C7

By DONALD WRIGHT
Department of Political Science UNB

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On the question of NB Power and its future, Shawn Graham was clear.

"Our position is: "Look, this is an asset of the province and we want to keep it in the ownership of New Brunswickers."

So, too, was the Charter for Change, the Liberal party's 2006 election platform.

A Liberal government, it declared will "Maintain NB Power as a publicly-owned utility that will serve all New Brunswickers."

But that was then and this is now.

The government's intention to sell NB Power to Hydro-Quebec may or may not be good public policy.

But it is bad form.

Trusting Shawn Graham and believing the Charter for Change, the people of New Brunswick voted in good faith.

That trust has been broken and that faith betrayed.

The people of New Brunswick can rightly say: "We were sold a bill of goods."

And they can rightly demand an election on the issue.

Indeed, New Brunwickers deserve no less than the people of Quebec in 1962.

Premier Jean Lesage had been elected in 1960 on the slogan of "C'est le temps que ça change," or "It's time for a change."

Surrounded by a talented group of cabinet ministers, Premier Lesage began real transformational change in Quebec.

Almost over night, the Quiet Revolution transformed Quebec into a modern, secular, bureaucratic state.

It was in this context that Premier Lesage's most talented -and most popular - cabinet minister proposed the nationalization of Quebec's hydroelectric power.

As minister of natural resources, René Lévesque took his proposal to a special Cabinet meeting at a government-owned retreat north of Quebec City.

For two days, Levesque carried the debate. His idea was as simple as it was bold: the government would create a publicly-owned electrical utility out of the many small privately-owned utilities. In turn, the new utility would undertake the massive expansion of Quebec's capacity to generate hydroelectricity as part of the province's larger economic and industrial strategy.

Lévesque reminded his colleagues that Ontario had nationalized electricity in 1906.

For heaven's sake, even New Brunswick had created its own publicly-owned utility, he said.

In the end, Lévesque made true believers out of so many doubting Thomases: Premier Lesage and the Cabinet committed themselves to the nationalization of hydroelectricity.

But both Lesage and his cabinet also knew they had not campaigned on the issue in 1960.

A committed democrat, Premier Lesage called a snap election.

Better than "It's time for a change," he campaigned on the slogan of "Maîtres Chez Nous," or "Masters in Our Own House."

A tireless René Lévesque criss-crossed the province.

In church basements, community centres, school auditoriums, and local arenas he presented his plan with both reason and emotion.

"We, and nobody else, will make our own decisions, right here," he told Quebecers.

On Nov. 14, 1962, Jean Lesage, René Lévesque, and the Liberal party were returned to power with an even larger majority and Hydro-Quebec was born.

Premier Graham should follow the courageous example of Premier Lesage: call an election and let the people decide.

And his minister of energy should be compelled to criss-cross the province to explain to New Brunswickers why somebody else should make our decisions for us and why we shouldn't be masters in our own house.

After all, and in the words of the Charter of Change, "The people of New Brunswick are the shareholders of NB Power."

Donald Wright teaches in the Department of Political Science at UNB.