Failure, approached properly, breeds wisdom. On Aug. 14, the lights went out for almost 50 million people on this continent, but hopefully all 350 million of us now see better.

For one, we now know how fragile our electricity supply can be, even in the 21st century. Businesses and consumers alike had better consider their backup systems.

It’s hard to understate the importance of electricity these days. And it’s amazing that the checks and balances built into our modern electrical systems can fail so catastrophically – almost one-sixth of North America’s populace was without power for a night.

Much critical attention is being directed towards the transmission systems as the weak link that led to the cascade of failures. Obviously, when governments put off spending on such necessities as upgrades to grids, as with the deficit-reduction schemes we saw in the 1990s, important improvements – the kind that are difficult to explain to taxpayers – go wanting. Many experts say transmission lines continent-wide have not kept pace with energy consumption over the past couple of decades.



Where governments have been involved, there has been little pressure from tax- and ratepayers to spend the necessary millions. For the private firms involved, improvements are a formidable expense that create a competitive game of brinkmanship: no one wants to upgrade his lines unless his competitor does the same. In a sense, it’s a game of chicken, with the consumer facing the oncoming traffic.

But that’s why we need strong leaders who will implement high standards. Here in Alberta, as is the case elsewhere, we need to ensure our system can manage as the province booms.

A second big surprise, though, is how little we can rely on cellular phone networks. On the surface, you’d think they would be resilient. But, on Aug. 14, most New Yorkers could not use their cellphones because the backup battery supply on most cell towers was only good for a few hours, at most, and the lines were jammed with calls.

There’s been much talk on how cellphones are gradually usurping traditional phones. Aug. 14 put a dent into that trend, I’m afraid. Land lines were the only possible connection many people had to the outside world. Cellphones have a way to go yet.

But the most troubling surprise of all was that, after 24 hours, there were still contradictory and confusing messages coming from the highest offices in the land about what exactly caused the events that led to so many people and businesses losing vital energy supplies, most for more than a day.

This lack of knowledge is startling in the “information age,” when computers supposedly track and report so effectively.

On Aug. 14, computers and monitoring systems basically acted automatically. And they had to act in seconds to prevent system overload.

But is that any excuse for the total lack of answers?

Cannot our sophisticated computers also instantly tell us where the problem originated? Obviously not. It was embarrassing on the first day to see New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg blaming Canada for causing it while our prime minister, Jean Chretien, was suggesting it started in the U.S. It’s a bleak day when even our leaders flounder in the dark. The least they could do was admit they didn’t know.

That’s not to say that there was no good news. Alberta’s darling WestJet once again proved that its business model is paying huge dividends. Its passenger load shot up to 100 per cent of capacity, as Air Canada was basically ground(ed) to a halt, even on routes going from Alberta to British Columbia.

Air Canada’s almost-complete shutdown happened because Toronto is Air Canada’s hub, and without the hub, the spokes broke.

WestJet is living proof that there is a real Alberta advantage – and there are some big disadvantages to being in the self-styled ‘centre of the universe.’

That said, however, we can learn most from the failures. Power failed. Cellphones failed. Experts were failing to grasp the cause. And looters failed to take over the streets.

The most infamous North American example of how blackouts can lead to utter chaos goes back to New York City, July 13, 1977, when 10 million New Yorkers (and no one else) were left powerless.

It was called a “night of terror” by one witness. About 3,700 people were arrested, while tens of thousands of people helped themselves to merchandise from about 2,000 retail shops. There were more than 1,000 fires started that night in 16 affected (poor) neighbourhoods.

This time around, looting was more severe in Toronto (114 looting incidents) than in New York City, where officials said there were a “handful” of incidents.

Perhaps New Yorkers now recognize that there is no “free” merchandise, since it took more than a decade for those 16 affected neighbourhoods to get back some semblance of normal business activity, and many businesses never opened again after the 1977 looting.

One of the happy failures, then, is the failure of humanity to break down.

We have learned something.