I have a little theory about political ideology that goes something like this: 

“Everyone is an NDPer until they get a job.”

Now my theory may be way out in left field, but I have always found that in our younger, and more specifically our educational years, most Canadians lean towards the left of the political spectrum, often because we are attracted to the idea of social democracy.

Thankfully, most of us come to a harsh realization as soon as we enter the work force: social democracy is expensive, and most does not reward those of us that work the hardest. 

More often then not, social democratic policy covers a wide range of utopian ideals like affordable education for all, a higher minimum wage and reliable publicly owned clean energy.  The problem is, the NDP rarely talks about how much these utopian policies will cost the average Canadian taxpayer. And we often don’t learn the cost until we realize that we are taking home less and less of our hard earned pay.

This morning, at the Toronto Board of Trades Election Leader speaker series, I had the opportunity to listen to Howard Hampton, Leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party confirm my theory.  

Mr. Hampton spend the better part of an hour outlining his party’s plan to combat Global Warming, and a lesser part of the hour dodging questions about what this plan will cost Ontario taxpayers.

If elected, Mr. Hampton will set an aggressive plan to achieve Ontario’s Kyoto targets by 2012; he will phase out all coal fired power plats by 2014 (even though he has no recommendations to replace these sources of energy); and will fund energy efficiency programs that will allow all Canadians to retrofit their homes in order to meet climate change targets.

On the surface this seems like a wonderfully ideal plan – but Mr. Hampton was unable to answer questions regarding the cost.  

What is the price of the NDP’s Ontario Climate Plan? And how much will it cost this province?