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Liberals blow off wind energy

Tim Hudak is not even premier but already he’s having an effect on Liberal government policy.

Late Friday (February 11), the Grits announced a moratorium on wind farms. Great news for Scarborough NIMBYs, who’ve been fighting a plan for an offshore project off the bluffs. Bad news for the environment.

All of a sudden the Libs are global-warming deniers. The government says it’s reviewing the science. Chalk this latest Grit turn up to election preparedness.

The Libs have been in ass-covering mode ever since that opinion poll showing Hudak’s PCs in first place was back in the summer. Which is to say, they’ve been pre-occupied with covering perceived policy weaknesses the Tories can exploit in the run-up to October’s election.

Warren Kinsella, the spinner tasked with election strategy for the Grits, has gotten an early start. A lesson learned, perhaps, from the municipal election race in Toronto (Kinsella co-chaired Rocco Rossi’s run) in which the guy who eventually won, Rob Ford, was ignored, underestimated or otherwise dismissed even as polls showed him ahead.

Even after Ford won, the thinking was that Torontonians would be so fed up of the big guy that they’d send the Libs back in droves come the fall. No such luck, so far. Hudak continues to be more trusted than McGuinty among voters in the latest opinion polls.

The Libs are leaving no stone unturned. The environment is a big issue the Tories have been eager to exploit. They’ve had some success, particularly on the Libs’ longterm energy plan.

In the case of passing on wind, the Libs are looking to stop the bleeding from its rural base, where opposition to wind farms is growing among take-back-the-landers.

Conventional wisdom is that backing off wind may also end up saving the Grits a seat or two east of Victoria Park in Toronto where they shouldn’t be worried.There, they enjoy huge numbers over the Tories in all but one riding, and that’s held by a cabinet minister.

In Toronto, where the election will be won, the blade on the wind debate cuts both ways for the Liberals. The party is hurting itself by backtracking on this one, especially among the eco base its fashioned from Green party and NDP ranks. Phasing out coal alone, a laudable commitment on the part of the Libs, isn’t going to cut it.

Political expediency also has a way of rubbing people the wrong way. And right now the Libs are opting for expediency on a whole range of issues, not just the environment. Promises to boost minimum wage have also gone by the wayside.

Cutting off wind is a loser for the Libs no matter how you slice it. The missed manufacturing potential is huge. Germany’s proving how profitable wind can be. Have we already forgotten the talk about the need for innovation in the wake of the auto industry’s collapse in Ontario?

Why, only the day before Friday’s bad news, the Grits were pumping the success of its Feed-In-Tariff programs for solar and wind in a press statement. Yet, the Libs can’t seem to find the political will or cash for the infrastructure needed to push wind in a big way, even while spending billions on refurbishing costly nuclear reactors.

Stopping wind projects may be a political no-brainer for the Libs in rural Ontario. But it also plays into Hudak’s hands. It’s proof, the Tory leader will no doubt argue, of what he’s been saying all along about the Liberals’ wind power agenda – that the costs are prohibitive and the science questionable.

The bigger risk for the Liberals is alienating voters by looking like objective numero uno from here until election day 2011 is covering political ass.

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