Friday, August 12, 2011

Jim Bradley's Liberal GreenFear aims to frighten voters

The Aug.10, 2011 National Post editorial "Playing by Stephane Dion's playbook" points out that Dalton McGuinty's deep greeners are fearmongering about climate change again:
There's a whiff of Stéphane Dion in the Ontario government's determination to keep touting its green energy agenda as a key issue in the upcoming October election.
A Nanos poll released Monday found that the environment ranks near the bottom of voter concerns, with just 5.7% naming it as the top issue, a decline of almost three points from June. The poll was intended for federal politics, but if you don't consider the environment a top issue in Ottawa, it seems unlikely you'll consider it one in Ontario.
An internal Liberal memo obtained by the media warned that only four in 10 Ontarians think the government is on the right track with an energy policy that emphasizes alternative sources, backed by a mammoth deal with Samsung and heavily subsidized power rates for wind, solar and other renewable energy projects.
Just last week the government belatedly revised the Samsung deal, cutting $327million off the "incentives" on offer. No politics involved in the decision, of course - nothing to do with the opposition's successful hammering of the agreement as the ultimate sweetheart deal. And surely not a sign that the deal that the McGuinty Liberals originally signed with Samsung, and then defended tooth and nail, was overly generous in the first place.
Yet the Liberals are out on the campaign trail, not only defending the deal but promoting it as a great achievement. Without it, they insist, 16,000 jobs will be lost and billions in investments will leave the province - talking about the figures as if those jobs already existed, and the investments made, when in reality they're just a projection offered up by the Liberals. "The economic impact of killing 16,000 green energy jobs would be like an asteroid hitting the Earth," insisted Liberal candidate Greg Crone on Monday. "It's a planet killer that will throw Ontario into an economic dark age."
Mr. Crone's comparison is colourful, if somewhat over the top - to the best of our knowledge, job losses in Ontario would not likely be deemed a threat to the safety of our planet. What Mr. Crone has overlooked in his apocalyptic hysteria, however, is that the impact of "killing" jobs that don't exist is the same as the impact of an asteroid that doesn't exist: Nothing. The Earth doesn't incinerate, the province doesn't plunge into a dark age, people aren't reduced to foraging for nuts, berries or an occasional tin of Spam.
Mr. Dion tried convincing the country that a similar apocalypse would ensue unless he was elected prime minister so he could implement his Green Shift, which was going to cut income taxes and introduce an environmental nirvana to the country. People didn't buy it, and we know what happened. No apocalypse, except for the Liberals, who do indeed seem to be going the way of the dinosaurs.
What has people far more agitated is the cost of supporting Dalton McGuinty's agenda: Higher power costs, monitored by "smart meters" that got their name because no matter how hard you try to reduce your bill, they can outsmart you. Stephen Harper defeated Mr. Dion by arguing that the economy was a bigger concern than the quest for nirvana, and Ontario's Liberals find themselves in a similar situation today. The U.S. economy, which provides Ontario's biggest market, may be falling into a second recession. Even if it avoids a decline, there's little prospect of actual growth. Europe is teetering on a similar, if not greater, chasm. Those crises could have a serious impact on Canada, making it harder for Ottawa to meet its budget targets and eliminate the deficit. Ontario, which under Mr. McGuinty has become dependent on equalization payments (due to total $2.2-billion this year) is hardly in a position to outperform.
So, with a real issue to address, the Liberals prefer to talk about the environment and the wonders that can be achieved with windmills. Maybe they'll win the vote of the 5% of Ontarians who consider alternative energy their top issue. It's the other 95% that could prove tricky.
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It's not just the whiff of Bumbledore Dion we're smelling: it's also the stench of Liberal greenshevist asses Jim Bradley, Brad Duguid, and George Smitherman
Wait till these fearmongering Liberal turds see the ass-teroid that's coming their way in October...(Smitty already saw it in Toronto; but as the GEA is his spawn, it'll be nice to see Furious George defeated yet again)
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