It has been an amazing two days in Perth-Wellington! Seeing so many supporters of the local Wind Concerns Ontario groups come out to send a message to John Wilkinson, followed by a canvas for his PC opponent Randy Pettapiece was a real treat. We had a great turn out in Stratford, turn out was much closer t0 300, not the 150 estimated by media. We’ve seen chronic under-reporting of crowd sizes, but based on the number of signs that we went through and signatures on petitions it is clear what it was.

CanWEA and OSEA sent their funded ‘Friends of Wind’ supporters – all four of them – hundreds of kilometres from Kincardine to try to stir it up, but once again it didn’t work. It’s a sad statement when the industry has to pay people to support their position, and even then can only find someone who also has a lease with a wind developer to do it.

We covered a lot of ground today in Stratford during the canvas, and it was a pleasure to meet and speak to so many people last night in the parking lot at Wilkinson’s office as we unveiled a ‘final eviction notice’ for him. The coward chose not to come, but did have his paid staff lurking from the otherside of the parking lot.

His bizarre and shameful press conference at the Stratford Hospital earlier in the day failed to turn the media message and further re-enforced how unqualified and unable Wilkinson is of the tasks assigned to him as Minister of the Environment.

I look forward to coming back again soon for future canvasses and rallys. Wind Concerns Ontario will be working very hard with our local supporters ot unseat Wilkinson especially.

I`d also like to thank the OPP for doing the responsible thing and sending a number of officers to ensure everyone`s safety by blocking intersections as demonstrators marched by. We had a great turn out and a procession that was about half the length of the main drag in Port Dover.

As always the folks the fighting to protect Haldimand-Norfolk did an amazing job, and I was proud to be there with folks from all over these two counties, some living with wind turbines, others facing the threat of industrial wind development.

We were well received by residents and visitors in Port Dover, with many people honking in support of chants like `Oust McGuinty now` `Health studies first` and others.

Norfolk county knows all too well the negative impacts industrial wind development has on communities as clearly seen in Clear Creek near Long Point where a number of families have been forced from their homes. Haldimand and Norfolk face very real threats going forward, but together through continued activism and pressure I am certain we will be able to protect this very special part of Ontario.

Toby Barrett brought a very clear message about the PCs intention to the crowd which the crowd responded quite enthusiastically too. His strength on this issue has been a very positive influence for members of his community and something that is very appreciated locally. I think as many of his signs as ours left with people at the end of the afternoon.

Tomorrow it is off to Brant to help the local candidate there with motivated volunteers who want to see the government change in just 39 days.

It is an honour to be on the road again, visiting our friends and allies around the province on the `Winds of Change`tour for Wind Concerns Ontario.

We pulled out of Toronto last night around midnight and didn’t roll into Owen Sound until 3am. I was pleased to visit the AM 560 CFOS studio again at 9am to talk with Manny Paiva about the problems with Dalton McGuinty’s industrial wind schemes. By 10:30am over fifty members of Wind Concerns Ontario groups from around Bruce-Grey Owen Sound had come to the pavilion at the very beautiful Harrison Park to formally launch Winds of Change, talk about the importance of the coming election and the need to elect good MPPs who will represent rural Ontario.

Although Bill Walker was unable to attend in person, he was kind enough to send a statement to be read on his behalf to the folks who were present and it was very well received. To make it clear that Wind Concerns Ontario means business about doing its part to ensure winds of change help blow the McGuinty Liberals from Queen’s Park, many of those who came for the morning went for a canvas after lunch.

I had a couple of other interviews about the Winds of Change tour, followed by a quiet afternoon to catch up on Wind Concerns Ontario stuff.

Tomorrow Bob Rae is going to be in Owen Sound, so we’ve decided to attend his event because as a former Federal Liberal Riding President, who did not vote Liberal for the first time federally in the last election, I’m curious how he can reconcile his desire to rebuild the Federal Liberals in rural Ontario, and support the re-election of Dalton McGuinty, whose government has ended local democracy, destroyed property values, harmed human health and the environment while selling out rural Ontario largely to Ontario Liberal Party donors and industrial wind welfare recipients.
If I get the chance to ask Rae, I will be sure to share how that goes.

John Laforet at the Empire Club of Canada

 John Spears of the Toronto Star covered the speech and wrote : Wind Foe Vows to Defeat Liberals

Below is last night’s entry.

Residents against the proposed Horizon Wind Inc. wind farm have a message for Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and the city’s two MPPs – no Liberals, no turbines.

More than 200 residents attended the Wind Concerns Ontario rally at the Nor’Wester Hotel Monday night. The rally was a chance to give residents more information on the Horizon Wind development of a wind farm on top of the Nor’ Wester mountains.” From May 16th 2011 – Thunder Bay Newswatch - ‘Ready to Fight’ (A description of last night’s meeting in Thunder Bay)

What a great night in Thunder Bay! We couldn’t have had a better launch to Wind Concerns Ontario’s ‘Truth about Turbines’ than we had last night in Thunder Bay. I was amazed and the number of people who turned out on such a beautiful night to hear our message and organize in advance of Horizon Wind Inc.’s most recent attempt at ‘public consultations’ on May 17 and 18th in the Thunder Bay area.

We did a lot to raise awareness about the inappropriate proposal for the Nor’Wester Escarpment. I was fortunate to have some time on AM 740 to speak to Dale Goldhawk about the Wind Concerns Ontario ‘Truth about Turbines Tour’ and my visit to Thunder Bay, and had a couple of interviews with local Thunder Bay TV News, and other local media here. It is critical that we tell our stories and I was happy to tell Thunder Bay’s tonight and to stand with them to fight.

Resident’s of Thunder Bay made it clear they are ready to stand up to fight the developer and local MPPs to protect the Nor’Wester Escarpment from Industrial Wind development.

There was a defiant, upbeat crowd that understands more than anyone the importance of protecting the Nor’Wester Escarpment and the Loch Lomand watershed protection land from clear cutting and blasting – something local residents, the provincial government and the local municipalities have pushed for, for almost a hundred years.

We had school age children, teens, young adults, parents, grandparents and great-grandparents at our rally standing in common purpose. It was an amazing sight!

I was asked to judge the Nor’Wester Escarpment Mountain Protection Committee’s drawing contest for young kids that saw about a dozen entries. Children were asked to draw the Nor’Wester escarpment in it’s current beauty as a reminder of what their parents, and grandparents are fighting to protect for their future. The winner received a new bike that was generously donated by members of the NEMPC committee.

The environmental devastation required to build this project is something not seen in southern Ontario and is something that I can only describe as shocking. Having seen the results of clear cutting and blasting for industrial wind development underway in Dorion Ontario near the Ouimet Canyon, and being able to visit the proposed site for Horizon’s project, I see no responsible way anyone can argue any environmental benefit with this kind of development. Each turbine site requires the clearing of a full hectare of land. In Dorion, the developer used something like four hundred dynamite blast caps per turbine location. Under Horizon’s plan they will clear cut and blast 150 acres of pristine, untouched, until now protected escarpment under a deal that will see the City and ratepayers financially hosed for the privilege of enabling all of this (as the land owner) to happen.

The Green Energy Act has gutted the environmental planning process, and fails to recognize the genuine environmental uniqueness and significance in the North that is threatned by irresponsible developers who intend on bullying their way through the process and blasting their way through the environment.

I’m really happy to be heading back to Thunder Bay to lend my voice and the support of Wind Concerns Ontario to resident’s fight up there. It will be my third trip up since December 2010 and the start of Wind Concerns Ontario spring tour titled the ‘Truth about Turbines Tour’. It’s an ambitious project that will see events, meetings, marches and rallies throughout Ontario to raise awareness and organize opposition to this government’s industrial wind energy proposals. Wind Concerns Ontario can only do these kinds of things because of the thousands of volunteers on the ground in communities all over our province. It’s their strength and support that makes this all happen and it’s something not even the best industry strategy can defeat.

As the election approachs, its becoming clearer and clearer that should the Liberals choose not to back down, they will lose a number of seats on this issue as concerned citizens take political action in defense of their homes. I continue to be amazed by the lengths folks will go to stand up for what they know is right and am thrilled to have the opportunity to learn from, meet and work with such an amazing range and diversity of people from all over our province.

Spending forty-four days on the road, travelling six-thousand kilometres, visiting thirty six communities, in sixteen Liberal, eight PC and one NDP riding is not how I intended to spend part of May and most of June, but is something I think is important, because of the hard work so many are doing to stand up for their communities. I look forward to doing my part to help, and to lay the ground work to defeat this government in the fall, should they decide to force a de facto referendum on this issue through their candidates.

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

By John Miner – London Free Press

After losing one round in court to the McGuinty government, anti-wind-turbine activists can sniff political victory in the air.

The wind energy issue has turned red hot in rural areas and there are enough people angry to bring down Liberal candidates, said John Laforet, president of Wind Concerns Ontario.

“Wind is a far hotter issue on the local level than anything else. The government did it to themselves because they took away local control,” Laforet said on the weekend during a break at Wind Concerns annual meeting in London.

Formed as a coalition in October 2008 with 22 organizations, the group that opposes wind farms now has 57 members.

“Our members are in 35 counties. We think we can play a significant role through direct political action,” Laforet said.

Wind Concerns Ontario is calling for a moratorium on all industrial wind projects until a health study is completed on their impact.

Once that’s done, the coalition wants the McGuinty government to return authority for approving wind turbine development to municipalities, something it stripped in the Green Energy Act.

That was a political blunder, according to Laforet, who was a Liberal party member and former Liberal riding president.

“I resigned to fight them on this issue,” he said.

Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak has pledged to return control over wind farms to municipalities.

Laforet said the coalition hasn’t endorsed any political party and won’t until platforms have been released.

“We are in talks with the Green party, the NDP and the PCs,” he said.

The anti-wind-turbine activists lost a court challenge in March over how close wind turbines can be from homes.

The court ruled the Ontario government had followed the proper process when it decided the turbines could be 550 metres away.

That ruling may be appealed.

While wind-turbine opponents met Saturday, the Canadian government announced it was investing $117,000 in a start-up company in Middlesex that will build foundation bases for wind turbines and solar installations.

DrillTech Canada is expected to create eight full-time jobs in its first two years of operation.

E-mail john.miner@sunmedia.ca, or follow Johnatlfpress on Twitter.

A recent poll released by Forum Research showed some very interesting numbers for the City of Toronto. When voters were asked to indicate which political party they’d support in the October 2011 election, the Liberals held a 26% to 24% lead over the PCs among Toronto voters. This is a statistical dead heat and critical because the Liberals currently have 18 of 22 seats in Toronto, while the NDP hold the remaining four.

The field work on this poll was conducted days before Mayor Rob Ford threatened to unleash ‘Ford Nation’ on Premier Dalton McGuinty if the Premier doesn’t give in to the City’s financial demands. Taking a look at the breakdowns among Toronto voters, it becomes clear, the move away from the Liberals isn’t be driven by Mayor Ford, at least yet.

Take Etobicoke for instance. Not only is this Mayor Ford’s home base, but it also represents his strongest part of the city by way of percentage of vote. The Liberals hold all three seats in Etobicoke at present and are leading the PCs by 10% (34% to 24%) making Etobicoke the Liberals strongest pocket in Toronto. These two facts combine would suggest the Liberals slide in independent from Mayor Ford’s strength with voters.

In Scarborough – my home town and an area I’ve been politically active for years as a former Liberal organizer and now in a grassroots issue based capacity that has me attacking the Liberals, the Ontario Liberals hold six of six seats, and are currently 8% behind the PCs (22% to 30%). By way of percentage of vote and real seat count, this probably represents the PCs largest opportunity for a break through in the City of Toronto.

Brad Duguid (Scarborough Centre – Minister of Energy), Margarett Best (Scarborough Guildwood – Minister of Health Promotion), Lorenzo Berardinetti (Scarborough Southwest), Wayne Arthurs (Pickering Scarborough East) each represent ridings that have elected a member of the incoming government in 1987, 1990, 1995, 1999, 2003, 2007. That’s a six election run, and in the 1985 election when the PCs won a minority, but the Liberals governed with the support of the NDP Scarborough Centre elected a PC member, Scarborough East (now Guildwood and Pickering Scarborough East) elected a Liberal and Scarborough West (now Southwest) elected a New Democrat.

Besides having a tendency to move with provincial trends, the Ontario Liberals in Scarborough have been on the receiving end of growing attacks in response to Dalton McGuinty’s decision to name call Scarborough residents, – attacking our community by name in bringing down the Green Energy Act to deny our rights. Brad Duguid, Margarett Best, Wayne Arthurs and Lorenzo Berardinetti have all been hearing from angry constituents, who I’m proud to say we’ve been effectively organizing around a very simple message – ‘defeat those who don’t stand for you’. Incidentally none of these party whipped Liberals have been.

33% of Scarborough voters are undecided, which is significant because it’s the highest undecided rate in the City. This also indicates the Liberals are going to have a real problem getting Brad Duguid, Margarett Best, Lorenzo Berardinetti and Wanye Arthurs re-elected. With the industrial wind issue alive and well on the ground I’m certain this will only get worse for them as we get closer and closer to the polls.

In conclusion, I agree with Former Liberal Finance Minister Sobera who said he didn’t believe Ford was the cause of the Liberals position in the polls, and former Progressive Conservative Minister Elizabeth Witmer who believed the Liberals energy policy is killing their chances of re-election all around the province. Between now and October 6th 2011, Brad Duguid and members of the government are going to have a choice – continue to stand for industrial wind until the dying hours of this government, or abandon this failed energy policy, put in place a full moratorium on all wind development and hope the government can survive it’s date with democracy.

“The panel of judges determined it was not up to them to determine the wisdom of the Minister, which is a far cry from determining the Minister’s actions to be wise.” John Laforet said, noting “approximately 8 million voters in 107 ridings around Ontario, including 74 municipalities where motions of moratorium have already been approved by local councils will have the opportunity to rule on the wisdom of the Green Energy Act and Dalton McGuinty’s handling of the energy file on October 6^th 2011. We’re confident that if the government doesn’t change its tune on this issue, voters will change the government.”

Wind Concerns Ontario also acknowledged the court did not rule that 550 metres was a safe distance for the installation of industrial wind turbines, something a wide range of international medical experts believes is far too close to be safe for humans. This is an issue of agreement among municipalities in Ontario representing more than two million citizens who’ve passed motions calling for a province wide moratorium until a full health study is completed.

“We stand by our statement: if the government and industry have nothing to hide, why not agree to a fully independent, third party epidemiological health study to determine what is a safe distance from homes. Is it really worth the risk of having industrial wind turbines too close to communities decommissioned once a study is done and proves they causing serious harm to residents?” Laforet added.

Wind Concerns Ontario is a coalition of fifty seven community based organizations in over thirty five counties across Ontario that opposes industrial wind development that harms human health, the environment and damages Ontario’s economy in the process. Combined, Wind Concerns Ontario members have won seventy-four local municipal motions of moratorium, a province-wide moratorium on all offshore wind development. Wind Concerns Ontario continues to call on the province to halt all land based industrial wind development until a human health and science based decision is made on the safety and merits of industrial wind energy.   

For further information please contact:

John Laforet – President Wind Concerns Ontario 647 724 0600 john.laforet@laforet.ca