September 1, 2003
On Thursday, August 14, the lights went out. At approximately 4:15 in the afternoon, EST, a massive power blackout plunged 50 million people into darkness. Politicians were quick to point fingers at other jurisdictions, but it appeared in the end that a failure in northern Ohio led to the cascading effect that knocked out power in eight U.S. states and the province of Ontario.
By the end of the weekend, pretty well all the power was restored. In the United States it was business as usual. But in Ontario, the state of emergency that was declared shortly after the power first failed, was continued until the following Friday. Ontarians were warned that unless they reduced their hydro consumption, there would be rotating blackouts. Workers with all three levels of government were given the week off if they were not deemed to be "essential" (and that, of course, meant most of them). Industry and businesses were told to reduce power, and some major manufacturers eliminated shifts in order to conserve energy. Individuals were constantly lectured by the provincial government, municipalities, and the media not to water their lawns or wash their cars. More importantly, the public was advised not to use their air conditioners at a time when the temperatures were hovering around the 30 degree Celsius mark. And then, shortly after the emergency ended, Ontario was exporting power to New York State.
After the power was restored from the initial blackout, the fact that we in Ontario were told that we had a major crisis, while the affected American states quickly returned to normal, led many people to wonder whether the crisis was real, or if it was just a political ploy by the sagging Eves government to increase their popularity. An election is to be called soon, perhaps as early as this week, for an election to be held on October 2. Is it possible that the crisis was created?
Although the state of emergency caused the Eves’ government’s popularity to increase, there is no clear evidence that that will turn into votes. Eves, through his constant press conferences, did manage to gain a lot of exposure, more than the typical sound bite that the Premier usually gets. And every day, Eves was front and center in the drama where hydro use kept increasing during the week (due to the rising temperatures) and every day we managed to squeak through without rolling blackouts. Ernie became a hero.
If the power crisis was in fact created, it worked out wonderfully well for the Tory government. Neither leader of the opposition parties, especially NDP leader Howard Hampton, who seems to have devoted his entire life to Ontario’s electricity problems, could hardly criticize the Premier for calling for conservation. And the media was much too busy telling people not to use their air conditioners, and rat out those who did, to give any thought to criticizing Eves and pondering whether or not there was in fact a serious crisis.
One thing that was never discussed was the pros and cons of rotating blackouts. Intentional losses of power would have been bad for the government, and would have given the critics of the Eves' government ammunition, but would it have been so bad for people. There was no discussion about whether the elderly or people with breathing problems would have been better off running their air conditioners and being subject to rotating blackouts, or turning their air conditioners off completely because of guilt of fear of what their neighbours might say. The government medical officers of health, who decry the occasional whiff of second hand tobacco smoke, had virtually nothing to say about those who were vulnerable to the heat.
The opposition and the media simply accepted the fact that there was a crisis. Ordinary people, on the other hand, were certainly a lot more skeptical. Perhaps it was, as Christina Blizzard wrote in the Toronto Sun, that Eves was reluctant to import power that would be sold for 4.3 cents per kilowatt hour; the price that he capped it at.
If Ernie Eves didn’t manufacture the crisis, it certainly helped him at a time when he’s facing an election and probable loss of power to the Liberals.
As Ernie says in the commercials--"There’s no better place in the world to do business."
Just don’t expect power.