Yes , That will tell you a lot about a population of 32 million. :)
Your engineer acquaintance is likely referring to the Arrow program in the 50's which , for various reasons, developed the Iroquois jet engine which boosted the speed of the Arrow beyond any other engine available to the developers . In 1959 the Conservative Deifenbaker government canceled the program and the Arrows were destroyed along with all blueprints etc. NASA hired many of the unemployed designers and engineers.
And Ottawa bought into the most insane defense idea ever, The Bomarc from Boeing.
Look, I never said I was being fair!
In all honesty, his comment and theory did really get to me. I mean, how could the US stop Canada from developing any technology they want? Isn't Canada a sovereign country? Doesn't Canada have an military, with which to protect its national interests? If the Canadian government feels that developing some new technology, like jet propulsion, is important to the well being of its citizens, how can the United States stop it? Has the US been able to stop other countries from developing nuclear weapons? We've been trying hard to do so for many years, and have not succeeded. How were we able to pole-axe Canada's jet engine technology development and keep it bottled up for almost 50 years?
I'm sorry, but I've been thinking about his comment ever since he made it last summer.
How about this theory?
In the '50's, the US Government was pushing the development of gas turbines for supersonic military aircraft with incredible seriousness. We, and are British allies, were throwing money at anyone that had the knowledge to advance the art in pretty much any way.
Maybe the US was funding some or all of the Canadian program. (Before you get too upset about this hypothesis, just remember: aren't you having a huge national debate about coming up with the money to replace some of your main helicopters, which are so old they are literally falling out of the sky? I mean, Canada is not exactly rolling in dough for the development of military technology. Think "national health insurance.")
Maybe the US Government got a little ticked off when some of the fruits of Canadian research ended up in the wrong hands. (Before you get upset about this hypothesis, weren't there some rather important Soviet espionage cases that involved spies on the Canadian side of the border during the 1950's time frame?)
Maybe the combination of these things, and perhaps other things as well, simply caused the US Government to withdraw its financial assistance?
I admit this is nothing but guesswork, a theory. But the accusation that we deprived Canada of its place at the forefront of the jet age really disturbed me. You can perhaps tell how much time I've spent fretting about it.
There's a very perverse dynamic set up when a the national psyche of a country becomes fixated on the idea that some other country (or race, or ethno-religious group) is the cause of all their problems. Unfortunately it's very easy for politicians and opinion leaders to foment this sort of mythology, and it often suits their personal needs to do so.
But it's very bad for a culture, in the long run, to scapegoat all its shortcomings onto someone else. If Canadians need proof of this, all they have to do is read their own newspapers.
(steely)