Posts Tagged ‘Wind Concerns Ontario’
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 »London Free Press: Anti-Wind Turbine Activists Take Aim at Ballot Boxes
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.
1 Comment »Ontario Liberals Being Blown Away in Scarborough
Ontario Energy Minister Brad Duguid’s re-election hopes in Scarborough Centre threatened by plummeting Liberal support in Scarborough brought on by Green Energy Act opposition and his failed industrial wind strategy.
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.
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