Special Contact

Without discounting the problems, successes and failures of the field activity, it must be remembered that the whole purpose of the exercise, the raison d’etre for all the construction, was to house the detection and communications equipment which together formed this early warning line, and to accommodate the people required to man it. [...] Declaring that the Soviet Union wanted “to impose its absolute authority over the rest of the world,” defence analysts highlighted that the Soviets were approaching technological parity in bombers and atomic weapons, and the most direct route for those bombers x. Situating the Mid-Canada Line to the military and industrial heartland of North America was over the Arctic. [...] The RCAF had estimated another version at $85 million.46 In light of the differences, the air force established a special projects directorate to select sites, determine the best means of access, and identify construction needs by 1 June 1954.47 In the interim, the Associate Minister of National Defence directed the other services to assist the RCAF with this new undertaking.48 The project’s scale [...] Lester would later argue that the decision to create the SEG reflected the xix Noakes and Lackenbauer RCAF’s attempt to retain full responsibility for the basic design of the MCL, as well as the authority to monitor its construction.53 Bell’s representatives argued that the use of a SEG precluded the RCAF from accessing the full capabilities of the telecommunications industry. [...] The contentious issue of the nationality of contractors was also avoided – as a Canadian project on Canadian soil, the contractors and suppliers would naturally be Canadian.61 Thus, on 25 June 1954, the Cabinet Defence Committee recommended: that an aircraft warning line in the vicinity of the 55th parallel of latitude from Hopedale in Labrador to the mountains on the B. C.- Alberta border be cons