Leaders Lead

A message not understood by Dalton McGinty. You think everyone switching to energy efficient light bulbs is the equivalent of shutting down one coal fired plant then bring in legislation that mandates everyone switch to energy efficient bulbs. It will only cost a homeowner about $60.

Getting a little hot, Dalton?
By Lorrie Goldstein

Sorry. You can't drink from the well of the "Goreacle" and then tell us solving global warming will be easy. This means you, Premier Dalton McGuinty.

If you believe Al Gore, David Suzuki and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and apparently you do, then you need to go big on global warming. Or go home.

So, do you believe, say, Julia Langer, director of the global threats program of the World Wildlife Fund, when she says: "We have a climate crisis. We're running out of time. We have probably 10 years in which to do yeoman's work to reduce greenhouse gases. The planet really can't take it anymore?"

You have to decide. To lead is to choose.

So let's have no more hints of announcements, as you just made, that you're about to introduce an "aggressive" plan to cut greenhouse gases in Ontario that will go easy on the beleaguered auto sector. What? You can't produce an "aggressive" plan on greenhouse gases in Ontario that goes easy on the auto sector.

What's it going to be? Jobs or the environment? Don't say you could shut down one coal-fired plant if everyone replaced their incandescent light bulbs with new, energy-efficient ones, as you did this week. You know most people won't do that unless you force them, by banning the old bulbs.

Then what are you going to tell people for whom a mandatory change would cause economic hardship?

You don't think NDP leader Howard Hampton is going to ask you about that?

And what's this about closing one coal-fired plant? You promised in 2003 you would close all of them by this year. Now it's 2014.

Premier, it's not just you. It's every political leader, including Federal Environment Minister John Baird, telling us they believe the science that says we're approaching catastrophe but still carrying on as if it's business as usual.

Canadians need straight talk, so they can decide what the price is and whether they're willing to pay it.

And to reward, or punish, the governments that propose these measures.

What Canadians need now is clarity.