In the dark

Today marks the fifth anniversary of the blackout that left about 50 million people without power.
The Mercury asked the byelection candidates to look back at that fateful day, Aug. 14, 2003, and remember what they were doing. Here's what they said:

GLORIA KOVACH — Conservative party candidate
“I was at home getting ready to go on an aid mission to El Salvador and ended up doing hand laundry and hanging it out to dry to get ready to go. All the travel packing at the last minute, and then ended up having friends over for a barbecue,” Kovach said.
“I was leaving the next morning, so I didn’t know, because the flights were cancelled, so I didn’t know if I’d be leaving or not because it was an early-morning flight. I was leaving for the airport at 5 in the morning . . . When we went to El Salvador they had a bit of a chuckle over it — hearing that we didn’t have any power or electricity in Canada.”

TOM KING — NDP candidate
“I don’t know that we were affected by the blackout. Did it take up all parts of the city?” King asked. “That makes me sound kind of stupid or possibly senile, but it’s nothing that got me up and jumping.”
King added that at the time he would have been preparing for the Massey Lectures he delivered that year.
“If it had affected me I would have gone kind of nuts, because that was a stressful time in my life, as I’m getting ready to do this national lecture series. We probably had lights out and candles for a while, but I’ve lived through worse hardships.”

FRANK VALERIOTE — Liberal party candidate
“I think it was late afternoon, I was at my office, and after basically leaving the office, returned home to make sure everyone here was OK,” Valeriote said, adding that one of his children was only six months old at the time, and that he has tenants who live upstairs.
“Doesn’t it make you realize how dependent we are on energy and electricity?” he asked. “And frankly, when I discovered later that the problem was in the United States, I was even more discouraged by the fact that we don’t have a system that runs more east-west than north-south, because it would be so much more efficient and financially efficient.”
“But other than that it was business as usual,” he said. “We really weren’t that dramatically impacted because we don’t consume a lot of electricity.”

MIKE NAGY — Green party candidate
“I was enjoying the dark skies with my neighbour, watching the stars and went for a walk in a field,” Nagy said. “We lost all the power at my office, so I had to send everybody home . . . and so I really just enjoyed the night skies and talked with my neighbour right through the night as we enjoyed the stars.”

Comments

[Bert]

Can anyone really believe Tom Kings comment ?. "Did it take up all part's of the city ?". I'm not a Green Party member, but that's what I didn. We were sent home, we cooked supper on the barbque, and watched the night sky. What I thought was light pollution from a city was the Milky Way. Amazing !!

[Roger]

The previous comment has been modified. A sentence was removed which I felt was unnecessarily disrespectful.
Roger LeBlanc
Mercury news editor

[Zorba]

Roger:
Why would you censure Bert's comment when he was only agreeing with King's comment - "That makes me sound kind of stupid or possibly senile". After all it is not too often that one gets to agree with a politician.
King is showing his complete lack of experience as a politician - telling funny but not relevant stories and indulging in self-flagellation just is not the way to win an election. Is that what a National Voice does?

Zorba

[Edward Pickersgill]

For some people hydro failures such as that major cascade five years ago are devastating... for others not quite so noticeable... depending of course on one's reliance on an electrified life. So yes of course if Tom did not really notice or mark it down as a major historic event then perhaps it could be taken as a good sign. I know my recollection of those days is that it was a remarkably peaceful time. Everyone slowed down in one way or another. Noise levels were reduced dramatically. And here in Guelph there was very significant decrease in the kind of violence and vandalims that occurs every weekend when the booze is flowing and the street lights provide performance stages for the melodramatic.

I'm very happy that Mike Nagy found good communication with his neighbours and was able to enjoy the starry nights. Many of us did well with that before the blackout and do well with it subsequently.

On a personal level I'd agree that Tom has what some would call a self-deprecating sense of humour which may or may not be a strong card in a federal election. But I'll go with humour and a basic communion with nature which makes electrical failures something a little less significant than historians with short term memory allow.

In my world, those of us who feed the hungry, clothe the tattered, and shelter the homeless managed remarkably well. As a member these days of no political party (and an occasional odd humourist) I'll also suggest (without having consulted with anyone) that the Tom King I know would not want a sentence removed from a blog posters piece and nor would he worry about nor be surprised nor hurt by someone mouthing or tapping something disrespectful. Win or lose such a comment reflects on the dispenser, not the recipient.

[Bert]

Well, you're the boss Roger, and I'll abide by the rules you set out. However, Mr. King's comments show a complete and utter lack of knowledge concerning the history of this fine city and province. His comments are just like going to New York city and asking what happened to the Twin Towers.

[Brian B]

The fact is that power restoration was rationed by grid location. Essentials like hospitals and waterworks were back on line in priority. I remember lining up for 45 minutes to fill my gas tank at a York Road garage. They were one of the few stations with power because they were so close to the Lyon pumping station.

The General Hospital area was another of the first to get power. At the time Tom did not live far from there, so its very possible that he had power before he went to bed.

The reason I needed to gas up was business in Owen Sound the next day. Up there it was all just a blip. They were back on line from the Bruce in no time.

Sorry, our experiences were not entirely common. Yes, our lights went out at pretty well the same time, but for some they were disrupted for a few hours, for others days.