Born in Quebec City in 1839, Daniel McManamy was the owner of a general store on King St. West at the end of the 19th century. During the same period, he was elected city councillor several times, and became mayor in 1893. At the turn of the century, as city councillor, he expressed his dissatisfaction with the power company’s service and started working toward municipalizing power production and distribution. He used every trick in the book to convince the public and his peers on the city council to join him in this initiative. From 1904–1908, he organized four referendums. Only the last proved favourable to his idea.

An employee from the City of Sherbrooke’s gas and power department wheeling a reel into the plant. The reel, with its coiled-up conductor cable, has been preserved along with other equipment in the plant’s storage.

The Frontenac power station, located at the centre of the Magog River gorge, is Sherbrooke’s first hydroelectric power station. It is still in operation today, making it the oldest still-running hydroelectric plant in Quebec.

The station was built in 1888 by Sherbrooke Gas and Water, later renamed the Power Light & Heat Co.—the city’s only power supplier and distributor at the time. Thanks to its location, the plant was able to bring power to part of the downtown as well as Sherbrooke’s Old-North neighbourhood.

The City took possession of the Frontenac station and all assets of the Sherbrooke Power Light & Heat Co. on May 1st, 1908. By the same token, the City created the Département du gaz et de l’électricité de la Cité de Sherbrooke.

It took nearly six years’ worth of effort and four referendums to make this public ownership of power a reality. City councillors Daniel McManamy and Donat Denault were instrumental in this endeavour, using all means available to convince the public of the validity of their project.

Denault, born in Châteauguay in 1859, became Sherbrooke city councillor in 1903. A businessman and influential member of the Sherbrooke Board of Trade (chamber of commerce), he worked tirelessly with Daniel McManamy to municipalize the city’s electrical power. He became mayor of Sherbrooke in 1920.