It was Thomas Shaughnessy who got Canadian Pacific into the airline business. At least it was he who, in 1919, had Parliament change the company's corporate charter to enable it to own and operate a wide range of air services.
I'm short of time, so I won't be using Empire honourifics in this post. I always check to see if they had been awarded at the particular point in history I write about. I should make a chart for myself, because it's always the same people!
A previous post looked at the formation of Trans-Canada Air Lines - whose stock was originally held by Canadian National Railways. There was more to that story ...
Kingstonian James A Richardson of Hanley Spur and Smoke on the Waterfront fame, transplanted his operations centre to Winnipeg. Among other holdings, he owned Western Canada Airways (established 1926). In 1930, he initiated feelers between Presidents Henry Thornton (CNR) and Edward Beatty (CPR) regarding possible railway company involvement in developing the airline business. Eventually the three made a deal to create a new company named Canadian Airways. After Richardson's heart attack in 1939, his widow held the controlling interest in this company. Beatty bought her interest in December 1941.
However, back in the 1930s, Prime Minister RB Bennett was cutting the necessarily lucrative air mail routes (essential for many routes to survive) to save money ... so grand coast-to-coast schemes were shelved until after a change of government.
Meanwhile, as this booklet shows, Canadian Pacific had been quietly collecting Canadian 'wilderness' air carriers. In the future it would be prevented from competing against TCA on any trans-Canadian or international routes. Nonetheless, people were eventually concerned that Canadian Pacific Air Lines (CPAL) had secured a monopoly on north-south air traffic in Canada.
Regarding CPR's potential involvement with TCA ... to make a tortured, protracted saga short ... as the exploratory talks later progressed with Minister of Transport CD Howe, Beatty always got the feeling that the TCA legislation would be a rigged game against the CPR's best interests - with the government having more control than it deserved for the money it expected CPR to invest.
In the end, World War 2 shook the chessboard and everything changed. Commercial aircraft were requisitioned, pilots and support crew went into the military or its aeronautical activities, and new programs were quickly developed to support the war effort.
Due to wartime censorship, one notable aspect of CPAL's involvement is not discussed or illustrated in the reprinted Canadian Geographic article below. CPAL set up the system of air-ferrying aircraft across the North Atlantic. This involved organizing crews of civilians, support and refueling services at airports in the middle of the North Atlantic, as much navigation support as possible - recognizing that celestial navigation would be necessary, and the receipt and delivery of the aircraft themselves.
... Aircraft generally went over in loose formations, with the crews returning together on one plane. One of my father's favourite movies was the Canadian-based 1942 US wartime movie Captains of the Clouds. It is entertainment/propaganda which shows the bushpilot to ferry pilot 'career path'. Here are a couple of screen grabs from the iTunes version. After we have developed the daring bushpilots' movie characters in the Canadian movie wilderness, they decide to just fly in and sign up!
Billy Bishop performs an inspection of airmen from all over the Commonwealth
(and the US) who have responded to the call.
The idea of flying new aircraft over the ocean released industrial resources and commodities in Britain for other uses, increased cargo space on North Atlantic convoys, saved entire shipments of precious completed aircraft from the risks of being sunk by U-boats while in a convoy of ships, and speeded up delivery of aircraft to Europe.
Apparently because of the preferences of President Roosevelt - the US was building most of the aircraft being ferried - this program was subsequently put under military control. CPAL ferried the first 300 planes across between November 1940 and July 1941. Then a British Transport Command system was set up.
You'll find none of this documented in the October 1943 account ...
However, it is mentioned in an advertisement on the last page! Axis spies may subscribe to the Canadian Geographic to discover Canada's secrets, but, by Jove, we'll keep this booklet out of their fascist fingers!!
