Hudak On The Environment

On the one hand, its good to see that Tim Hudak embraces the concept of green or "emissions free" energy and hence, at least implicitly, the science of climate change. Of course, green energy for him means hydro electricity and more nuclear. Given, however, that the history of nuclear power plant construction typically involves intense NIMBYism (and not just by local Greens), cost over-runs and ever sliding completion dates, its ridiculous to imagine that any commitment to this technology will (as Hudak claims) put a lid on the rate increases that Ontarians have been subjected to over the last few years. Furthermore, Uranium, like oil and gas, will peak--perhaps in the middle of the new reactors' operating life--and so doesn't really count as a renewable in the first place.

On the other hand, Hudak is now exposed on his right flank to kooky denialist attacks from folks The Freedom Party of Ontario, who produced the video below. A year ago I would have argued that there are no votes to be had in this approach. Since that time...

...with the rise of Wild Rose in Alberta and the madness of the Republicans down South, I'm not so sure. Of course the Freedom party are a bunch of no-hopers as far as winning seats go, but they may be strong enough to pull Hudak right towards the full denialist position. We'll see if his small gestures towards environmental policy survive in the run-up to the provincial election.