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With the building pressures of the cold
war, North American defence became a keystone in
Canada's foreign policy. The main danger to the country
in the early 1950's was nuclear attack by the Soviet
Union. The USSR had exploded it's first atomic device in
1949 and began producing bombs shortly thereafter. Their
main bomb delivery system was their bomber fleet and by
1951 it looked as though they would have the capability
to strike most major Canadian cities with nuclear
equipped bombers.
The main Canadian
defence against these bomber attacks was the CF-100
fighter which was known as the Canuck. It's speed was
sub mach and was therefore incapable f carrying out the
mission of intercepting the Soviet bombers. A new
jet fighter needed to be developed and deployed.
The Avro Arrow was the answer to this air
defence gap and in 1954 the CF-105, as it was
designated, went into full scale design and testing
mode. This was to be an al Canadian fighter and would do
much to support and assist the aerospace industry in
Canada to become one of the best in the world.
By October of 1957 the
first prototype rolled out of the hanger. Te first
flight took place in March of 1958 but technology and
politics were already working together to terminate the
Arrow program.
With the election of
the Conservative Diefenbaker government in 1957, a
policy review was implemented. Diefenbaker had
campaigned on reining in "welfare spending" on the
industrial sector in eastern Canada as a way to cut
spending. The Arrow was a prime target because of it's
cost and because technology was changing with the
expansion of missiles to space. Sputnik had proven that
intercontinental ballistic missile were possible and
talk of a missile gap between the east and west began to
dominate strategic thinking.
The American answer to
Soviet ICBM's was the Bow marc missile which could
intercept incoming attacks. They offered to include
Canada in the defence and the Diefenbaker government
decided that the cheapest and most effect way to counter
Soviet attacks would be with the Bow marc. On February
29th, 1959 the Arrow program was cancelled and
production halted immediately.
The cancellation of the program led to
the laying off of over 29,000 workers who were related
to the project and an exodus of highly talented
aerospace workers to the United States. The cancellation
of the Arrow came to symbolize the style and manner of
the Diefenbaker government and became a campaign issue
which was used against the Conservative during the next
few elections.
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