The Computer Revolution in Canada

Abstract

The forces that shaped Canada's digital innovations in the postwar period. After World War II, other major industrialized nations responded to the technological and industrial hegemony of the United States by developing their own design and manufacturing competence in digital electronic technology. In this book John Vardalas describes the quest for such competence in Canada, exploring the significant contributions of the civilian sector but emphasizing the role of the Canadian military in shaping radical technological change. As he shows, Canada's determination to be an active participant in research and development work on advanced weapons systems, and in the testing of those weapons systems, was a cornerstone of Canadian technological development during the years 1945-1980. Vardalas presents case studies of such firms as Ferranti-Canada, Sperry Gyroscope of Canada, and Control Data of Canada. In contrast to the standard nationalist interpretation of Canadian subsidiaries of transnational corporations as passive agents, he shows them to have been remarkably innovative and explains how their aggressive programs to develop all-Canadian digital R&D and manufacturing capacities influenced technological development in the United States and in Great Britain. While underlining the unprecedented role of the military in the creation of peacetime scientific and technical skills, Vardalas also examines the role of government and university research programs, including Canada's first computerized systems for mail sorting and airline reservations. Overall, he presents a nuanced account of how national economic, political, and corporate forces influenced the content, extent, and direction of digital innovation in Canada.

Tools for Rational Development: The Canada Land Inventory and the Canada Geographic Information System in Mid-twentieth century Canada

“…86 The 360 series was IBM's first offering of computers that ran standard software across varied model sizes, and represented a powerful effort to dominate the computer market. 87 IBM's track-record of innovation was also evident in relation to the CGIS project. An early assessment of the technological feasibility of CGIS warned there was not "any existing instrument suitable for directly reading map data into computer storage."…”

“…25 By the early 1960s, Canada was, as John Vardalas has shown, among those nations scrambling to develop domestic civilian capacity for computer design and manufacturing. 26 Emphasizing the innovative character of Canada's mid-twentieth century computer industry, Vardalas positions his rendering as a counterpoint to those of economic nationalists, who have bolstered their critique of Canada's branch plant economy by underplaying domestic innovation. CGIS is an over-looked example that extends Vardalas' argument; moreover, it shows how the Canadian government sought to make legible Canada's landmass and natural resources through the development of new and innovative computerized data-management tools.…”

The Information Age and Naval Command & Control

“…The first CDS ship fit was HMS Victorious, commissioned in January 1958; its subsequent operational success in exercises against the USN in Exercise "Riptide" (June [15][16][17][18][19][20]1959) was claimed by Benjamin as evidence of its operational worth. He cites USN's opinion that, to counter the raid density, either Victorious had radarequipped fighters or many more aircraft than were actually carried; in fact, the ship only had Scimitar fighters with day/Visual Flight Rule (VFR) capabilities.…”

“…Each ship's computer was to have the speed and power to keep track of 128 targets simultaneously, process 1000 possible messages for each target, automatically compute the course and speed of any target, and produce specialized plots for tactical control and target designation." 17 The United States delegation was duly impressed but was surprised that the price tag was only $400k per ship (Dr. Priore had expected it to be closer to $1M) (Fig. 13).…”