... in Cobalt, there was a lot geology, a lot of rocks that you could study and-that-kind-of thing. We went down ah to the Metabetchouan um dam where they were- the hydro project, and they were working on that ah went down there with them, and it was i-- there were all kinds of things to do and he would always be supportive in- in helping me get the kids there and doing that-kind-of-thing.

Interviewer: Um, did you ever go on any other family trips or class trips or anything? Speaker: Um, we went to the hydro - dam near (inc)-Valley- ... With my welding class in grade nine.

... so there'd be ten or twelve of us sit down every- every meal and we had no hydro, no water in the house, and we ate by coal-oil lamps. Coal-oil lamps on the wall around the table and um, that's just the way it was. No telephone.

They raised ten children. ... There was no hydro, there was no wood in the area when we moved up to that place, there was no good wood at all. It was terrible. Cold. Oh God it was cold up there.

... my dad loved ice-cream. And ah- 'course we always had our own whipped-cream and-everything and mum would try making ice-cream sometimes but that was- that was a big job. There's- seemed to be anyways (laughs). But so when- when the hydro come in well then that was a big thing, eh? To have a refrigerator or freezer. That was- that was wonderful.

Like by this time, we had electricity eh? ... I think back in the sixties sometime, they got the milk and they- and the hydro.

Ah well, the base is on to provide relief for hard-working families. That's what the basis of the policy is is called changebook. Um, the big thing for up here is to get rid of the provincial portion of the H-S-T off home heating, and hydro. Ah, unplug the mandatory smart meters 'cause what happens, you-know, with the mandatory smart meters, they want you to shower before seven A-M and do your laundry after nine P-M to get the benefits of it.

Um, like I said, getting the home- the H-S-T with the provincial portion off home heating, and hydro - obviously, in the north our winters are a lot longer than they are down south, so we'll obviously save a lot more money with that. That's one of the- the major things within the platform.

Ah, what else? Like there's- yeah, you'd have to ask me specifics, if you wanted more- like that's the main thing is the H-S-T off the home heating and hydro.

... they're actually becoming more blue and you'll see within their colours, they actually added blue as one of their main colours in their new platform. They- you won't know that but they want to do the same thing, H-S-T off the home heating and hydro but they want to do that in four years. So after four years, meaning not in the first- this first term but the second term, ah, kind-of interesting, right? They're not going to do it within this election, they're- they want to do it for the next election.

Interviewer: And are similar churches in the area (inc)- Speaker: Oh yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. Our minister used to go to two town churches and the one just closed in April. No, I mean there's- when you've only got half-a-dozen people there, ten, you can't- hydro, um everything's very expensive so you can't ah- can't do it.

... but on a nice big piece of property, these people won the lottery. ... You-know, they came from their postage stamp in Cobalt and wound up with a- you-know, a seventy-five or hundred-by-hundred piece of land in North-Cobalt with water and sewer and heat and hydro and all-that-fun-stuff.

And I almost got electrocuted twice 'cause the bosses brother had- was losing his memory and when he told us the hydro was off, twice it wasn't off and we could have been electrocuted.

And ah- so I seen a lot of that and I could go into any job and help prevent those kind of accidents because you know how- how it happens and- and what causes them, eh? Same with- same with saying you're going to turn the hydro off and you forget to do it. You can't fool with somebody like that. It's- it's deadly. So I got twenty-five near accidents. Twenty-five close calls and- and a lot of them could have been avoided.

Interviewer: Wait, the- the truck. The- is that your truck in the lake? Speaker: No. No no. ... That was a Ontario Hydro truck. ... Yeah, they- Hydro took the picture and-

She became a, ah, ah, she was a mu-- she's a fantastic musician, she can play piano by ear. She's a great pianist, so she took music. And then s-- sort-of drifted out of music, she was going to teach and then started working for Hydro. And ah, she's got university. She met a guy and she got married, she's got three kids.

We used to have a bigger a- much bigger M-N-R here than w-- than we do now so we lost a lot of jobs there. ... Um, just with w-- hydro, like that big building used to be just packed with people and now they've got like a fraction of the staff that they- ... Used to have.

And I still remember my grands-- or my son. Ah well he's got a good job at Hydro up here, he's a line foreman. Ah his grandmother was bedridden for over twenty-some years with arthritis. But anyway, he'd come to the side of her bed and he's- talk English to her. She'd ignore him completely. Unless he spoke in French to her, eh?

He was trying to keep him and his wife together. Like I say a hundred dollar- he didn't do too well. But he did better than my dad. I did better than him. My son is doing a hell of a lot better than me (inc) boss with the hydro. My hopes is that his kids will do better than him. And never look back.

After high-school I worked for a local farmer for one summer. ... For the summer 'til October then I started- I put some job applications and I got three jobs opportunities at the time. Um, I had interviewed Hydro at Telephone and at ah (inc)-Stores.