pension obligations.....unless they drive taxes up to the point where the rest of our industrial base collapses.

As Jed Clampett would day.....californeee, here we come.

It can't be emphasized enough, a "government surplus" is defacto.. o-v-e-r t-a-x-a-t-i-o-n.

Sheesh, economics majors sure aren't what they used to be.
~eastern paul

Too true.
What I can't understand is how there can be a government surplus and a national debt at the same time.

Hard

Sure we disagree, but just a little bit.

I hate crap'ntrade tax, agw rhetoric as much as everyone. Two years ago up until last year I naively thought it was a good enough catalyst for western separation. My point is I dislike the whole situation as much as you, I've just accepted that this battle is lost. There is absolutely no political will or resistance in Canada to this issue. The politics are "settled" as far as Ottawa is concerned. This is indisputable is it not?

The housing crash was caused by government incompetence in the U.S.
McGuinty is just trying to prove that he's every bit as incompetent as any American politician, he likes equality you know.
The federal government isn't being much better with this "HST". Just another way for them to get our money while their pretending to do us a favour, Flaherty says the HST will lower taxes? He's a bum imo.

It might be worth noting that these higher, premium rates for wind power, solar power, etc. are not, as seems to be believed by most here and author of the Sun article, subsidized out of general tax revenues. They are instead subsidized by the electricity ratepayer base, so we pay more on each electricity bill than we would if we weren't subsidizing these renewable sources. Ie. if we were only burning coal or natural gas, we'd have lower bills each month. Whether we pay 13.5c/kW for wind or 135c/kW for wind doesn't affect the budget deficit, in other words.

Although Ontario's misguided energy policy is no doubt a contributor to the province's continued descent into have-not territory, Goldstein has unfortunately got it wrong. It is not the Ontario taxpayer that is paying inflated rates for wind and solar generated energy, but the rate payer, with predictable results for the energy-intensive manufacturing sector.

Under the Green Energy Act, McGuinty will be saddling our utility bills not only with high-cost renewable power, but all sorts of additional charges to fund his green agenda. All those subsidies for energy efficiency and green energy will also be coming out of our electricity bills.

This is the ultimate deception as technically it is not a tax, and any spending of these monies will not count as government expenditures.

I'm amazed that Goldstein didn't get this right. Usually his columns on energy policy and climate change are right on target.

I think in 20 years, after the hype has gone away, and people are no longer emotionally invested in it, the true cost of wind power will be known to be up 100 times more expensive than nuclear power.

If it was free, I wish we could have a "renewable" power grid, and an entirely separate grid for power generation that actually works. Then we could banish all the Greens off to the "renewable" grid, where power was not reliable or cheap, and the rest of us could get on with our lives.

Perhaps the good people of Ontario are finally getting fed up. According to the latest Environics poll (out yesterday), The McGuinty-led Liberals are now trailing the provincial Tories 37% to 32%, with the NDP at 19% and the Greens at 11%. Here's the web page.

Brian, I know you are trying to put an optimistic spin on this news. My take, however, is that any population that has 30% claiming they will vote NDP or Green and another 32% that they will continue to vote for the deranged Daltonite lunatics who are currently presiding over their demise, is not fed up enough yet!