Does Dalton Really Mow His Own Lawn?
 |
 Pigs at the Trough |
According to the Star (”The trouble with coal“; Toronto Star; 2007/06/19), “McGuinty revealed yesterday he has abandoned his polluting gas-powered mower at his Ottawa home for a more environmentally friendly electric model” and “In Toronto, he uses a rotary push mower.”
Should we be impressed? Will such posturing succeed in wiping from our collective consciousness, all of the broken promises from the last election campaign? Were any of those promises ever really genuine?
The Star reports that “Premier Dalton McGuinty yet again has altered his controversial promise to close coal-fired power plants at Nanticoke (Canada’s largest single polluter), Lambton, Atikokan and Thunder Bay…he will enact a regulation…” (presumably contingent upon his being re-elected, and provided that he keeps his promise) “…quickly mandating the shutdown of the plants by 2014.”
|
|
||
| September 2002 |
McGuinty, then opposition leader, pledges to close the plants by 2007. He repeats the promise throughout the 2003 election campaign. |
|
| April 2005 |
Three years after the Progressive Conservative government announced it was slated for closure, the Lakeview plant in Mississauga is shut down by the Liberals. It’s demolished in June 2006. |
|
| June 2005 |
The shutdown date for the other coal plants is amended to 2009 due to power supply concerns. |
|
| June 2006 |
A report from the province’s power monitoring agency, the Independent Electricity System Operator, urges “a significant delay” in the end of coal-fired generation and the 2009 date is abandoned. |
© Fowler Media
