Requiem for a Fallen Giant

The word “hydro” grabs attention. Ontarians have had almost a hundred years of dependable and affordable electric power service. They expect it to be there, all over the province, all the time. They are the descendants of Sir Adam Beck, Ontario Hydro’s founder and staunch public power advocate, who declared that “the gifts of nature are for the people,” and who labelled electricity “people’s power.” Ontarians know this because it is emblazoned on his statue that dominates University Avenue in Toronto, where Beck reigned supreme from 1906 until his death in 1925. They also know that the province’s electric power system has been in turmoil for the past 25 years. Investigations, reports, public hearings, rate freezes, rate hikes and boardroom firings have been the stuff of headlines in the country’s largest province, and are familiar to many other Canadians as well.

Now the company that more than any other shaped modern Ontario has disappeared. Replacing it are several...