Posted by
CANADA'S CONSERVATIVE on Wednesday, October 04, 2006 2:28:23 PM
AMERICA SCREWED CANADA?
With the unveiling of a replica of the super jet Avro Arrow many Canadians still hold to the claim that President Eisenhower bullied us into dumping the Avro Arrow. While the C.B.C. and others have propagated the image of a helpless Diefenbaker in a canoe taking orders from the Eisenhower. Nothing could be further from the truth. To know the truth one must look past the Docu-Drama produced by the C.B.C (some events were dramatized for the story). While it is true Canada can produce amazing things like the Avro Arrow, Satellites, Doctors, Actors, Comedians etc. we often lack the resources or vision to sustain such things. In 1959 Canada was a young democracy with 18 million people with an average income of $11,000 (2003 dollars). The American F-16’s current cost is 25 million per plane. Can you imagine 18 million people building 30 planes at 12million ($1958) a piece in 1958? To build this plane and sustain its existence our G.D.P and population would have had to be triple what it was at the time. I doubt Canadians would have wanted to increase our Military budget in today’s climate let alone the 1950s. We had just finished fighting World War II and our citizens were on our way to a great baby boom. Canadians were eager to adopt social programs and not military apparatus and this is evident as we are still spending $40 billion a year in interest payments and incurred a massive increase in national debt from the Pearson era on. You can’t build super planes and have lavish social programs on the backs of 18million people earning $11,000 a year. You choose one or the other. During the 1950’s John Diefenbaker realized that a nation could have as many planes as they’d like but if one nation chose to launch a nuclear missile the planes were useless as a defence. He chose instead to allow Americans to place Beaumark missiles to defend Canada against such a nuclear attack. This resulted in Arrow technology being destroyed to prevent it from falling into enemy hands our engineers heading south, Canada saving a fortune in building planes and building our peaceable image by not building a fighter jet. We can be proud that many of the people and things American’s consider great have a little maple leaf attached to them. Instead of lamenting the fact that so much of our greatness heads south, we must examine why, not revise history.