Why Did Prime Minister Diefenbaker Strengthens The Avro Arrow Project

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Section 2: Investigation
On February 20th, 1959, the event that caused this day to be known in Canada as “Black Friday” took place: the cancellation of the Avro Arrow project. This incident stung the pride of Canadians and was a major turning point in Canadian history. But the question that remains today is: Why did Prime Minister Diefenbaker scrap the Arrow project? John Diefenbaker: An Appointment with Destiny by Arthur Slade, CF105 Avro C- 105 Arrow: Cabinet Decisions, and The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow programme : decisions and determinants by Russell Steven Paul Isinger, are three different sources that show how Prime Minister Diefenbaker and his government approached the decision to cancel the Avro Arrow. The book, Fall of An Arrow by …show more content…

PM Diefenbaker had come into a time where the national budget was unsteady and messed up by the previous government. This project was predicted to add a few hundred million dollars per year, just for the defence budget alone. Canada did not have the money to continue running the projects. Major- General George Pearkes, MND of Prime Minister John George Diefenbaker stated that one of the reasons for the cancellation was majorly influenced by “the heavy financial burden of the project.” From a national perspective, the government also came to believe that the price was too much for adequate national defence. The Avro Arrows were classified under the class of defence, but some believed that, despite the mass amount of money used for the project, its functions as a defence aircraft may not be used to its full potential. At the time, American interceptors could be purchased at half the price of the Canadian Arrows. These planes would become replacements of cancelled Avro Arrows, which would cause a whole other problem for Canada. Therefore, the massive and rising cost to support the growing Avro Arrows could not be provided by the Canadian …show more content…

The U.S. and the U.K., were the only countries that showed a slight interest in the CF-105 at all, but neither wished to take part in its development or buythe interceptors. So, that meant that no other countries, other than the United States and Britain, wanted to purchase the Avro Arrow or just support the continuation of the project. This was mainly due to the arrival of the space era, which Prime Minister Diefenbaker realized because the Soviets had already launched the first intercontinental missile. In this era, the interceptor Arrows, created to oppose Russian bombers, just could not compete. In a handwritten note by Diefenbaker himself, he says,“technological change has come too fast...who in 1952 or 3 could have predicted ICBMs – Sputniks – Moon Satellites?” The major shift in resources that followed the move into the space era caused a decrease in value of the Arrows, making them more expensive than ever. One reason the Arrow project was scrapped was because foreign countries lost interest in the project because of a shift in resources caused by the arrival of the space

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