Arrows, Satellites and Ski-Doos: Science and Technology, 1945–1982

Inventions that changed everyday life

Think about your day: a screen, a phone, a car ride, maybe a hockey game. Many of the technologies behind these became part of ordinary Canadian life between 1945 and 1982. Some were invented in Canada. Others were invented elsewhere but changed Canada in special ways because of its huge size, cold climate and scattered population.

In this lesson you will learn about key developments and practise a skill historians use all the time: assessing significance for different groups. A technology that helped one group could hurt another.

Aerospace and the Avro Arrow

The Avro CF-105 Arrow was a supersonic jet interceptor designed and built by A. V. Roe Canada in Malton (now part of Mississauga), Ontario. It was built to stop Soviet bombers. The Arrow first flew in March 1958 and was one of the most advanced fighters of its time.

But it was very expensive, and by the late 1950s many experts believed the main threat would come from missiles, not bombers. On February 20, 1959, Prime Minister Diefenbaker cancelled the program. About 14 000 Avro employees lost their jobs, and the finished planes and plans were ordered destroyed. Many engineers moved to the U.S., and some went on to work on NASA's space program. This loss of talent is called a brain drain.

The Arrow is still argued about today. Some see it as a great Canadian achievement thrown away. Others say the cancellation was a reasonable decision given its cost and the change in military threats. You will return to the Arrow when you study Canada–U.S. relations.

Space and communication

• Alouette 1 (launched 1962) was a research satellite designed and built in Canada to study the upper atmosphere. It made Canada the third country, after the USSR and the U.S., to have a satellite of its own design in orbit.
• Anik A1 (launched 1972) was a communications satellite in a geostationary orbit. It let television and telephone signals reach communities across the North.
• The Canadarm, built by Spar Aerospace and Canadian partners, first flew on the U.S. space shuttle Columbia in November 1981. It became a symbol of Canadian technology.
• Television arrived in 1952 when CBC Television began broadcasting. Within about ten years, most Canadian homes had a TV set. TV brought Canadians together around shared programs, but it also brought a flood of American shows.

Medicine, energy and everyday life

• Pacemaker: in 1950, Toronto researchers Wilfred Bigelow, John Callaghan and engineer John Hopps built an early external pacemaker, a device that uses electrical pulses to keep the heart beating.
• Thalidomide: a drug sold to ease morning sickness in pregnancy. It caused serious birth differences in thousands of babies around the world. Canada approved it in 1961 and was slow to withdraw it, in 1962, months after some other countries. Canadian families and survivors pushed for answers, and the tragedy led to stricter drug testing rules.
• Nuclear energy: Canada developed the CANDU reactor, which uses natural uranium. Ontario's Pickering station began producing power in 1971.
• Contraception: the birth control pill became widely available in the 1960s, and selling and advertising contraceptives became legal in 1969. It gave women more control over family size and careers.
• Plastics and new materials changed packaging, toys and clothing; later, people began to worry about plastic waste.
• Snowmobiles: Joseph-Armand Bombardier's company in Quebec introduced the Ski-Doo in 1959. Snowmobiles changed winter travel, work and recreation in rural and northern Canada, including for many First Nations and Inuit hunters.
• Goalie masks: in 1959, Montreal Canadiens goalie Jacques Plante put on a mask after a puck cut his face, and kept wearing it. Within about fifteen years, masks became standard equipment.