WHATEVER THE REASON may be for the Ontario government's dillydallying on the subject of new nuclear power stations, there's surely no justification for it, now that John Tory has spoken out so forcefully on the subject.

For months now, the Liberal government has had in its possession a strong recommendation for modest expansion of the province's nuclear power capacity, along with proposals from both Bruce Power and the government's own Ontario Power Generation (OPG) to build on sites they already own or lease. Yet all we're hearing from Queen's Park is approval of a huge solar power plant near Sarnia that will add a tiny fraction of the output from a single nuclear unit, and then only when the sun is shining.

In what we see as an unusually statesmanlike position to take in an election year, Mr. Tory says Ontario must ramp up its commitment to nuclear power to keep the economy humming and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

In his strongest statement to date on the subject, the Progressive Conservative leader (and soon to be our former MPP) said a Conservative government would act more quickly than Premier Dalton McGuinty to bring more nuclear power plants on stream.

"Mr. McGuinty has dithered for four years," Mr. Tory told a crowd of 2,500 at a $1,000-a-plate fundraising dinner. "We must meaningfully advance the process for new nuclear capacity right away."

The challenge seemingly being ignored by the current government is that it normally takes about 10 years to complete environmental assessments and approvals, design and build a new nuclear generating station.

Mr. Tory didn't say how many new nuclear units he believes are needed, but asserted that it's more than the two being considered by the Liberals, and suggested they would in all likelihood be located at existing nuclear power developments.

As we see it, there's no doubt whatsoever that Ontario needs two multi-unit nuclear power plants, one at the Darlington station site on Lake Ontario and the other at the huge Bruce Nuclear Power Development on Lake Huron mid-way between Kincardine and Port Elgin.

In all likelihood, the only reason for the current government's inaction has been the Oct. 10 provincial election and the attendant fear that a commitment now would be unpopular among voters generally, and in particular those who might be inclined to support the New Democrats or the Green Party.

In our view, a commitment now to build two four-unit stations makes eminent good sense, and ought to be accompanied by a special environmental assessment process that excludes repetitive, time-wasting debates over alternative energy sources.

Depending on the designs adopted, the two new "nukes" would add between 6,000 and 8,000 megawatts of generating capacity to a system that's currently stretched to the limit, with Ontario often having to import power from coal-fired plants in the Ohio Valley that add at least as much air pollution locally as Southern Ontario's two remaining coal plants.

True, new nuclear power plants are far from problem-free. They present an increasing need for a long-awaited decision on what to do with the spent fuel, and experience has shown that the pressure tubes in Candu reactors don't last as long as was once thought.

However, the plants don't produce greenhouse gases and in the more than 40 years Ontario has had commercial-size nuclear power plants there has never been an accident that posed a threat to the general public.

Mr. Tory has also suggested that a Conservative government would be willing to consider having private industry build the new plants. That would most likely be the case at the Bruce site, where Bruce Power seems to have been doing a better job of running the existing Bruce A and B stations than OPG has in its operation of the Pickering and Darlington sites.

As we see it, there are few areas in which the McGuinty government has failed more miserably. Having once made the wholly unrealistic pledge to shut down all the coalfired plants this year, the government has put all its efforts into supporting "green" power while doing little or nothing toward seeing that new wind farms come on stream as quickly as possible. A classic case is the second phase of the Melancthon Wind Project, which is already about a year behind schedule even before potentially months-long Ontario Municipal Board hearings are under way.

But the reductio ad absurdem surely was last week's announcement of a decision to host North America's largest solar farm, which will likely cost about $300 million but even on a sunny day will produce a maximum of 40 megawatts - about five per cent of the output from a single unit at the Bruce B and Darlington stations.

At a time when the auto industry is finally starting to look at the viability of plug-in hybrid and electric cars and air conditioning is ever more popular, there's every likelihood that the overall demand for electricity will continue to increase at or above the current pace.

In the circumstances, all technologically feasible, non-polluting forms of power generation need to be brought on line as quickly as possible, and there's simply no excuse for the government's abysmal lack of courage.

Immediate approval of at least the "twinning" of the Darlington plant would be a major shot in the arm for Canada's nuclear power industry, which hasn't seen a single domestic order for about two decades and would mean thousands of jobs in construction as well as component manufacturing.

And now that the Conservatives' position is so well known, further delays by the Liberals will gain them no votes, allowing all their opponents to portray them, correctly, as indecisive and less concerned about meeting our power needs than in themselves staying in power.