Power from the North: Territory, Identity, and the Culture of Hydroelectricity in Quebec by Caroline Desbiens (review)

Québec is geographically massive. The distance from Ivujivik, the north-ernmost settlement in the province, to Montréal is roughly the same as Montréal to Miami. The difference between the two is, of course, that the vast territory north of the Canadian Shield is sparsely populated. This, of course, leads many to ask what can be “done” with this “empty” land that just happens to be incredibly resource rich? That these natural resources were already being used, and that there may be debate over their utility, comprise the root questions posed by Caroline Desbiens in Power from the North.

Her book is an in-depth analysis of the relationship between Québec national identity and provincial geography. More specifically, she seeks to explain how a form of resource nationalism became imbricated with the push to build a modern Québec on the back of hydro-electric power development. The story is complicated by the dynamic of colonial development and cultural claims over territory and land simultaneously made by First Nations, Québécois, and Anglo-Canadian groups. Desbiens creatively integrates a diverse set of secondary sources to, as she states, “analyze the work of culture in laying out paths of economic development in Northern Quebec.” (10)

In this sense, the book is an addition to the large collection of discursive and constructionist accounts of contemporary colonial/postcolonial relationships. More so, however, it is a fascinating cultural history of how natural resource development was (and continues to be) culturally promoted in Québec. At its heart, the process is fairly simple: resource acquisition is an expensive process, particularly when this resource is located far from centres of population. This process must be publically supported in democratic societies; thus, the entire project can be legitimated with the imbrication of popular rhetoric and symbols – often tied to common markers of national identity. This resource nationalism, argues Desbiens, is more than simply an economic process but one deeply rooted in historical narratives, epistemological perspectives, and contemporary conditions. These qualitative aspects are the component parts of the larger story centered on hydroelectric development in Québec.

To this end, the author has constructed a textual analysis divided into nine topical chapters organized into three thematically related parts. The themes, drawn directly from the methodolog y, are meant to lead the reader through the process of culturally constructing a colonial development project. The author is very clear – beginning in the introduction – that this story is problematic in that the narrative text is singularly constructed through the lens, and for the purposes, of Francophone interests. The focus of this textual construction – the conquest of the Québec north – involves the elimination of Indigenous interests and the very redefinition of geography and natural resource utility, which makes the project distinctly colonial. Desbiens references the requisite scholars (Said, Bhabha, Shiva), but shifts away from traditional postcolonial critical analysis in favor of a “symmetrical anthropology” drawn from the work of Bruno Latour. The intent is to provide an analysis sensitive to dual or competing discursive definitions of a particular phenomenon – in this case, the geography, resources, and territory in the James Bay region. While the intent is admirable, the execution of this challenging methodological approach leaves something to be desired. This is a point to which we will return.

Following the introductory chapter, Part One begins with a descriptive chapter on the role of hydroelectricity in the larger project of Québec national development following the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. Using speeches, advertisements, and even automotive design, Desbiens efficiently demonstrates that hydroelectric development was long-framed as a reflection of a modernizing (and Francophone) Québec. Chapter 2 begins to chronicle First Nations’ responses to James Bay development. Using mostly correspondence, speeches, and secondary scholarly assessments, a fascinating picture is painted highlighting the diversity of respective tribal responses and an evolving provincial approach to expansive natural resource exploitation. One interesting aside...