Before the birth of Trans Canada Airlines (TCA) in 1937, Canada was one
of the very few countries of the world that had no organized air service
connecting its principal cities. In 1936, many of the one million people
who travelled on scheduled flights in the United States were Canadian
citizens who needed to travel south of the border to reach destinations
in Canada. C.D. Howe, Minister of Transport in Prime Minister Mackenzie
King's cabinet, was the chief architect of the government-owned TCA.
From the beginning, the company was ennobled as more than a means of
commercial transport: it was hoped that the TCA, like the Canadian
Pacific Railway before it, would overcome vast geographical barriers,
thwart the Americans, reassure the British and unite the country. Other
air companies provided transportation; this one was to be a symbol of
national identity - a maple leaf with wings.
National Treasure details the ins and outs, the backroom politics and
the ground-breaking decisions that led to the creation of Trans Canada
Airlines, through its early years, to its metamorphosis into Air Canada
in the 1950s. The book is an entertaining, well-written account that
covers everything from the teething problems of the airline in its
infancy (such as how to choose the right passenger plane for
trans-Canada travel), to the company's role during World War II, to
TCA's rapid post-war expansion and the notorious infighting between TCA
and its rival, Canadian Pacific Airlines.
Here are the planes: the Lockheed 14, which suffered from embarrassing
engine failures, the Electra, which featured radio antennas that were
prone to lightning strikes, and the Lancaster, which held the
Trans-Atlantic non-stop speed record from Montreal to the United Kingdom
(11 hours and 14 minutes); the employees: Zebulon Lewis Leigh (Lewie), a
barnstormer who became TCA's first pilot, and Lucille Garner and Pat
Eccleston, registered nurses who became TCA's first female employees and
Canada's first stewardesses; and the flights: first the
Vancouver-Seattle route, then onward across Canada, then over the
Atlantic Ocean to international ports of call.
Packed with photos, and enlivened by interviews with past pilots, flight
attendants and other employees, quotes from TCA staff newsletters,
excerpts from the company's annual reports and letters from passengers
all over Canada, National Treasure is an absorbing and well-researched
look at commercial aviation in Canada.
