Take this from Chris Taylor (a lovely Blog, Taylor Empire Airlines) all mindless Canadian nationalists–many of them on the left who otherwise opposed and still oppose most of our military endeavours:
Myths are public dreams, dreams are private myths
Do read it all. More from Publius:
…That good but not brilliant sense of ourselves breeds a strange envy (especially toward America) and uncertainly. Human beings need explanations, even bizarre ones. The “fall of the Arrow” became Exhibit A in trying to explain our not quite world class status.
Why the Diefenbaker government cancelled the Arrow project has been source of endless speculation for half a century. Explanations stretch from the conspiratorial – the jealous Americans forced the cancellation – to the contemptuous – our government was too stupid to realize the Arrow’s importance – the hum-drum reality has been conveniently ignored. It was a very good plane, just too expensive and impractical for the military needs of the time. The RCAF made a military decision that the project was unfeasible and asked the Cabinet to cancel the project, diverting funds to a more practical, albeit American, plane [see the photo here].
Looming over the discussions about the Arrow’s future, and referred to in some discussions of the fighter’s demise, was the widespread prediction that the manned fighter had been made obsolete by the unmanned missiles of the era. It was a grossly premature assessment, but not an absurd one for the time. The logical explanations, however, are not always the believed ones. It is far more comforting to imagine that the Arrow was a victim of that unfathomable force, whatever the preferred explanation, that has held back Canada, rather than to believe it died a bland and sensible bureaucratic death. For the generations of Canadians – including yours truly – that were raised on the Arrow Myth, to question that myth is to question a part of our Canadian childhoods. The questioners should expect no gratitude.
Predates, for Chris:
1) Imperial Airways :
2) Pan American:
More here. Plus a Newfoundland angle.
Mark
Ottawa
I have heard SO many Canadians use the Arrow to justify their anti-Americanism. Part of the myth was that Yankee aircraft companies had killed the Arrow in back room deals with the Diefenbaker government.
I can’t think of any other Nation that would make a mini-series about a failed aircraft project,but we did, “starring our own Dan Ackroyd”.
sorry to go off topic, but what’s up with this!!
‘…In recent months, political parties in Quebec have lived in trade union terror. I’m not speaking about intimidation from FTQ Construction,
but rather from *unionized journalists who threaten to boycott press conferences where there could be journalists from QMI Agency in attendance*.
This sort of activism is unacceptable from those whose job it is to objectively inform the people.
Read more: http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/08/11/eric-duhaime-national-assembly-journalists-shame-quebec/#ixzz0wKl4ycre