London Free Press: The anger is blowin’ in the wind
Wind turbines: A protest in Strathroy on Saturday is a taste of things to come in the fall provincial election
By RANDY RICHMOND THE LONDON FREE PRESS
Grey-haired, 81-year-old Stephana Johnston is the kind of person to give the provincial Liberals fits when she waits outside Dalton McGuinty’s campaign bus this fall.
Leaning against her walker, she looks frail — except when she starts talking about wind power.
“We are suffering and it is a horror story and you are responsible because you agreed to the Green Energy Act,” Johnston tells Lambton-Kent-Middlesex Liberal MPP Maria Van Bommel.
With the next Ontario election only five months away, wind energy and the Green Energy Act is on track to become a huge issue of the campaign.
Johnston says she had to move from her home on the north shore of Lake Erie near Long Point after nearby wind turbines started interrupting her sleep.
“There are some nights when I wake up and just everything inside me is quivering. It has compromised my immune system. I am going everywhere I can go to prevent what has happened to us,” she vows.
Slowed by her walker but energized by her anger, Johnston still marched down the main street of Strathroy Saturday with about 80 others to protest wind turbines.
The peaceful protest march erupted into a raucous, hour-long confrontation with Van Bommel.
Van Bommel could barely finish a sentence without being shouted down by furious protesters who demanded she support a moratorium on turbines until research proves they are safe.
At times she had to stop and simply take the barrage of insults from protesters, some in tears and some claiming she betrayed their friendship.
“Imagine when (McGuinty’s) bus is met 28 days straight with crowds like that in Strathroy,” says John Laforet, president of Wind Concerns Ontario.
Urban dwellers and political analysts are underestimating the anger in rural and small town Ontario over wind turbines, he says. “This is the fight for the life and death of rural life. There is a huge anger out there and I think it is going to get worse.”
For wind energy opponents, the stakes are high. “This is our only shot,” Laforet says.
Wind Concerns — a coalition of 57 groups — will likely endorse either parties or individual candidates and encourage rural residents unhappy with McGuinty to work on getting him ousted.
Eighty municipalities representing two million people have called for a moratorium on wind farms, Laforet adds.
“There a lot of people looking for something to do. Direct political action is the most effective thing a resident of Ontario with concerns about wind can do.”
Hundreds of wind turbines have been installed or proposed in many areas of Southwestern Ontario, a 10-riding region dominated by McGuinty’s Liberals.
Opponents say turbines emit low-pitched sounds that disrupt the body’s rhythms and cause headaches, tinnitus, dizziness, nausea, rapid heart rate irritability and concentration problems.
Proponents say there is no proof of ill effects and turbines are better for the environment and personal health than the coal-fired generating plants they are supposed to replace.
“It’s a very emotional issue and I think we have to recognize that,” Van Bommel said Saturday after the protest. “There are many things that are going to be election issues in rural Ontario. I‘m sure the Green Energy Act will be uppermost in many people’s minds.”
randy.richmond@sunmedia.ca
Twitter.com/RandyRatLFPress
No Comments »If You Thought a Sit In Was Bad – How About Chair Throwing?
To put this weeks sit in protest in Ontario’s legislature into some perspective, below is a video showing how the opposition and governing party in one of Argentina’s provinces settled their differences. Chair throwing, punching and the like. In all, ten politicians were injured.
I can’t find the video on youtube but here is the ABC News coverage of it.
No Comments »Reflections on Day Two of Ontario’s Filibuster Equivalent
The single largest observation I would offer from the gong show unfolding in the legislature is the following; if the Liberals spent more time governing and less time playing politics and the PCs took a page from the NDP on being a more effective opposition in between walk outs and sit ins Ontario would be better off. This is an unwarranted mess.
I stand by my view that Speaker Peters went too far. Suspending an opposition MPP over their over the top attacks on the Government indefinitely is arbitrary and anti-democratic. In this case it was also selective enforcement of the standing orders. It is safe to say it is now clear he has lost control of the House, which makes his ability to preside over debate questionable. The longer this goes on, the more damage it inflicts on his ability to be Speaker, and sadly the office of Speaker.
Yes the rules allow such a suspension in theory because in 1939 the Standing Orders were amended, but that doesn’t make it right. It has also never been done. In Constitutional Law there is the matter of ’spent powers’ (those which not have been exercised and therefore are deemed ‘spent’) The Sergeant-at-Arms also carries a sword to run through folks (this is clearly a spent power) Who is for that custom coming to a legislature near you? One has to also consider the shift in our politics since then, and the precedent set the last time a member defied the Speaker in this way.
Alvin Curling did the very same thing in 1995 that Bill Murdoch did in 2009. Both refused to comply with a Speaker’s order to leave the Chamber for the rest of the sessional day. Precedent is an important part of a Speaker’s job and decision making.
One resulted in a standstill for 18 hours, the other resulted in a suspension thirty minutes in after the Speaker took two breaks to consult whomever he consulted.
That person or people gave bad advice and handed the Speaker the nuclear option and resulted in days of chaos. Frankly it did exactly what the Progressive Conservatives wanted, kicked up a fuss and stalled the HST implementation bill.
Gilles Bisson – the NDP House Leader earns the ‘gentleman and scholar’ award for recognizing the disruption the whole PC Caucus was causing was of a greater concern to the Parliamentary Privilege than the Murdoch and Hillier sideshow playing out within the deafening banging that was killing any chance of debate.
On Monday it would have been fair to say the whole PC Caucus deserved to be thrown out for the day as each individual member refused to come to order upon repeated requests by the Speaker. The Speaker started naming some MPPs by riding, but if you watch the footage gives up part way through, clearly recognizing he was about 30 minutes away from expelling a whole party for the session.
To those who are using the ‘he was just following the rules argument’ every PC member present should have been named and escorted out for the day on Monday. But the Speaker didn’t try to do that because it had become abundantly clear he had lost control of the House and even his worst tool in the box wasn’t enough to regain it. The fact the threat of suspension didn’t work, and once he had suspended one member, he found himself suspending another shortly there after and then decided to ignore the routine of calling members to order with the threat of naming them demonstrates he even gets he went too far.
I support a fair and free debate in all forums and think it is unfortunate we’re so far passed that in our politics that government MPPs are ineffective sheep – regardless of party and opposition MPPs have zero ability to impact legislation.
McGuinty has proven to be as dismissive as Harris was of opposition, whether citizen-led or across the aisle and in some ways worse.
His refusal to allow for travelling hearings on the most significant tax measure this province has seen in a long time is motivated purely by politics and not what is in the best interest of Ontario or the legislative process. Its simply in the best interest of Dalton McGuinty and the Ontario Liberal Party.
The Ontario NDP should be commended for holding a consistent, coherent position on public hearings and the HST. They should also be commended on supporting civility in the Legislature even if the Government’s tactics and the Official Opposition’s response has made that about as realistic as meaningful public hearings on the HST.
With that said – I still believe the Speaker went too far and the House Leaders and Speaker will need to work out a plan for Speaker Peters to climb down and re-instate the members in question as part of any deal. Leaving this heavy handed precedence in place too severely limits MPPs ability to stand up to government.
Until then, I hope Hillier and Murdoch can continue to hold out for some time without access to the washroom or food, because however irresponsible their actions are deemed to be – both are defending their rights to be in that Chamber and standing up for democracy.
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