Did Diefenbaker make the right decision when he cancelled the Avro Arrow?
John Diefenbaker’s decision to cancel the Avro Arrow project was not right because it cost thousands of people their jobs, there was a replacement which was the Bomarc Missile and that was not effective at all and Canada was devastated by Diefenbaker’s decision as Canada could have been ahead of everyone in the aerospace industry. To begin with, the Canadians that had a job with Avro, got their jobs stripped as Diefenbaker decided to cancel the Avro Arrow. There were more than 15,000 people who got laid off because of this decision and 46,000 Canadians had indirect jobs towards this project (Freeman-Shaw, 128). The production process of this fighter jet had helped the…show more content… Furthermore, the decision also caused a replacement for Avro Arrow. The replacement was the Bomarc Missile which was ineffectual (Freeman-Shaw, 131). The Bomarc Missile could have been worthy for Canada if Diefenbaker had allowed to arm the missile with nuclear warheads. Canada had wasted their money on this missile because it would not have saved them from the Soviet Union attacks as it was not protective. Instead, Canada could have combined all of that money and spent it on the production of Avro Arrow. Last but not least, the decision by Diefenbaker would not have left Canada devastated if he had still resumed the Avro Arrow project because Canada could have been first in the aerospace industry. This fighter jet was hypersonic which means travelling 3 times the speed of sound and the sound frequency would have been above a thousand million hertz and it was special. The Avro Arrow jet could make sharp turns at an altitude of 15,000 feet (“Remembering the death of Avro Arrow”). The Avro Arrow fighter jet was the top of the line jet at that specific time so around the world, there was not anything like this with such speed and handling. If Diefenbaker had
