Artifact #7: Quebec Liberal Party campaigning on nationalization, 1962

Citation:

"Liberal Party advertising on the main issue of the nationalization of electricity during the election campaign of 1962. A plant in Chandler, Gaspésie, is featured and the poster reads: Hydro, job creator!" Photograph. La Revolution Tranquille.
https://www.larevolutiontranquille.ca/en/the-nationalization-of-electricity.php

Label:

This campaign poster shows the industrial plant in Chandler, Gapesie and highlights the Quebec Liberal Party's central message in their 1962 election campaign for the nationalization of electricity. Under the leadership of Jean Lesage, the Quebec Liberal Party championed reform as a key step towards modernization of Quebec's economy and empowering Quebec. The slogan "Hydro, job creator!" was a promise of not only employment opportunities but also overall economic growth and industrial development in Quebec. Nationalizing electricity deeply resonated with the up and coming nationalist identity developing in Quebec as it was a reclamation of Quebec's natural resources by moving the electricity sector away from private ownership often by foreign owned companies from outside Quebec towards a publicly owned unified utility company which became Hydro-Quebec which also allowed the Liberals to not only standardize rates, integrate the power system but also make the French language the language of work in these new public sector jobs.

Bibliography:

”Quiet Revolution." The Canadian Encyclopedia. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/quiet-revolution.