Consider what damage you'd have to do to Canada's economy to cut electrical consumption by 40% and to eliminate use of fossil fuels. What would you have to do to cut electrical consumption by that much - how many factories, businesses and schools would you have to impact or close altogether? What would you do to the shipping industries (truck, rail, airlines) and the average driver to eliminate petroleum consumption?

Right now, most forms of alternative energy are too expensive to compete with coal and petroleum. There is no shortage of coal but sooner or later, oil will begin to grow scarce. If the free market is allowed to act, scarcity will cause the price to increase. At some point, other forms of energy will then be competitive.

This is nothing new. It has happened before. Centuries ago, England faced a serious energy shortage. It seems they were running out of firewood. Someone discovered you could heat homes with coal. Later, there were predictions that coal was running out. Someone discovered you could run an economy with petroleum.