On August 12 in 1971, Wally Smith wrote in his column The Orchard Run, and I quote, In spite of strong opposition by the US Congress and protests from Canada and many other countries it looks very much as though American military men may have their way and the atomic blast on the Aleutian Island of Amchitka will go ahead as scheduled.
Perfection of atomic weapons is essential in order that man may make a thorough job of destroying himself and his world when the next war comes along.
In a modern nuclear war both sides will be losers, and the destruction and radio active pollution will be on such a vast scale that civilization as we know it will cease to exist.
The very thought of nuclear war’s horrible results should be enough to prevent it from happening, unquote.
I use this as an example to show that back in Wally’s day, 44 years ago, there was a constant threat of armed conflict.
Today we are no better off. In 1971 and some years since, Canada backed away from participating in wars. The Canadian Government protected the nation from harm by staying away from armed conflict and instead contributed to peace keeping efforts.
Today we have a Government who seems to be bent on taking our nation into war. Our meddling on the war fronts in Libya and the Middle East provokes our new enemies into taking action that wouldn’t have been possible if we hadn’t had been there. Our Government’s action brings the people of our nation into harms way, not only world wide but locally too.