Abstract

This paper considers how the modern domestic ideal and the better living standards it promised encouraged the transition towards the “all-electric home.” It examines how household electricity consumption in Montreal contributed to the expansion of Hydro-Québec’s infrastructure in what is today called the North Shore. Although many have promoted hydroelectricity as a sustainable alternative to carbon-based fuels, the rapid expansion of energy networks since the end of the Second World War has accelerated human activity and resource extraction, which in turn contribute to the current climate crisis.
From the interwar period to the late 1950s, homemakers were introduced to new technologies and sold the idea that the mechanization of the home was a means of performing their work with greater dignity and efficiency, and of signalling their worth as devoted Catholic mothers. This research examines how domestic ideals informed women’s decisions to adopt household appliances and the subsequent expansion of Hydro-Québec’s infrastructure along the Betsiamites River. The Bersimis complex and the subsequent hydroelectric projects in the Betsiamites-Manicouagan-Outardes watershed resulted in lasting environmental disruptions, establishing new forms of colonial control over traditional Innu lands and shaping the inequitable relationships between Innu communities and the state that continue to this day.