The Way We Were ::: 1957 ::: CANADA

The ROLL-OUT of the CF-105 Avro Arrow…here again at the Toronto Aerospace Museum in 2006~

AVRO CANADA was "wrapped up" very quickly after PM Diefenbaker cancelled the Arrow interceptor and Iroquois engine programmes. Former Avro employees were sought out immediately, by eager American and British aerospace employers. THESE VERY ex-Avro Canada engineers went on to produce Lougheed, McDonnell-Douglas and Boeing aircraft, the Concorde and then THEY PUT America in space!

Yup…Diefenbaker's irrational posturing (with Crawford Gordon, President of AVRO CANADA in 1959) and final decisive stupidity, set ALL THAT, Canada's first BRAIN DRAIN, in motion.

NEWLY-ELECT Prime Minister Diefenbaker, who preached "a brave new world" as his campaign promise…in the end, completely lacked ANY VISION or bravery whatsoever.

FOREVER TO BE REMEMBERED, as that "small town prairie lawyer" who rose to the occasion, at that defining moment, so drunk with "newfound" power and who so enraged, deliriously and maliciously, demanded an end to our (AVRO CANADA's) momentous cutting-edge, and preeminent aerospace achievements…and We…WE, the slumbering citizens of Canada, just as lost for letting him shamefully end it!

EVERY TIME I think of this needless and HORRENDOUS aviation tragedy, the death of the Arrow interceptor and the Iroquois engine projects, how close we came, I get so mad…DAMN IT…I don't know what to do!!!!!!

You'd think the years would lessen the blow!

Nope.

IF THIS reflective RAGE doesn't still consume you…even now…well then, you just can't be all that Canadian~