In one pocket and out of the other

Last week I posted ("There is no free power") about the Ontario Liberal government's desperate scheme to stem voter anger about the Province's sky-high costs for electricity -- or hydro, as it's still sometime called here.  The political opposition and just about all media commentators have seen the scheme for what it is: a shell game that will push the costs of the Liberals' myriad past mistakes onto future generations of taxpayers, while adding further costs in the form of higher financing charges.

Even though it already seems unlikely that Premier Kathleen Wynne and her cabinet of incompetents will reap any electoral benefit from the scheme,  you can't accuse her of not trying.  Today the devoutly pro-Liberal Toronto Star gave over a large chunk of its op-ed page for an article by Wynne that attempts to explain the new program.  A couple of paragraphs are worth quoting in full:

The other structural change has to do with the way we finance programs that help low-income families afford hydro and that subsidize the high cost of delivering electricity to rural and remote customers. Previously, the costs of both programs fell to ratepayers. That, too, was not fair.

Hydro is a necessity. The province, not ratepayers, should ensure everyone can afford to access to it. So, we’re moving those programs off your bill and accounting for them in the provincial budget.

Don't you just love that stuff about how "the Province" rather than power users should be paying for these subsidies?  Close to 100 percent of Ontarians use electricity; close to 100 percent pay taxes.  Ultimately the Province has no money to spend except whatever it can pilfer from the citizenry, who are exactly the same people as the hydro ratepayers.  So we have two possibilities here: either Ms Wynne is unaware of these basic truths, in which case she is unqualified for the job she holds; or she understands all of this perfectly well, but is shamelessly hoping that she can pull the wool over the eyes of enough voters to get her party re-elected just over a year from now.

Based on the reaction to her plan over the past week, that's looking like a very bad bet indeed.