The killing of the Avro Arrow, and the survival of GM and Chrysler
The killing of the Avro Arrow, and the survival of GM and Chrysler By RICHARD ROHMER, O. C., Q. C.
The purpose is simple. To create jobs while adding to the growth and betterment of the nation's infrastructure.
As a general rule, the money is doled out to (as above)municipalities rather than to private enterprise organizations.
Indeed there's a growing area debate about a grant of half-a-million dollars to a local private school (ie. privately-owned).
But that's a current boiling issue. I'm not going there!
Too bad there were no federalprovincial government grant programs available back in the late 1940s and '50s. If there had been, together with some stiff political spines to fight off the then (and now) dominant and overpowering American industrial and economic power/influence, Canada today would be the home of one of the world's most successful fighter jet (and engine) production lines.
In addition, it would also be the home in Toronto of one of the world's most successful large passenger jet production lines, much bigger than Quebec's Bombardier aircraft manufacturing which constantly needs federal loans (direct and indirect) to stay competitive and stay alive.
The 1940s/'50s stories are of massive Canadian government ineptitude that, if decisions had then been made in support of Canada's aircraft manufacturing industry (instead of against it), we would have tens of thousands of skilled aviation industry workers employed in Canada today making the world class fighter jet known as the Avro Arrow and the high class passenger jets that would have been the offspring of the first such jet aircraft ever to be flown over North America. . . .
Generally speaking, those tragic decisions of 50 and 60 years ago are in the dustbin of Canadian ineptitude and inability to stand up to the American powerhouse.
Which is one of the ongoing reasons that the federal government and Ontario are kicking in $14 billion to the new General Motors and the new Chrysler to provide jobs for Canadian auto workers.
Those billions are to two private corporations in Canada, owned and controlled by GM and Chrysler. The two private companies have no Canadian members (no control whatever) on their boards of directors.
It's a $14-billion decision that has echoes of the U. S.-forced demise of Avro and its Arrow.
"History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce" - Marx
A farce and a tragedy indeed - lamenting Canada's lost opportunity to be a top-gun merchant of death in the military aviation world.
Diefenbaker killed this ugly Avro program (for all the wrong reasons, no doubt, but praise be his name for doing so), just as he refused the U.S. dictate to arm Bomarc missiles with nuclear warheads. His government fell in 1963 over that refusal, while L.B. Pearson came to power promising to honour Canada's NORAD "commitments" (i.e. to lick the jackboots of the U.S. military machine).
The story is well known. Here it is in very brief summary, as recounted in 2003 by Lesley Hughes on behalf of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
For starters, Diefenbaker the Tory campaigned on a promise to reverse a federal Liberal government's decision to pawn off ownership and control of Canada's once vast natural gas reserves to corporate interests, and mainly American ones. Once elected, old Dief never mentioned the Liberals' betrayal on energy.
And what he did with sending an entire aircraft industry to the US was nothing short of betrayal again. Diefenbaker led Tories canned Avro, and then they bought a pig in a poke with Bomark missiles designed to carry nuclear war heads. The idiots were sweet-talked by the Americans into bying those dud missiles that had a range of only 500 miles or so. That would have meant they were destined to explode anywhere over Canada if ever launched! No fear, because old Diefenbaker had a plan to build nuclear bunkers either side of Ottawa to save themselves in case of nuclear attack from the red menace, who at the time were being threatened with US and NATO expansion and nuclear weapons stationed all around the former USSR and China.
And now these Tories are propping up US interests again with GM and Chrysler! Harper and his supporting cast in the Federal Liberal Party and Dalton Pinocchio McGuilty are all pro-American when it comes to supporting "buy-American" policies and propping up US interests at the expense of Canadians and Canadian national interests.
So:
1. You oppose the decision to scrap a military fighter program (I'm have trouble believing this - Fidel and Richard Rohmer singing from the same hymn book); and
2. You think the decision to keep Canada nuclear-free, for which Dief's government was overthrown through U.S. interference, was irrelevant.
The only reason I can fathom for these astonishing stands is that you don't like Diefenbaker because he was a Conservative - just as you like or dislike many others based on their party label.
He was a traitor and sellout like all the old line party leaders were pro-American and anti-Canadian. Yankee hawks were never really afraid of nuclear attacks from anybody. That was pure coldwar era bullshit. What they wanted to do was sell us some obsolete missiles in return for stealing an entire Canadian aircraft industry. If we'd wanted nuclear weapons, we could have built them in Canada anyway. We were ahead of the Yanks wrt atomic energy research leading up to WW II. Canadians arent stupid except when it comes to politics.
I went to the Reynolds Alberta Museum in Wetaskawin yesterday. They are displaying a replica of the Arrow at the Aviation Hall of Fame.
I admit feeling a bit conflicted about it at first. There is the humiliation of Canada being ordered by the Empire to stop building an aircraft of such superior technological advancement, and our government meekly obeying. But, like Unionist said, how is a superior weapon a good thing? What possible social value could it provide? How much would have been lost to the gaping maw of the weapons industry to pay for the damn thing?
Instead, those engineers went to work for NASA, Boeing, Northrup, Grumman, General Dynamics, or any number of merchants of imperial violence, where they went to work on things like the Space Shuttle, the F-14, F-16, cruise missile, and B-2 bombers. So, in the end, those engineers still managed to kill vast swaths of humanity, but for a different team. Go Canada!
He was a traitor and sellout like all the old line party leaders were pro-American and anti-Canadian.
... and like all the CCF-NDP leaders were patriots and anti-American.
Reality doesn't matter much when you can just check people's party label.
It does make you wonder - what if instead of focusing on the Canuck and later the Arrow, we didn't cancel the Avro Jetliner - would Canada be a world leader in civil aviation, instead of trying and failing to be an arms provider?
Especially considering the Jetliner's potential competition at the time had a nasty habit of breaking up in midair
Yes! There was the obvious potential for manufacturing passenger planes and thousands of civilian jobs as economic driver of prosperity aplenty, siphoned off to the USSA.
There exists an unwritten rule of Canadian capitalism. And it says that not only will Canadian taxpayer's money not be used to compete with private enterprise - more importantly, it will not be used to compete with private American enterprise and US interests.
$14 billion Canadian taxpayer dollars to US companies operating in Canada is bueno as far as our two old line parties are concerned. They know the routine fairly well even in these times. Theyve rehearsed these pro American mantras for a long time. Trust and obey, it's the only way they've ever known.
Ok, I can understand the 'merchants of imperial violence' with reference to the aeroplanes, but the Space Shuttle (and Apollo)? That's a little rich, no? Curiosity, exploring, interest in the world around us, and all that.....
Our own Richard Sanders (head of the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade) has collected some fascinating information about the overthrow of Diefenbaker's government by the U.S., in collaboration with three of Dief's cabinet ministers, and the willing participation of Pearson and the rest of the opposition (except for two NDP MPs from BC, who bucked caucus and voted with Diefenbaker). Some of the quotes from the time are amazing, and there are some interesting links:
REGIME CHANGE IN CANADA BY THE U.S.
1962-1963, Canada: 'Knocking Over' "Dief the Chief"
A Plot "Made in the U.S."
Yes! There was the obvious potential for manufacturing passenger planes and thousands of civilian jobs as economic driver of prosperity aplenty, siphoned off to the USSA.
Yeah! And imagine if the kings of France had allowed Hugenots to immigrate to New France and not imposed economic mercantilism?
:-)
FYI there's no way Canada could have developed Nukes before the yanks. They had most of the world's greatest physicists (brains) and a larger budget (money).
I wasnt suggesting that Canada could have beaten the Yanks (Yes, Manhatten Proj. was an international effort) to the bomb. We could have built our own nuclear weapons over time, like the frontline state of Pakistan was able to develop them under the watchful eye of western intelligence agencies, and with Dick Cheney as US secretary of defence in the 1990s. Cheney and hawks overlooked Pakistan's nuclear weapons development, according to Seymour Hersch, in return for Pakistan's purchase order of some number of F-16 military jets.
Indeed, especially this one:
Liberal policies were "made in the U.S."
(Tommy Douglas, NDP Leader)
The more times change, the more they remain the same.
I like the summary of Dief's accomplishments:
The Avro and the Bomarcs:
Diefenbaker cancelled the Avro Arrow fighter plane program (1959) because the U.S. wouldn't buy any of them. Although then expected to arm Canada's Bomarc missiles with U.S. nuclear warheads, Diefenbaker refused.
Operation Sky Hawk:
Dief cancelled a U.S. nuclear war-related training exercise over Canada (1959).
Cuba:
Diefenbaker refused U.S. demands to stop trading with Cuba, and instead increased Canada's trade (1960).
Apartheid:
At a Commonwealth conference (1961), Diefenbaker was the only white leader to support the African and Asian members against allowing South African membership.
Immigration:
After Diefenbaker's Bill of Rights (1960), the government reduced immigration restrictions based on racial grounds and began to accept more Asian and black immigrants.
Women:
Dief appointed the first women cabinet minister and senator.
First Nations:
Native people allowed to vote for the first time (1960).
OAS:
Dief resented JFK's speech to Parliament urging Canada to join the Organization of American States, because Dief had already refused (1961).
China:
Diefenbaker refused U.S. requests to cut off wheat supplies to China if they continued supporting Vietnamese independence efforts (1962).
Nuclear Test Ban:
Kennedy pushed for opposition to the treaty, but Canada voted for it (1962). The U.S. and most NATO countries abstained.
In his book, The Fight For Public Power, Chaper Nine, "The Natural Gas Betrayal" p.115, Howard Hampton wrote:
While it's true that the price of Western natural gas initially went down after Halloween, 1985, this wasn't done for the benefit of Canadians, but rather American gas marketers. Gas exports to the U.S. have quadrupled since then. This was also the year natural gas prices began soaring, eventually reaching four times the pre-deregulation price. . ,
In all likelihood, Diefenbaker's Conservatives would have been toast after sending an entire Canadian aircraft industry to the states when 14,000 Canadians lost their jobs in the Toronto area. Then old Dief's Conservatives wavered on the decision as to whether to arm the utterly useless dud Bomarc missiles with US nuclear warheads. He then decided to buy somewhere over 60 Made in USA Voodoo fighter aircraft to replace Canada's aging fleet. Every good sting needs credible con men. Sometimes the enormity of the betrayal has to be spread over two wings of the same party for appearance sake. The two old line parties have taken turns kow-towing to Uncle Sam and corporate America, and betraying the interests Canadians decade after decade.