It Seems Like Only Yesterday: Air Canada - The First 50 Years

George Jackson is a retired professional agrologist.

“Trans-Canada Airlines was established to carry the mail. Passengers it was hoped would be forthcoming, but there was some question about that.” These are the first two sentences of Philip Smith’s book. This was air travel as it was in 1937.

Author Philip Smith, a respected popular historian, has made business and corporate history his specialty. His books include Brinco: The Story of Churchill Falls; The Treasure Seekers: The Men Who Built Home Oil, and a recent release, Harvest From the Rock: A History of Mining in Ontario.

It Seems Like Only Yesterday is a chronological history of the development of an airline. It is a detailed and introspective look into the politics, the management, the technology and the people responsible for the development of Trans-Canada Airlines — Air Canada as we know it today. The author’s detailed research provides a rare view of the decisions that affected not only the future of Air Canada, but also the future of Canadian Pacific Airlines and the airline servicing centres of Montreal and Winnipeg, as the Canadian airline industry grew.

This book covers a wide range of issues, many supported by extensive quotes from letters, minutes, and diaries. They provide an insight and perspective that makes for interesting reading. This is a valuable source book as well as an informative and pleasurable reading experience.

It doesn’t seem so long ago when this reviewer and the other members of his family used to take a Sunday drive to Malton, climb the stairs to the top of the Terminal, and wait for up to half an hour for an airliner to land or take off. In fact, it seems like only yesterday.