Liberals: Keeping your lights on

Between 2004 and 2010, Ontario will bring more new electricity generating capacity on-line than any other jurisdiction in North America. Since taking office, your government has installed more than 3,000 megawatts of new generating capacity. In four short years, Ontario has gone from being a laggard to being a leader again.

• The Lakeview Generating Station in Misissauga closed in April of 2005, and was destroyed in 2007. It is the pollution clean-up equivalent of taking half a million cars off the road;
• Ontario has gone from virtually nothing to being a being a leader in wind power in just four years;
• Since 2003, Ontario has reduced coal-fired electricity generation by 17 percent, cut carbon dioxide emissions by 15 percent; reduced sulphur dioxide emissions by 28 percent and slashd nitrogen oxide emissions by 34 pecent;
• Ontario now has a Standard Offer Program, a bold step that allows hundreds of small, local renewable energy producers to get into the energy market and provide cleaner energy to the Ontario grid;
• Smart meters that bill for electricity usage by time-of-day, just like your cell phone, will be in all Ontario homes and businesses by 2010;
• Ontario Power Generation and Hydro One are again subject to Freedom of Information and salary disclosure laws, bringing back transparency and accountability absent during the Tory years.

Tories: In the dark for 8 years

• The unsustainable Tory price cap on electricity cost Ontario more than $1 billion, and gave no incentive to use electricity wisely;
• Between 1995 and 2003, Ontario's installed generating capacity actually fell by six percent, even as electricity demand grew 8.5 percent;
• While the last Tory government bumbled on energy policy, Ontario became a net importer of electrical power from the USA;
• Senior Tory insiders were awarded lucrative, untendered contracts from Ontario Power Generation and Hydro One;
• Coal plant emissions increased under the Tories: sulphur dioxide was up by 51 percent; nitrogen oxide up by 25 percent; and carbon dioxide up by 56 percent!

NDP: Incompetent, ineffective

• Voted against putting a price cap on electricity, and then voted against taking the same price cap off;
• While the NDP governed Ontario, hydro rates went up by 40 percent;
• Wasted $150 million in payments to cancel a badly-needed hydro lifeline from Manitoba to Ontario, a line that would be delivering cheap power today;
• While in government, built no new electricity generating capacity;
• Ended all Ontario Hydro conservation initiatives. Those savings would have equalled 5,200 megawatts by 2000;
• Hampton advocates keeping coal-fired generation while speaking in the north, but advocates shutting it all down while speaking in southern Ontario.