An Energy Minister who boasts that his decision is supported by Greenpeace is an Energy Minister spectacularly out-of-touch with ordinary voters.

I live in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province. Our Energy Minister is a gent named Bob Chiarelli.

From my perspective, his primary responsibility is to keep energy prices as low as possible. As Germany and other jurisdictions have discovered, when electricity costs too much, businesses flee – taking jobs with them (see here, here, here and here).

Working families, young people near the bottom of the wage ladder, and seniors on fixed incomes all have especially tight budgets. The more these people are forced to pay for electricity, the fewer dollars they have to spend on other things. Like food.

In recent years, electricity prices here in Ontario have risen dramatically. This is largely the result of our government pursuing renewable energy policies without doing…