Although Eves was praised for the pause in generation market deregulation the cancellation of Hydro One's initial public offering and his handling of the 2003 North American blackout, the Progressive Conservatives were defeated by Dalton McGuinty's Liberals in the provincial election of 2003. In the meantime, the phasing out of coal-fired generation — including North America's largest coal plant, the 3,640-MW Nanticoke Generating Station — became a political issue. In 2002, the Conservatives promised to shut down Ontario's 5 coal plants by 2015, while McGuinty committed to a 2007 retirement date, which was pushed back to 2014.