My Story on the Occassion of my 86th birthday

               To recognize my birthday I am posting this interpretation of events that occurred from the time of my birth during the Great Depression of the 1930’s, through the wars of 1939 to 1954, the Cold War from 1950’s to 1990’s, the religious wars from 2001 to 2018 and events in between. War provides the time frame, but economic and social changes in the decades of my life are the important things. The focus is my community and primarily Ontario under different headings.

Government

               My first memories of our national government were of William Lyon McKenzie King, Prime Minister during my first fifteen years of life. My family was Conservative and didn’t like WLMK, the mystic. Canadians were extremely patriotic during the war and we hated the Germans, Italians and Japanese at that time. My family lived fairly well during the war even with rationing. Dad served as a reserve officer.

               After the war Louis St. Laurent became PM and with Mr. C.D Howe built pipelines from Alberta and set the stage for economic growth through the 50’s. Branch plant companies did well in Canada. The Korean war did not get much attention among the people who were sick of war and busy making babies and building homes.

               John Diefenbaker became PM in the mid 50’s when Canadian industry and technology was blossoming. Immigration from war torn European countries was welcomed and new people brought prosperity and diversity. The St. Lawrence Seaway was built in cooperation with the US. Diefenbaker killed the Avro Arrow under pressure from Washington and NASA absorbed many of the newly unemployed engineers. There was opportunity for entrepreneurs to supply manufactured products to Canadians and create new industries including cable TV systems under the umbrella of protective trade policies. The Auto Pact with the US allowed for increased auto related manufacturing in Canada. Mike Pearson, as PM, introduced our new flag and Expo 67, they were good times.

               PE Trudeau became PM in a period of unrest in Quebec and elsewhere. Inflation became a serious concern and labour strikes common. The cities of Toronto and Montreal expanded with new construction in the downtown areas. Montreal was the financial and commercial hub of Canada.

               Trudeau introduced the Charter of Rights which became our virtual constitution. Quebec rejected the Charter, electing instead a separatist government to oppose the national government. Unrest increased significantly, and Quebec lost its financial and commercial position to Ontario. Quebec slumped, Ontario boomed.

               The balance of Trudeau’s long reign was one of growth from Ontario west until his National Energy Policy destroyed Alberta. There was limited economic growth in the late 70’s and 80’s due to inflation and high taxes used to support Quebec and the Atlantic Provinces. Joe Clarke was a tragic PM who didn’t understand the political process and lasted only a few months. Trudeau came back but as a spent force and was replaced by Brian Mulroney, a Conservative Quebecer who tried to get Quebec to accept the Charter without success.

               The Auto Pact was under attack within the US and other countries and Mulroney negotiated NAFTA with the US and Mexico. It came into full effect in 1994 leading to the demise of non-auto related manufacturing in Canada when branch plants moved production to low wage Mexico and the Southern US States.

               Many things happened in the early 2000’s; Al Qaeda, 9/11, the Afghan War, rise of Islamism, ISIS, confusion in the Canadian government, the World Wide Internet Web, home computers, cell phones, global warming and the Great Recession of 2008-9.  A Conservative Government under Stephen Harper stifled Canada except for the oil patch of Alberta. Canada did not suffer the economic crash as deeply as the US but has not grown much since. Disruption is the state of the world as I approach 86 years. Old friends have become enemies and old enemies are friends, alignments are unpredictable, and the US President controls his government ruling like an Emperor during the decline of the Roman Empire. Has America had its day?

Religion

               During the 30’s and 40’s church was an important part of life. Sunday meant morning service and afternoon Sunday School. There were two religious groups, Protestants and Catholics. Protestants were divided into several faith practices. Schools were either Public or Catholic and students largely stuck to their own group with little mixing. There were many Jewish families in my town and some Chinese, they associated with the Protestant group, as far as I knew.

               The grip of religion slowly relaxed during the 50’s and thereon. We drifted away from the church except for weddings and other ceremonies even though many men associated with traditional Masonic or Knights of Columbus organizations depending on their religious background. I was married in an Anglican service and my children were baptized Anglican, but we seldom attended service.

               Life was good in my home town as I established my credentials with the help of my wife and coaching at a Catholic Convent. The old divide had broken down except for schooling.

               Quebec was like a foreign land to someone like me and in the spirit of adventure I took a job in Sorel, a medium sized city in Quebec where only a few Anglais, as we were called, lived. The Catholic church ruled Quebec at the time and people obeyed the local priest. We were not impacted by it except the system was breaking down and revolution was in the air. Bombs exploded in Montreal killing some people, Expo 67 put a cap on that during the fair but after the fair all hell broke lose with riots, kidnappings, murder and fear. Even Hallowe’en, an important fun event for the children throughout Quebec was cancelled in 1968 and the army patrolled the streets of Montreal. Many Quebecers were rounded up and interned on the orders of Prime Minister Trudeau.

               The Catholic Church in Quebec quickly lost its traditional control of the people as the mantra of revolution and separation from Canada swept the young people. The revolution calmed down with the election of Rene Levesque in 1976 and the expulsion of Les Anglais. Quebec began a long slide becoming a second-class socialist province supported by federal government transfer payments (bribes), money taken from Alberta and other prosperous provinces which it still accepts to pay for socialist benefits not available in other provinces.

               Canada is still largely Christian but since 9/11 an increasing number of Muslims have migrated here. In my youth we called them Mohammedans, we didn’t know the word Islam or Muslim. Now there are mosques in every part of the GTA and elsewhere and women may appear dressed like the Catholic Sisters of yesterday.

               New people from India have built Hindu temples but many other recent immigrants are Christian or follow traditions from their home lands. It may become a struggle to remain a “Western Liberal Democracy” if Islam grows stronger as it appears to be doing.

Society

               Europeans arrived in Quebec in 1608 and began the long process of displacing the inhabitants from their lands. The native people assisted the Europeans as they created settlements and learned to live through the long winters. Natives were primarily hunter gathers and had not built permanent settlements as had their cousins in Mexico and South America. Some tribes farmed and introduced maize (corn) and other local produce to the settlers.

               When I was young we knew stories about the fur traders and played cowboys and Indians as we saw it in movies. We didn’t learn how our forbearers had treated the indigenous peoples with broken treaties, residential schools and the Indian Act.

               My community was white, European and unilingual English. There was a lovely Chinese Restaurant and a few Chinese laundries in town. We didn’t know the Chinese had built the railroad with their bare hands. We didn’t experience class distinctions, people were skilled or unskilled workers, merchants, professionals and most women worked at home. The war changed things as the men went to fight and women worked in the manufacturing plants or replaced men in other occupations. Overall my hometown was and has remained a peaceful place still largely as before but without the manufacturing base.

               As time went by and manufacturing declined Toronto became more exciting although Buffalo offered greater attractions. Increased immigration and the decline of Montreal changed Toronto and it stopped being a “tight assed go to church on Sunday” place and slowly struggled to become a world class city. One day it might even achieve that goal although remnants of the old conservative thinking still inhibit the city. The suburbs, now called the 905, are more dynamic and forward thinking possibly because they are visibly multi-ethnic, but a bi-polar structure has developed with East Asians in the western and Chinese in the eastern parts of the GTA. This situation can not bode well for the long term. Traditionally, first generation immigrants cluster in communities but then gradually disperse as subsequent generations move further afield.

               Travelling East from Toronto toward my home town or west past Hamilton not far from the 401 corridor communities have changed little from the old days. Indian reservations dot the countryside where people live in a variety of conditions, sell illegal cigarettes and long for the days before the white man. Indigenous people with initiative do well within the Canadian mosaic but many prefer to remain on the dole.

               Reservations in remote areas of the country are poorly served lacking most of the perquisites of twenty first century life. The country needs them to stay where they are otherwise most of Canada would be uninhabited, but we have not worked out how to bring them into the larger community while living where they are.

Economics

               The fur trade was the first significant industry in Canada although the fishery attracted boats from Europe to catch cod. The Montreal based Courier du Bois explored North America followed by the Hudson Bay Company. Later, by extracting lumber for the British Navy land was cleared and one could argue destroyed the habitat and the life of Indigenous people. Canadians became known as “drawers of water and hewers of wood” and the extraction of resources has been an economic foundation of the country every since. Exports of western wheat replaced the fur trade and mining supported growing communities throughout the country.

               Trade with England and the US was contentious and trade barriers were created by protectionist federal governments in the early 1900’s. This resulted in a need to be self sufficient and industry flourished supported by the branch plants of foreign companies. Canadians became adept using the knowledge and technologies developed in America and England to become advanced in automobile production, metal refining, pulp and paper, metal working and trained engineers skilled in electrical, mechanical, civil, mining, medical and other areas where they made significant contribution to the whole world. Aircraft, ship building and heavy manufacturing boomed during the war. Aircraft design made important progress until it was shut down and reduced to a minor role for decades after the Arrow was scrapped. That Bombardier, a Quebec based company, should make technological advances in passenger aircraft design was not acceptable to the Americans and the technology was transferred to Airbus Industries at significant economic cost to Canada.  

               Many Canadian industries closed with the NAFTA agreement and important engineering skills were lost as heavy manufacturing moved to other countries. Canadians reverted to being drawers of water and resource extraction, however, under NAFTA automobile and parts manufacture expanded at the pleasure of the government in Washington. The current US government appears displeased with even these accomplishments and is intent on destroying them in Canada.

               Canada may be forced to revert to the old model of self sufficiency when industry and technology bloomed and a reasonable, if distant, relationship existed with our southern neighbour. The past cannot be recreated but the lessons learned must be remembered as new industries are created in Canada.

Summary

               I’m writing from the perspective of a fourth or fifth generation Ontario person who has lived here for all but 16 years in Quebec province. My early life was typical of other kids in Ontario and probably many other towns; carefree, safe, good families, few inhibitions, bicycle riding, unregulated activities including swimming, skiing, skating things that modern kids are often denied, substituted now with organized activities and computer gaming. During the 30’s and 40’s children expected to experience mumps, chicken pox, scarlet fever, even polio but most of us managed to survive.

               Peterborough was an industrial city home to many American branch plants including a large one called Canadian General Electric where I and many of my colleagues served apprenticeships after high school. Skilled people were needed in the 1950’s before the influx of immigrants from Europe arrived with skills they had learned in their home industries. I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time with enough support to become a licensed Professional Engineer as did some of my colleagues. This distinguished us at a professional level and opened doors to new challenges which I accepted moving into several different interesting jobs. It took a disruptive toll on my wife and young family as we moved many times until settling in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, a lovely part of Canada, with an industrial base, mainly branch plants of American textile companies.

               During my career I travelled to Europe, Japan, China, Israel, Syria, Australia and the Caribbean area. I did vey well in my own mind spending many years with a Canadian manufacturer of electrical apparatus. It was associated with an American company but was not a branch plant and it expanded to have plants in most Canadian provinces and subsidiaries in the UK and Jamaica. We were a leading-edge company doing original R and D and contributing to organizations like ISO, CSA. The American affiliate had invested money in the Canadian company for technology exchange and that investment was subsumed by other US companies who eventually decided to sell it. Without going into detail, a new Canadian investor made a mess of the company and sold it to a French company who had no interest in manufacturing in Canada so when NAFTA took hold in 1994 major assets were sold, factories closed or amalgamated into a US competitor they also owned. The Canadian company ceased to exist except as a trade mark for Mexican made products. Such is the world of international trade and a serious lesson to future entrepreneurs if they chose to learn about it. The eagle has claws and the world doesn’t really care about Canada no matter how friendly it might appear.

               Returning to Canada, we now are more than 36 million people up from 10.5 million when I was born spread out over a huge territory with valuable resources and fresh water. Water is the basis of life and our southern neighbour is a prolific user of water. When they want it, there is a strong possibility they will take it. In addition, with climate change and rising sea levels Canada will be a beneficiary of longer growing seasons and plenty of land. Already irregular migration from hot countries is flooding into Europe and the southern US States and now into Canada through the US. It is one thing to be hospitable but as our indigenous people learned the migrants quickly want it all and to hell with the host population.

               I’ll end this diatribe saying that it has been a great ride, I’ve been blessed to have lived through the best decades for people like me and I hope future generations will do even better for themselves and their children. Oh Canada, will we stand on guard for thee?

 John Outram

July, 2018