Love Letters To Dalton McGuinty

These two pieces overlap a bit, but together they are probably the best account's I've read of Ontario's long journey away from coal under Dalton McGuinty, something he doesn't get much credit for up here in Canada.  An excerpt from the first:


A decade ago, Ontario’s coal-fired power plants were responsible for the province’s largest water withdrawals, accounting for 1.8 billion cubic meters (475 billion gallons) of water taken annually for cooling and steam generation from rivers and Lake Ontario. The province’s coal-fired plants were built with once-through cooling systems, meaning that, after passing through the plants, most of that moisture was returned to the environment as hot water.

Next year, though, Canada’s most populous and industrialized province is scheduled to complete a 21st-century environmental clean-up project that distinguishes it among North American jurisdictions.

After a decade of work by the Liberal Party government, Ontario is scheduled to close the last of its big coal-fired generators at the end of this year, leaving a single small coal-fired unit available during periods of peak electrical demand until it closes next year. In shutting down the province’s 19 boilers fueled by coal, Ontario will no longer need fresh water to operate a coal-fired generating sector that provided one-quarter of its electricity, and the province will become the first industrial region on the continent to eliminate coal-fired generation.

I might have said this before, but when I first moved to T.O. big smog clouds would blow in every summer and hang over the city for days at a time, so thick that you could taste the chemicals in your sweat.  Not good for asthmatics, or anyone really.  You don't see them anymore, and some of the thanks has to go to McGuinty era policies.

Dalton McGuinty For LPoC Leader?

Steve V has a interesting--if perhaps premature--post up today suggesting that Dalton McGuinty should be thinking about about who will succeed him as leader of the Ontario Liberal Party.  And of course, at his place and elsewhere, a few have suggested that Dalton might want to consider a move into Federal politics-- into, specifically, the race for leader of the national Liberals.  I too hope he considers such a move.  A few possible issues:

1) His French appears to be passable--better than Hudak and Horwath's--but still not great.  On the other hand, given the LPoC's stated time-frame for choosing another leader, he has plenty of time to bone up.

2) He's in his mid-50s, so could probably stick around for a 2nd federal election if the first one didn't pan out.  And of course my long-standing belief is that, if your leader's 1st campaign isn't an absolute disaster, your party owes him a 2nd crack.  You can't keep dumping your front-man. 

3) One thing Steve notes correctly is that McGuinty did not perform well in Ontario's rural areas (which mirrors the federal parties performance nationally).  The LPoC needs to either absolutely clean up in the cities or reach out to the countryside, and this is the one area where Dalton has come up (in this last election at least) short. 

So, maybe, one strike against.

I Take Partial Credit For The Results Of This Poll!

 A newly released Harris-Decima poll shows Dalton McGuinty's Ontario Liberals have an 11 point lead over Tim Hudak's Progressive Conservatives - the first time the governing party has bested it's main rival in many months.

The Ontario poll has the Liberals in the lead at 40 per cent, the PC's with 29 per cent, the NDP at 24 and the Green Party trailing with six per cent.

It was this story, I tell you, that I broke that cracked the camel's spine!  Booyah!   Boooyah!   BooYAHBOOyahBOOHyaH!  BOOHYAH!  Too bad we don't have a provincial senate.  I could demand a seat from Dalton, near the aisle for bathroom breaks.  And maybe one for the wife.  I wouldn't worry about accommodations.   I'd eat little meeting sandwiches and the freebie food in the provincial Senate cafe, and sleep in my seat in the Senate chamber, as is the tradition federally.