Of Canada and dreams..
Monday, 18. June 2007, 02:14:59
Today I start with an excerpt of an article written by June Callwood in 1997 for Maclean’s magazine, almost 40 years after the Avro Arrow program was cancelled by the Conservative government of the day.
In the space of one week, early in December, I had two odd encounters. In the first, an elderly man approached me as I was having a coffee with a friend. He said it was a terrible shame that the Arrow - the supersonic fighter jet designed and built by Canadians in the '50s – was gone. No, he hadn't worked on the Arrow, as 14,500 did, and he hadn't even seen one, except in pictures. But it was a shame, he said again, and suddenly tears came to his eyes. A few days later, I bought a newspaper from a homeless man on a street corner. He gave me a sharp look and said: "Do you think there is still one Arrow they didn't get?" I said yes. He thought that over and then said fervently: "I hope you are right."
The sense of personal loss inspired by an elegant, all Canadian warplane – in its time the most powerful in the world – has to be more than chauvinism. I used to think that grief for the Arrow was confined to people who knew it, as I did slightly, or to those who are pilots, as I am, also slightly. But the Arrow seems to have touched a dream of perfection that enthrals many, and its destruction is a kind of soul-theft.
I don't recall that in the '50s anyone imagined that the Arrow would carry such symbolic freight. It's not that we weren't proud of Canada's audacity in building the world's best combat airplane, superior to anything developed in the United States or the U.S.S.R. My point is that the Arrow didn't seem a fluke. We thought it natural that Canadians would be among the best, if not the best, at anything we really tried to do. (emphasis mine, referenced from http://www.avroarrow.org/AvroArrow/june.html ).
I like to touch on how many Canadians are really, really proud of their country and their accomplishments. The aircraft known as the Avro Arrow was produced at what might be considered the zenith of Canada coming onto the world stage as a superpower in its own right. We created the Welland Canal for the efficient transfer of large ships and goods far inland on the waterways. We harnessed the power of Niagara Falls for electricity in perhaps the world’s largest hydro-electric project of the day. Canada established itself as persevering winners in the first and second world wars. Tough men for tough times and known to get the job done. C.D. Howe collected a large group of industrialists to amass Canada’s natural resources into finished products for the war effort. By the end of WWII, we had the fifth largest navy in the world and the third largest air force. We helped establish the United Nations from the ashes of the League of Nations. Lester B. Pearson won the Nobel Peace prize for diffusing the Suez crisis. The trans-Canada pipeline was a huge project to bring natural gas from mid-western Canada to central Canada. It seems that the bigger the project or obstacle, the better Canadians like it.
Some events of recent history that many still swell with pride are:
- The Canada vs. Russia series of 1972
- Donovan Bailey, Bruni Surin, Robert Esmie and Glenroy Gilbert with their Olympic track wins in Atlanta in 1996.
- Catriona LeMay Doan and her speed skating records.
- The Canadian men’s hockey gold in Salt Lake City in 2002.
- The Canadian women’s hockey gold in Salt Lake City (one of the best wins ever since the ladies played short handed most of the game with ludicrous penalties)
- Even with this past Stanley Cup series, we were still looking for a Canadian team to win.
Granted, sporting events produce little GDP or long term employment, but the undercurrent of national pride is still there, still searching for an outlet and a recovery of the “soul-theft” that June Callwood writes about. Perhaps with our rising dollar and increasing protectionist trade strategies from the U.S., the time will come soon for a new breed of Louis St. Laurent and C.D. Howe to think big and think Canadian on the world stage.
In the space of one week, early in December, I had two odd encounters. In the first, an elderly man approached me as I was having a coffee with a friend. He said it was a terrible shame that the Arrow - the supersonic fighter jet designed and built by Canadians in the '50s – was gone. No, he hadn't worked on the Arrow, as 14,500 did, and he hadn't even seen one, except in pictures. But it was a shame, he said again, and suddenly tears came to his eyes. A few days later, I bought a newspaper from a homeless man on a street corner. He gave me a sharp look and said: "Do you think there is still one Arrow they didn't get?" I said yes. He thought that over and then said fervently: "I hope you are right."
The sense of personal loss inspired by an elegant, all Canadian warplane – in its time the most powerful in the world – has to be more than chauvinism. I used to think that grief for the Arrow was confined to people who knew it, as I did slightly, or to those who are pilots, as I am, also slightly. But the Arrow seems to have touched a dream of perfection that enthrals many, and its destruction is a kind of soul-theft.
I don't recall that in the '50s anyone imagined that the Arrow would carry such symbolic freight. It's not that we weren't proud of Canada's audacity in building the world's best combat airplane, superior to anything developed in the United States or the U.S.S.R. My point is that the Arrow didn't seem a fluke. We thought it natural that Canadians would be among the best, if not the best, at anything we really tried to do. (emphasis mine, referenced from http://www.avroarrow.org/AvroArrow/june.html ).
I like to touch on how many Canadians are really, really proud of their country and their accomplishments. The aircraft known as the Avro Arrow was produced at what might be considered the zenith of Canada coming onto the world stage as a superpower in its own right. We created the Welland Canal for the efficient transfer of large ships and goods far inland on the waterways. We harnessed the power of Niagara Falls for electricity in perhaps the world’s largest hydro-electric project of the day. Canada established itself as persevering winners in the first and second world wars. Tough men for tough times and known to get the job done. C.D. Howe collected a large group of industrialists to amass Canada’s natural resources into finished products for the war effort. By the end of WWII, we had the fifth largest navy in the world and the third largest air force. We helped establish the United Nations from the ashes of the League of Nations. Lester B. Pearson won the Nobel Peace prize for diffusing the Suez crisis. The trans-Canada pipeline was a huge project to bring natural gas from mid-western Canada to central Canada. It seems that the bigger the project or obstacle, the better Canadians like it.
Some events of recent history that many still swell with pride are:
- The Canada vs. Russia series of 1972
- Donovan Bailey, Bruni Surin, Robert Esmie and Glenroy Gilbert with their Olympic track wins in Atlanta in 1996.
- Catriona LeMay Doan and her speed skating records.
- The Canadian men’s hockey gold in Salt Lake City in 2002.
- The Canadian women’s hockey gold in Salt Lake City (one of the best wins ever since the ladies played short handed most of the game with ludicrous penalties)
- Even with this past Stanley Cup series, we were still looking for a Canadian team to win.
Granted, sporting events produce little GDP or long term employment, but the undercurrent of national pride is still there, still searching for an outlet and a recovery of the “soul-theft” that June Callwood writes about. Perhaps with our rising dollar and increasing protectionist trade strategies from the U.S., the time will come soon for a new breed of Louis St. Laurent and C.D. Howe to think big and think Canadian on the world stage.
WIDGETIZE