Special feature
Ontario Power Centenary Speech
A presentation to “The Megabash” on the occasion of the one hundredth anniversary of the Ontario power system, June 7, 2006, by Sean Conway, Visiting Fellow at Queen’s University, former cabinet minister and provincial party spokesperson on energy policy. Held at the Liberty Grand Ballroom, Toronto.
History, it is said, is the record of the encounter between character and circumstance. Well, my friends, in that event, we celebrate this warm June evening a remarkable centennial in the history of Canada for it was 100 years ago this week that the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario was established and Adam Beck’s spectacular career was launched.
It is almost impossible for us today to imagine the pre-electric world of late 19th century Ontario – a world of rural isolation, back-breaking manual labour, and most of all, darkness – a darkness relieved only by daylight and kerosene. Ontario’s emerging manufacturing economy was being fuelled by imported coal from western Pennsylvania, the supply of which was seriously threatened by the coal strike of 1902.
It was into this world that Ontario Hydro landed 100 years ago. And Beck’s Hydro did not arrive without a fight. On the one hand were those who believed that this new-fangled “electric business” should remain the business of the private sector. These were the men of Big Business – men of railways, banking and insurance.
On the other side were those from small business and the municipalities, especially those in western Ontario, who argued for “public power.” It was this group that the cigar-box manufacturer and then-Mayor of London, Ontario – Adam Beck – led on to decisive victory. The resilient and often ruthless Beck was one of those who believed that “the water-power of Niagara should be as free as the air.”
Beck led not just a small business and municipal lobby but also a moral crusade. Listen to these words from Beck as he outlined his duties as the first Chairman of the Hydro Commission in 1906:
“My task,” he said, “is to lighten the load of the poor, the housewife, the farmer, the merchant ... and to build a new citizenship based on service, progress and righteousness.”
Variously called a Prometheus, a Canadian Napoleon, an Electrical Messiah, Chairman Beck used all of his considerable skills as a communicator and propagandist to carry this message from rural, small-town western Ontario to Toronto City Hall and Queen’s Park to win his case and crush his opposition. The Ontario Power Debate of that time made headlines not just in this province and country but in the United States and Great Britain. To many in the financial capitals of London and New York, this state-sponsored scheme for “public power” represented a very dangerous form of economic and political radicalism.
Adam Beck was determined to spread his “hydro gospel” to all parts of Ontario and to enlist support wherever he could find it – or manufacture it. Early in his campaign, Beck helped organize the Ontario Municipal Electric Association, a very important extra-parliamentary lobby that took the debate – and Beck’s side in it – from rural concession to industrial town. One of Beck’s great successes in the pre-World War I era was the Electric Circus, a very impressive ‘road show’ that demonstrated the wonder of electrical appliances to hard-pressed farm wives.
And the arrival of world war in 1914 provided Beck with the perfect opportunity to expand the original mandate of the Hydro Commission from transmitting the power at Niagara to actually building Hydro-owned generation. By war’s end in 1918, the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario was well on its way to constructing the largest generating facility in the world.
All of this activity placed Beck in constant conflict with his political masters at Queen’s Park. And there is a significant irony in this situation for not only was Adam Beck a Mayor of London but he was also, after 1902, a Conservative M.P.P. and cabinet minister. And while Beck and his Premier James P. Whitney agreed on some aspects of hydro policy, they strongly disagreed on others. Whitney, the progressive but cautious lawyer from small-town eastern Ontario thought that “the hydro” should be clearly under the Legislature’s control whereas Beck, the messianic populist, imagined a public utility beyond the control of the petty politicians!
When he died in the summer of 1925, Beck was hailed as one of the greatest Canadians who had ever lived. Municipal offices all across Ontario were closed in his honour, his funeral service was broadcast over radio and a funeral train carried his body from London to its final resting place in Hamilton – through the very countryside that he had so effectively mobilized in support of “the people’s power.”
One of Ontario’s most successful politicians – William Grenville Davis of Brampton – once observed that “Bland Works” in this province. Well I must say that the life and times of Adam Beck contradict that observation, for Beck was the absolute antithesis of bland. He was colourful; he was courageous; he was single-minded; he was capable of generating fierce loyalties and passionate resistance.
Overall, Adam Beck represents a larger-than-life personality who should today be the stuff of the movie theatre or the stage. If you tried, you simply couldn’t invent a richer story than “Beck and his Hydro.”
But what we celebrate this evening is not just a remarkable personality. The “white coal” of Niagara changed Ontario forever. Electricity helped make this province one of the most successful economies of the 20th century. Difficult and divisive as the debate often became, “the coming of the hydro” opened up the north, expanded and advanced our industry and democratized so much of our community.
The dream of an earlier time – that the worker, the homemaker, the farmer – would be able to share in the benefits of modern technology, was realized by the electricity revolution of the past century.
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Editorial
What a century of power means
The occasion of any 100th anniversary is a natural opportunity to take stock, examine one’s course, and indulge in a little philosophy, even if it does get a bit heady. It was one hundred years ago, on June 7, 1906 when the government of Ontario proclaimed the legislation that created the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario, establishing the provincial electric system that over time grew into the one we know and depend upon today.
At its inception, bold and forward-looking as the undertaking was, no one could have anticipated the massive progress, dramatic episodes, and sometimes radical turns that have since transpired. People in the power business today stand at a similar turning point in history, barely able to imagine what the next hundred years may hold. The primary difference between then and now is that this century’s electric pathfinders are more keenly aware of how great the scale of the impacts may be, and how fundamentally the entire picture can be re-oriented by new developments.
It is understandable then, that at the 100 year mark, participants in the sector would be looking for constants, for principles that are likely to endure. What are the tenets that will continue to hold meaning once another hundred years have weathered away at the edifices and covenants which make up our system?
The electric grid is without doubt the largest machine on the planet, and its use of capital and human resources coincides with its physical omnipresence. It operates so close to the critical intersection of society’s technological, legal and economic systems that it has rarely escaped the hand of government, which too often tried to use the system for its own political gain.
In the words of Sean Conway, Adam Beck’s legacy was the promise to revolutionize the daily lives of Ontarians in a very real and democratic fashion. “Looking back over the past century, one is struck by the central role hydro played in the growth of Ontario's manufacturing and resource economy. The availability of affordable and reliable ‘home grown’ electricity was an essential ingredient of Ontario's success in the 20th Century. Whether in London or in Northern Ontario, hydro is a vital part of the story of Ontario’s development.”
Having first-hand knowledge of the enormous potential, people from all parts of the electricity business today can’t help but feel the weight of history and take notice when a moment like this occurs.
Yet each person interprets the moment differently. My own unscientific survey of electricity sector participants over the last few months found radically divergent views on what the significance is of passing the 100-year mark. Some talked about the struggles or the accomplishments, some talked about the changes, and some talked about just making it through all the trials. Some stressed the vision and others stressed the practical results. Each observation had its own genuine meaning, and none were incompatible with any other.
Humanity has accomplished a lot of impressive things in the last 100 years. We’ve lifted millions of people out of poverty, created new countries and civilizations, faced down evil, spread health and education to areas previously untouched by modern technology, decoded signals from distant galaxies, created new modes of communication and confronted the nature of time and matter. We’ve also unleashed powerful dangers, from pollution to nuclear war, and now face problems that were barely conceivable a hundred years ago. Each of these, for better or worse, is intimately connected with, and made possible by, the use of electricity and the growth of the electric grid.
There may be no easy answer, but one has to ask – what is most significant about the hundredth anniversary of Ontario’s power system?
Does it bring to mind the advancement of technology, the enabling of massive economic development, the illumination of remote corners of the province, the enactment of laws designed to share the benefits of progress with all citizens, establishing a standard of excellence, a tradition of caring, or simply interconnectedness – operating simultaneously at both the practical and metaphorical level?
There seems to be no end to the sequence of new inventions with the ability to change people’s lives. The very word power has scarcely stopped evolving in its meaning, since the advent of electricity.
None of this is to suggest that everything was perfect. Sometimes major mistakes come as a by-product of the best of intentions and the failure to anticipate the unintended consequences of a course of conduct. Undoubtedly there are many critics who can point to numerous errors in judgment and in the setting and execution of policy since 1907. Let us remember, and pay tribute to the many who have paid with their lives and their livelihoods to build what we have today. The centenary is also a time to recognize what went wrong, if only to emphasize the significance of improvements that were made, and to resolve to continue to do better in the future.
Despite the differences that exist among Ontarians, and despite the subtle changing of values that inevitably takes place over time, there are certain principles that seem to unite nearly all of us. Examples might include a belief in the value of continuing technological progress, the importance of encouraging people to envision and invent productive new enterprises, and the wisdom of undertaking major projects with the benefit of all citizens in mind.
Even though the profit motive drove much of the business of power, Ontario’s power grid was not purely a business endeavour. Historians and those in the industry can find many examples of selfless dedication, collaboration and public-spirited enterprise as countless Ontarians toiled to further something shared, initially to make the system, then to build it up, even to reform it. And many more continue working, building, making changes and raising basic questions with the public interest firmly in mind.
Today’s power system, in all its complexity and apparent contradiction, stands as a testament to the continuity of certain core principles, even as the institutions are once again being shaken and reformed.
Its existence is proof that it isn’t craziness to have a shared dream, to seek to do something good that will benefit all of society.
Those core principles can’t be firmly defined, but neither can they be ignored. You may hear them described in terms such as:
• Dedication to technical excellence
• Determination to make continual improvements
• Willingness to share the key benefits with all
• Ongoing readiness to accept a challenging vision for the future and to face the problems that it entails.
Wasn’t the last century all about finding a way to recognize character and create opportunities within which people can exercise the potential to improve society’s condition?
Truly remarkable is that in researching this topic it became apparent that so many people have such diverse perspectives on the import of this anniversary, and that they’re all essentially correct.
In my mind at least, the significance of this century of power is that people’s eyes light up with pride, excitement and hope when they talk about the hundred-year perspective. Knowing they are doing something well. Knowing they are doing something that’s good. Knowing that they are leaving a lasting example to the world and to the future. People are passionate about what they’re doing, and with good reason.
We’ve come a long way. We’ve established laudable principles and high standards in the process. It should be possible to maintain those standards in the next hundred years – but can we out-do them? That will be the challenge of the next century. The journey is far from over.
— Jake Brooks
IPPSO FACTO, June 2006
”A Century of Electrical Power”
June 7, 2006, marks the 100th Anniversary of the proclamation of the Hydro Electric Power Commission Act and the creation of Ontario’s modern electrical power industry.
Hydro represents one of the truly great developments in the economic and political life of Ontario. Created in the early days of the last century, the Hydro-Electric Power Commission represented the successful combination of small business interests in western Ontario with municipal activism in the City of Toronto.
The Hydro story is also the story of Adam Beck, one of the "larger than life" figures in our past. Beck's great appeal came from his promise to bring "power at cost" to the farmer and the working classes in towns and cities ... his was the promise to revolutionize their daily lives in a very real and democratic fashion.
Looking back over the past century, one is struck by the central role hydro played in the growth of Ontario's manufacturing and resource economy. The availability of affordable and reliable "home grown" electricity was an essential ingredient of Ontario's success in the 20th Century. Whether in London or in Northern Ontario, hydro is a vital part of the story of Ontario’s development.
We look back with pride on the accomplishments of the past 100 years and look forward with confidence to the next 100. Thank you for helping us celebrate!
— Sean Conway