Rambling Rogue

[ShadowHM]

I was thinking about your reference to the two forces and the needle bureaucracy, and this song jumped into my head. (As a side note, isn't it amazing how things get squirreled away in compartments in your head and only pop out when the connection is made? This song comes from 1968, and a satire group called 'The Brothers-in-Law'

Oh we used to have an Army and we had a Navy too
And we had a little Air Force somewhere up there in the Blue
But now there's something that I've got to tell yer....
We've been integrated now by Mr. Hellyer!

The traditions are all dead.
Now there's just one force instead.

And it's 'Hip Hip Hooray
Three Cheers for the Nairmy
The Canadian Defence Force'

When I looked for any references to it, I couldn't find anything other than a passing mention of the group, so those lyrics are from (probably failing) memory. But you may get a chuckle out of the comments in this link about the changeover to unify the forces.

Comments and pictures about the uniforms in particular

[Ozymandous]

In 1960, the Royal Commission on Government Organization was formed under J. Grant Glassco to find ways to save money by streamlining the administration.

Heh, let me get this straight. They created another government agency to see how they could streamline other government agencies? LOL!

Also... Is it just me or did the governemnt seem to change and flip-flop during that time period like a fish out of water? From the article it seemed every 6 months to one year someone new was leading the show. I hope the terms are longer than that?

[ShadowHM]

Originally posted by Ozymandous@Apr 20 2004, 01:21 PM
From the article it seemed every 6 months to one year someone new was leading the show. I hope the terms are longer than that?

Canadian Federal elections must take place at least every 5 years, as that is the maximum term. However, they can be called sooner than that - the decision is made by the Prime Minister. Usually that turns out to be about every four years, although it can and often does happen when the ruling party changes leaders. There are exceptions to this rule, such as when a minority government loses a vote on an important issue.

So, during the period covered by that article we had:

Louis St. Laurent (Liberal) Prime Minister: November 1948 to August 1957

John Diefenbaker (Conservative) Prime Minister: August 1957 to April 1963

Lester Pearson (Liberal) Prime Minister: April 1963 to April 1968

Pierre Trudeau (Liberal) Prime Minister: April 1968 to June 1979

However, Prime Ministers can and do shuffle their cabinets in between elections, which would lead to having different Ministers of Defence during a party's term in office.