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Carol is a walking, talking political nightmare. Having no power in winter is the sort of thing smug Canadians tend to associate with inner-city America. But it only makes sense that we’d see it in blue-collar Ontario, where electricity rates have skyrocketed in recent years and are now, depending on the location, among the highest in Canada. The overall consumer price index in Ontario rose 27 per cent over the 13 years of Liberal government; the CPI for electricity rose 96 per cent — 38 per cent just since Premier Kathleen Wynne took office in 2013. No other province comes close.

A recent Nanos poll found 20.5 per cent of Ontarians, unprompted, fingered hydro bills as their number-one concern — well clear of traditional favourites like health care and jobs. And an Angus Reid poll released Tuesday found just 16 per cent of Ontarians approve of Premier Kathleen Wynne. This being the case, it is often now said, the Liberals have shifted into “election mode,” though an actual election isn’t expected before the summer of 2018.

“People have told me that they have had to choose between paying their electricity bill and buying food or paying the rent,” Wynne told a Canadian Club breakfast audience at the Royal York Hotel on Tuesday. “That is unacceptable to me. And I have committed to fixing it.”

So an eight per cent reduction in hydro bill kicks in next month, with further unspecified relief to come.

In the meantime, Wynne exhorted her audience to be thankful there are no more “blackouts and smog days,” to be “proud of” the fact Ontario doesn’t burn coal anymore and to focus on “inclusive growth” — that is, “growth that creates real, everyday benefits for workers and their families,” which is apparently something that “differentiate(s) Ontario from other parts of the world.”