The Fifties - Episodes Two and Three
Episode two - Spies
Episode three - The Bomb
Episode two, Spies, is an eye opener for me, and would be, I suspect, for many Cold War era Canuckistani brats who grew up in the fifties, and as for The Bomb, well, the nuclear arms race defined a whole generation, didn't it.
I was blissfully unaware of the Soviet Union in the fifties, and the whole spy versus spy thing as lampooned in Mad Magazine a decade later, but I do remember the Soviet supremacy in space, sputnik, etc. that ushered in the race to the moon which culminated in the following decade. Do you remember Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space? Or, Laika, the first dog in space? Or monkeys in space? (That was long before "pigs in space".) Or this cool music? I do.
And who knew there was a peace movement in Canada in the 1950s infiltrated by alleged commies? Seems some of these things have been with us for a very long time.
And Margaret Trudeau's father was a Canadian spy sent on a mission to the Soviet Union?!?! Wow!!
As for the bomb, there were no drills involving hiding under the desk in my school. I guess being out in the sticks in the middle of nowhere, must have had an ameliorating affect. Plus, we didn't have television or even electricity. Made a big difference apparently. Kinda shows the capacity of television to influence public sentiment. But there's more on that in a later episode. And mass evacuation drills in major Canadian cities? Survival plans?? I did not know!!
I did know about the Diefenbunker, though, but I'm sure that was much later that I became aware of its existence. I've always wondered why saving the lives of politicians would be so beneficial if much of the rest of the population was wiped out?
And ironically, at the end of the fifties, shortly after Sputnik, Canada reduced its defense budget to 1/3 of what it had been prior to Sputnik. That's something else I did not know. I had always blamed the Liberals for the decline of our spending on the military, but apparently it began under Diefenbaker. How could we compete with the big guys? Was Sputnik the origin of our longstanding sore spot with the US over our ponying up (or not ponying up) on missile defense of North America? The irony is rich, ain't it. That's one for the Soviets.
Episode three - The Bomb
Episode two, Spies, is an eye opener for me, and would be, I suspect, for many Cold War era Canuckistani brats who grew up in the fifties, and as for The Bomb, well, the nuclear arms race defined a whole generation, didn't it.
I was blissfully unaware of the Soviet Union in the fifties, and the whole spy versus spy thing as lampooned in Mad Magazine a decade later, but I do remember the Soviet supremacy in space, sputnik, etc. that ushered in the race to the moon which culminated in the following decade. Do you remember Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space? Or, Laika, the first dog in space? Or monkeys in space? (That was long before "pigs in space".) Or this cool music? I do.
And who knew there was a peace movement in Canada in the 1950s infiltrated by alleged commies? Seems some of these things have been with us for a very long time.
And Margaret Trudeau's father was a Canadian spy sent on a mission to the Soviet Union?!?! Wow!!
As for the bomb, there were no drills involving hiding under the desk in my school. I guess being out in the sticks in the middle of nowhere, must have had an ameliorating affect. Plus, we didn't have television or even electricity. Made a big difference apparently. Kinda shows the capacity of television to influence public sentiment. But there's more on that in a later episode. And mass evacuation drills in major Canadian cities? Survival plans?? I did not know!!
I did know about the Diefenbunker, though, but I'm sure that was much later that I became aware of its existence. I've always wondered why saving the lives of politicians would be so beneficial if much of the rest of the population was wiped out?
And ironically, at the end of the fifties, shortly after Sputnik, Canada reduced its defense budget to 1/3 of what it had been prior to Sputnik. That's something else I did not know. I had always blamed the Liberals for the decline of our spending on the military, but apparently it began under Diefenbaker. How could we compete with the big guys? Was Sputnik the origin of our longstanding sore spot with the US over our ponying up (or not ponying up) on missile defense of North America? The irony is rich, ain't it. That's one for the Soviets.
posted by Louise at 6:57 pm
6 Comments:
Crapolla!! Jeeze, Dave, somehow I deleted your comment instead of posting it. Didn't mean to, but, thankfully, it was still in my inbox, so....here it is via copy and paste. (It was an honest mistake. really, it was. Really!)
Now it's telling me there are two many characters. I'll have to divide it. Hope you took your blood pressure pills before you set about typing this. It's a bit of a burner and a long one, too.
Anyway, stay tuned.
From Dave in Pa.
"I did know about the Diefenbunker, though, but I'm sure that was much later that I became aware of its existence. I've always wondered why saving the lives of politicians would be so beneficial if much of the rest of the population was wiped out?"
For the remaining millions of Canadians who would have survived World War 3, these shelters for enough politicians, who were elected by the Canadian people, plus a framework of govt civil servants, would ensure the continuity of the Canadian nation by having some sort of basic framework of national government surviving and operating.
The US, UK, and all the other Anglophone nations had similar setups...as did our Soviet enemies.
If you want some more scary, fascinating reading, read about the SIOP, the Single Integrated Operational Plan. That was the US-UK (and to a lesser extent NATO) integrated plan to fight World War 3. Here's a quickie introduction at Wiki.
"And ironically, at the end of the fifties, shortly after Sputnik, Canada reduced its defense budget to 1/3 of what it had been prior to Sputnik."
That's when the realization sunk into Canadian politicians that the US, for it's own strategic defense, was forced to defend ALL of North America, whatever the cost. So, that's when the successive Canadian governments began exporting more and more of the Canadian defense expense to the US. Thanks...NOT!
We've had discussions of this topic at the Canadian mil blog The Torch (before they summarily cut off all us furriners from the blog...now by invitation only) Canada has, per capita, a much lower number of uniformed personnel in the Armed Forces and much lower defense expenditure as a percentage of GDP than any of the Anglo nations OR any of the European NATO members.
Compare and contrast Canada with Australia. Australia and Canada are about the same sized countries and both are very wealthy developed Anglo democracies. Australia, with a population of about 22 million, has Armed Forces totaling about 57,000. Canada, with a population of about 34 million-50 PERCENT MORE, has about 67,000, or only 20% more.
Comparing Canada with all it's NATO allies and with Australia, the figures show that Canada should have 100,000-120,000 uniformed personnel -and with a much greater number of modern aircraft, ships, etc.- just to be contributing to Western military defense and capability on a par with her allies.
Australia does so, and isn't even in N. America or Europe. Whereas, Canada, at the heart of the Atlantic community, does not.
IMO, the difference is that Australia lives in a dangerous neighborhood. In WW2, Australia was in 1942 only 1 or 2 more major Allied naval defeats away from a Japanese invasion. With that history and other historical and current factors, (being next door to the world's most populous Muslim nation, Indonesia, for one factor) Australia is therefore forced to deal with the reality of the world. The Australians cannot afford the foppish luxury of leftist disdain for all things military and national defense, in which Canada's elites indulge themselves.
Canada has so many of those "progressive" types in politics, the civil service and the MSM who despise things and people military. To them, every cent spent on Canadian defense is one less cent available for the CBC, or paying for unlimited abortions-on-demand, or -a biggie here- shakedown payments from the ROC to Quebec, or stadiums in Quebec...or, well, you get my point here.
I emphasize my great regard for the men and women of the CF, and for Canada's great history of Western defense in two World Wars. However, since the 60's, Canada's so-called elites haved served the Canadian people badly, especially, particularly in their preventing Canada from fulfilling it's duty and it's vital national interest in having an adequate Armed Forces.
/end_rant! :-)
"The Australians cannot afford the foppish luxury of leftist disdain for all things military and national defense, in which Canada's elites indulge themselves.
Canada has so many of those "progressive" types in politics, the civil service and the MSM who despise things and people military. To them, every cent spent on Canadian defense is one less cent available for the CBC, or paying for unlimited abortions-on-demand, or -a biggie here- shakedown payments from the ROC to Quebec, or stadiums in Quebec...or, well, you get my point here."
This makes me laugh. It's such a perfect description. Canada doesn't work. It never has. But I love it anyway.
Actually, I'd be on the bandwagon tomorrow, if someone started up a western separatist movement again, but I'm to complacent to talk it up myself.
That's something I've noticed about the Canadian character. We just don't get too exercised about anything. It would be nice to have a tea party movement here, but we're too darned used to keeping quiet and laying low and going along to get along.
Also, what would we call it? We didn't have a tea dumping rebellion in Halifax harbour.
Maybe some day that will change.
Anyway, I'm waiting for the election writ to drop some time soon. Pundits are obsessing about it and the MSM is trying to turn everything into a scandal designed to damage the Conservatives.
I believe you, Louise. In the world of computers, s**t happens! :-)
I appreciate your taking the time and trouble to post my comment.
Regarding whether Canada works or doesn't, I'd suggest at least trying first a less drastic solution than secession.
Canada needs a new Constitution. As things now stand, Quebec and Ontario effectively control the Canadian federal govt, via their combined majority of Parliamentary HofC seats. The Senate is essentially toothless.
I suggest that Canada adopt a new Consitution using the Australian Constitution (from 1900) as a model. It sets up the Australian Parliament as a two house entity. The lower house seats are set up by population distribution. The Australian Senate is set up with a fixed number of seats per Aussie state. The powers are divided between the two houses. No populous state or multiple of populous states controls the Parliament.
With such a constitution, the Western provinces would no longer be the "ugly step-children", but have their fair share of real power in federal governance. Which they currently do not. The
Ontario-Quebec hegemony would be ended. This would also make it possible to end the political distortions caused by the era of Trudeaupia. Canada could be both modern and return to it's historical roots and be Canada once again.
You'll note the similarity between the Aussie Constitution and that of the US. From the historical record, the Australian Founding Fathers wisely studied British history and Parliamentary instutions, also that of the US, and wrote an constitution combining the best features of each.
I didn't bother suggesting that Canada also study the US Constitution. All of The Usual Suspects would be in an uproar about that. An "American-like" Constitution?! Gaia forbid!!! :-)
I remember when the terms of our constitution were being negotiated. It was painful. I think seceding would be preferable.
Can you imagine the dog fight that would erupt if a province like Prince Edward Island (Population:~140,000) had the same clout as British Columbia (Pop:~3,200,000) or Ontario (Pop:~12,200,000. My God, it was bad enough in the first round. As you may know, Quebec never did sign on.
Seriously, though, I think Western Canada has enough clout now that a threat to separate might just be enough to scare the pants of Central and Eastern Canada, and even if it didn't, we can certainly survive on our own with all the oil we're floating on.
Gaia's children won't like that, but then again, that's one of the things that distinguishes Western Canada from the rest of the country.
For some reason, I think that Canada is moving toward the political right again after more than a half century of drifting in the other direction. If I'm right, I think Saskatchewan and Alberta are going to have much more clout at the table. Just think, we could dismantle institutions like the CBC!!! But, I probably won't live long enough to see that glorious day.
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