Broadcasting a Legend: The Canadian TV Miniseries The Arrow (1997)

Abstract

The Avro Arrow, the supersonic jet interceptor designed just outside Toronto to meet Royal Canadian Air Force specifications as the CF-105 but cancelled by Ottawa at the flight-testing stage toward the end of the 1950s, has long occupied a prominent place in the Canadian public imagination. To illustrate this phenomenon, commentators have repeatedly pointed to the range of representational forms, and individual instances therein, through which popular interest in the Arrow has manifested itself: page, stage, screen, and a myriad other means of expression. In doing so, they have often unintentionally signalled that these various manifestations are of equal relevance in demonstrating the impact of the Arrow on the national psyche. Through examining the origin, development, and broadcast aftermath of The Arrow, first aired by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation around forty years after the events described, this article seeks to situate this dramatic miniseries within the long-running controversy surrounding the cancellation of the aircraft, and show how and why it has had a significantly greater impact in shaping popular national awareness of, and empathy for, certain beliefs concerning the nature and meaning of the rise and fall of the Avro Arrow in Canada than any other cultural artifact over the past six decades.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 See e.g. Andrew Richter in Ottawa Citizen, 21 February 2019, A8. As the leading biographer of the prime minister responsible for its demise memorably put it: ‘The Arrow seems as deeply lodged in English Canadian memory as the Canadian Pacific Railway or the Calgary Stampede.’ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory: The Life and Legend of John G. Diefenbaker (Toronto: McFarlane Walter & Ross, 1995), 634. ‘The biggest problem with the Arrow? We just can’t get over it.’ Randy Richmond and Tom Villemaire, Colossal Canadian Failures: A Short History of Things that Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time (Toronto: Dundurn, 2002), 60.

2 On archaeological and reconstruction projects see e.g. National Post, 4 January 1999, A4. The three plays were: The Day of the Dodo, by Ron Bourne, tx. 8 January 1962, CBC television; The Legend of the Avro Arrow, by Clinton Bomphray, National Arts Theatre, Ottawa, 18 January-3 February 1990; The Flying Avro Arrow, by Doug Warwick, Toronto Fringe Festival, 1–11 July 2010. Documentaries have included There Never Was an Arrow (prod. George Robertson), tx. 2 March 1980, CBC Television, and Too Good to be True (prod. Rudy Buttignol), tx. 19 February 1994, TV Ontario. For websites see e.g. Avroland, http://www.avroland.ca (accessed July 2, 2023); Avro Arrow homepage, www.avro-arrow.org (accessed July 2, 2023). Library and Archives Canada lists no less then seventy-five books devoted to the Avro Arrow, https://bac-lac.on.worldcat.org/discovery (accessed June 14, 2023).

3 See e.g. J. L. Granatstein, ‘We Shot an Arrow in the Air’, Literary Review of Canada 11, no. 5 (2003): 26–7; Christopher Moore, ‘What is it about the Avro Arrow?’, The Beaver 79, no. 4 (1999): 54–5.

4 The Arrow (The Film Works/Tapestry Films/John Arron Productions, 1996), tx. 12-13 January 1997, CBC television.

5 While CBC files on the project remain closed, the papers of the writer-producer team Keith Ross Leckie and Mary Young Leckie at Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections, York University, Toronto [hereafter CTASC], provide ample documentation on The Arrow.

6 On the consensus surrounding the pointlessness of the destruction of the six completed Arrow aircraft compare e.g. Desmond Morton comment in interview with Margaret McCaffery, ‘“A Flawed Plane and an Inept Corporation”? The Historian’s View’, Engineering Dimensions 9, no. 5 (1988), 50 with Murray Peden’s comment in Fall of an Arrow (Stittstville, ON: Canada’s Wings, 1978), 11. As for Bomarc, even the former prime minister admitted in his memoirs that it had turned out to be a bad purchase: see One Canada, the Memoirs of the Right Honourable John G. Diefenbaker: Volume 3, The Tumultuous Years, 1962-1967 (Toronto: Macmillan, 1977), 44.

7 See e.g. Michael Bliss, ‘Shutting Down the Avro Myth’, Report on Business Magazine, 5, 8 (1989), 29. On the project as misconceived see also Julius Lukasiewicz, ‘Canada’s Encounter with High-Speed Aeronautics’, Technology and Culture 27, 2 (1986), 223-61. On the cancellation decision as essentially correct see e.g. J. L. Granatstein, Canada 1957-1967: The Years of Uncertainty and Innovation (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1986), 109; Desmond Morton, ‘The Strains of Affluence, 1945-1987’, in Craig Brown (ed.) The Illustrated History of Canada (Toronto: Lester & Orpen Dennys, 1987), 493. Not surprisingly the former PM himself defended the Arrow decision at length in his memoirs—see Diefenbaker, One Canada, III, 31 ff.—as did his minister of finance—see So Very Near: The Political Memoirs of the Honourable Donald M. Fleming, Volume Two, The Summit Years (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1985), 9–19.

8 On the one-that-got-away rumour see e.g. Palmiro Campagna, Storms of Controversy: The Secret Avro Arrow Files Revealed (Toronto: Stoddart, 1992), 190-3; Greig Stewart, Shutting Down the National Dream: A. V. Roe and the Tragedy of the Avro Arrow (Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1988), 275; see also George Bindon in Journal of the History of Canadian Science, Technology and Medicine 5, no. 3 (1981): 220. Various ex-Avro Canada personnel published books or contributed forewords making the case for the company’s efforts and suggesting or implying underhandedness as well as shortsightedness on the part of the Diefenbaker government: see Jim Floyd, The Avro C-102 Jetliner (Erin, ON: Boston Mills, 1986); Don Rogers foreword to The Arrowheads [Richard Organ, Ron Page, Don Watson, Les Wilkinson], Avro Arrow: The Story of The Avro Arrow From Its Evolution to Its Extinction (Erin, ON: Boston Mills, 1980), vii; E. K. Shaw, There Never Was an Arrow (Toronto: Steel Rail Educational, 1979); Fred Smye, Canadian Aviation and the Avro Arrow (Oakville, ON: Randy Smye, 1985); Jan Zurakowski foreword to Stewart, Shutting Down the National Dream, xi-xii. For a summary of the overall development arc for the pro-Arrow camp see Janusz Zurakowski, Not Only About Flying, ed. Marek Kusiba, trans. Marieta Brzeski (Toronto: PFW, 2002), 187–8. On early support for this position see e.g. J. J. Brown, Ideas in Exile: A History of Canadian Invention (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1967), 307–13.

9 On such differences of opinion among Arrow authors see e.g. the joint review of Murray Peden’s book (see note 6), Kay Shaw’s book (see note 8), and James Dow’s The Arrow (Toronto: Lorimer, 1979) by John Gellner in Globe and Mail, 26 January 1980, C3. Among defenders of the cancellation, Canadian aviation authority Larry Milberry stated that in strictly performance terms the Arrow was ‘magnificent’ (Ottawa Citizen, 14 January 1988, B5) while Desmond Morton argued that it was ‘fatally flawed’ (Toronto Star, 20 February 1986, A21).

10 On this point see Russell Steven Paul Isinger, ‘The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow Programme: Decisions and Determinants’ (MA thesis, University of Saskatchewan, 1997), v. For dismissive academic treatment of popular works see e.g. J. L. Granatstein on Campagna’s Storms of Controversy (see note 8) in Quill & Quire 59, 1 (1993), 21. On academic authors questioning the Arrow in broader works see e.g. Desmond Morton, A Military History of Canada (Edmonton: Hurtig, 1985), 243.

11 Metropolitan Toronto Business Magazine 79, no. 2 (1983), 26. Within three years of publication, for example, the Arrowheads’ lavishly illustrated book (see note 8) had sold 12,000 copies, a number which had climbed to over 25,000 by the time a second edition was published ten years on. Comparable books at the time on other subjects were considered bestsellers if they sold 5-7,000 copies. See R. D. Page addendum, Avro Arrow, revised edition (Erin, ON: Boston Mills, 1992), 177; Montreal Gazette, 23 July 1983, I3. Though even non-academic critical reaction was decidedly mixed, the more enthusiastic reviewers’ responses to the nationalist dimension likely also helped Arrow-book sales. See e.g. William French on Peden’s Fall of An Arrow in Globe and Mail, 12 July 1979, T7; Douglas Fisher on Shaw’s There Never Was an Arrow in Ottawa Citizen, 24 October 1979, 6; James Macdonell on Campagna, Storms of Controversy in Ottawa Citizen, 19 December 1992, B8. On highlighting factual errors by opponents see e.g. Floyd, Avro Canada C-102, 177-8 on erroneous performance figures mentioned by former transport minister George Hees in a radio interview; see also Reflections on the Arrow by Jim Floyd, 1, 2001-12/002(28), F0188, Keith Ross Leckie fonds [hereafter KRL], CTASC in reference to an incorrect technical flaw propagated by Professor Desmond Morton in the mid-1980s (on which see also B1999-0023/047(04), 1597-10, Desmond Morton fonds, University of Toronto Archives).

12 On Where the Spirit Lives see 2001-012/003(20-24), 2001-012/004(01-06), F0188, KRL, and 2002-059/001(32), 2006-006/005(06), F0220, Mary Young Leckie fonds [hereafter MYL], CTASC. On the role of the festival see Keith Acheson, Christopher J. Maule, Elizabet Filleul, ‘Cultural Entrepreneurship and the Banff Television Festival’, Journal of Cultural Economics 20, no. 4 (1996): 321–39.

13 Keith Leckie quoted in Globe and Mail, 20 July 1996, C1. The topicality of the subject as drama around the turn of the decade is evident through awareness of competing Arrow screen projects that either never developed (see the promotional ad and press release for the abortive Northland Pictures title Arrow: The People and the Machine, to be written and directed by Colin Strayer, 2001-012/003(13), F0188, KRL, CTASC) or were pre-empted by The Arrow (see Maureen Marovitch to Keith Leckie, 27 June 1994, 2001-012/001(10), F0188, KRL, CTASC), and by the restaging of a 1988 Alberta theatre festival play about the Arrow at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa at the start of 1990 (see The Legend of the Avro Arrow: A Play by Clinton Bomphray (Toronto: Randall, 2010)).

14 Keith Ross Leckie quoted by Tony Atherton in Ottawa Citizen, 3 July 1995; see Keith Ross Leckie piece in Toronto Star, 18 August 1995, D2.

15 Keith Ross Leckie quoted by Andy Hoffman, Playback, 26 January 1998, 37, 2001-012/002(30), F0188, KRL, CTASC.

16 Mary Young Leckie quoted by Marion Botsford Fraser, Financial Post, Section 2, FP Review, 3 August 1996, 18–19.

17 On the pitch at Banff see Victor Solnecki letter, Financial Post, 24 August 1996, 14. The Arrow would sometimes be described as a docudrama by observers but was from the first handled as drama by the CBC.

18 Broadcasting Act 1968, Part I, 2 (g) (iii), in Roger Bird (ed.), Documents of Canadian Broadcasting (Ottawa: Carleton University Press, 1988), 375. In the next version of the broadcasting act, put in place while the Arrow project was in development, the CBC was directed to provide programming that was ‘predominantly and distinctively Canadian’ and thereby ‘contribute to the shared national consciousness and identity.’ Broadcasting Act 1991 quoted in Robert Armstrong, Broadcasting Policy in Canada, 2nd ed. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2016), 119.

19 One award-winning example of CBC Television historical drama appeared later that year in the form of Glory Enough for All (tx. 28 June 1988), depicting the discovery of insulin by Frederick Banting and Charles Best: see Gerald Pratley, A Century of Canadian Cinema (Toronto: Lynx Images, 2003), 87. On historical documentaries see Monica MacDonald, Recasting History: How CBC Television Has Shaped Canada’s Past (Montreal-Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2019).

20 On the public policy changes encouraging independent production see Armstrong, Broadcasting Policy, 51–2. The first years of the new decade would be ones of turmoil for the CBC due in part to successive budget cuts and restructuring exercises: see e.g. Knowlton Nash, The Microphone Wars: A History of Triumph and Betrayal at the CBC (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1994), 489 ff.; Wayne Skene, Fade to Black: A Requiem for the CBC (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1993). Spurred by the Leckies, Burt was given the final green light for the expensive Arrow project by his superior, CBC executive Phyliss Platt, on the grounds that ‘It would be a courageous thing to do.’ Keith Leckie to author, 24 March 2024.

21 See Keith Ross Leckie to Jim Burt, 30 November 1995, 2, 2003-058/002(06), F0188, KRL, CTASC; see also the four files of contacts and related material assembled by research assistant Ann Walmsley, 23 December 1989–24 January 1990, 2003-057/002(18), F0220, MYL, CTASC; the Arrow books in 2010-055/001(01-04), F0220, MYL, CTASC; the photocopies from published memoirs and secondary sources in 2001-012/003(12-14), F0188, KRL, CTASC; and the film material in 2006-06/011(04) and 2006-06/011(11), F0220, MYL, CTASC.

22 See Globe and Mail, 20 July 1996, C1, C8; see also Keith Ross Leckie to Jim Burt, 30 November 1995, 1, 2003-058/002(06), F0188, KRL, CTASC.

23 Among the only major components to escape the scrapheap were a few engines plus the cockpit section of Arrow RL-206, the latter since 1965 housed at what, in the 1980s–90s, was called the National Aviation Museum in Ottawa. See Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow 2, Canadian Aviation and Space Museum, https://ingeniumcanada.org/aviation/artifact/avro-canada-cf-105-arrow-2 (accessed 19 June 2023).

24 Keith Ross Leckie to Peter Gzowski, 6 January 1997, 2001-012-001(10), F0188, KRL, CTASC (‘We tried to get one.’). For the misleading resemblance between the J-8B and CF-105 when viewed from the side see 2001-012/003(14), picture of J-8B from Aviation Week and Space Technology, 11 December 1989, 70. Keith continued to believe a rumour that the J-8B, via Grumman, had been based on CF-105 blueprints: see Vancouver Sun, 9 July 1996, B5; Keith Ross Leckie to Peter Gzowski, 6 January 1997, 2001- 012-001(10), F0188, KRL, CTASC.

25 On mention of plans for a full-scale model replica on the ground see Keith Ross Leckie to Dan Ackroyd, 2 March 1993, 2, 2001-012/001(11), F0188, KRL, CTASC. On the early investigation of flying scale models see copies of Model Aviation Canada, 1989-90 and Specifications for a Radio-Controlled Scale Model 2 of the Avro Arrow (Prepared for the Aerospace Heritage Foundation of Canada), Bruce Delhoy, Pegasus Modelcrafting, Mississauga, Ontario, 31 January 1991, 001-012/003(12), F0188, KRL, CTASC.

26 See Montreal Gazette, 6 January 1997, Show 1. Winnipeg airport included the Western Canada Aviation Museum, which among other things at that time had period hanger buildings plus an Avro CF-100 that could be used for ground shots. See Old Jets, www.oldjets.net/winnipeg.html (accessed 23 June 2023). The shoot had at one point been planned around using former air base facilities at Downsview in Toronto, but these plans fell through, forcing a relocation to Winnipeg. Mary Young Leckie quoted in Maclean’s, 13 January 1997, 48-52.

27 On the technical challenges and how they were met see e.g. Ottawa Citizen, 6 January 1997, E5.

28 See e.g. Robert Brent Toplin, History by Hollywood, second edition (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2009), Part I.

29 Keith Ross Leckie, ‘The Makings of a Mini-Series’, in Greig Stewart, Shutting Down the National Dream: A, V. Roe and the Tragedy of the Avro Arrow (Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1997), xi; see Keith Ross Leckie to James Floyd, 30 April 1996, 2001-013/001(10), F0188, KRL, CTASC; see also e.g. Arrow Through the Heart: Response to Step Outline, 9 February 1990, 2001-012/003(10), F0188, KRL, CTASC. ‘When you line up the facts and sequence of events in real life, they are usually pretty boring. They have to be dramatically embellished.’ Keith Leckie to author, 24 March 2024.

30 Keith Leckie quoted in Playback, 26 January 1998, 37; see Globe and Mail, 11 January 1997, Broadcast Week, 8.

31 When, for example, Christopher Plummer was signed to play George Hees (who died in June 1996), the internationally famous actor successfully pushed to have his cameo role expanded. ‘I remember he called me to his penthouse at the Shereton and we discussed his character … I remember laughing and saying “You just want more lines.” And he said “Exactly”.’ Keith Leckie to author, 13 March 2024. See also e.g. Critique, n/d, 2001-012/002(29), F0188, KRL, CTASC; The Avro Arrow Story: Meeting with Jim Burt and John McAndrew, 31 August 1990, 2001-012/002(29), F0188, KRL, CTASC; Reader’s Report #33, 20 August 1990, 2001-012/002(29), F0188, KRL, CTASC; OFDC Meeting: Notes on “Arrow” script, 30 September 1993, 2003-057/001(19), F0220, MYL, CTASC; Bruce Pittman to Mary Leckie, Keith Leckie, Paul Stephens, 27 October 1993, 2003-057/001(19), F0220, MYL, CTASC; Excerpted comments from Telefilm readers’ reports on “The Arrow” aka “The Avro Arrow Story”, 24 November 1993, 2003-057/001(19), F0220, MYL, CTASC; Josh Miller comments on “Once There Was an Arrow” 23 August 1995, 2003-058/002(06), F0188, KRL, CTASC; CBC reader report #38, 2 November 1995, 2003-057/002(24), F0224, MYL, CTASC; Jim Burt to Paul Stephens, Mary Young Leckie, Keith Ross Leckie, 9 June 1996, 2003-058/002(06), F0188, KRL, CTASC.

32 On Telefilm pulling out see Michaelle McLean to Paul Stephens and Mary Young Leckie, 24 November 1993, 2003-057/001(19), F0220, MYL, CTASC. On Ackroyd being approached and his response see Keith Leckie to Dan Ackroyd, 2 March 1993, 2001-012/001(11), F0188, KRL, CTASC; Dan Ackroyd to Keith and Mary Leckie, 7 June 1993, 2001-012/001(12), F0188, KRL, CTASC.

33 Outlines and drafts eventually numbered in the dozens. See 2003-057/001-004, F0220, MYL, CTASC; 2001-012/002-003, F0188, KRL, CTASC; 2003-057/002, F0188, KRL, CTASC.

34 See Keith Ross Leckie to Jim Burt, 30 November 1995, 2003-058/002(06), F0188, KRL, CTASC.

35 Jim Burt to J. A. McLean, 7 October 1996, 2001-012/001(10), F0188, KRL, CTASC.

36 Yost, who had worked in the Avro personnel office, had felt strongly enough about the cancellation of the Arrow to drop his rather jolly television persona when introducing the 1994 documentary Too Good To Be True (see note 2 and Toronto Star, 19 February 1994, 9) but knew enough about drama to simply evoke nostalgia and imply legitimacy when speaking to the press while serving as an extra during the filming of the Arrow rollout scene in Winnipeg and participating in the ‘making of’ documentary (see e.g. Globe and Mail, 20 July 1996, C1; Ottawa Citizen, 6 January 1997, E5).

37 For example Palmiro Campagna, on whose ideas and published work Keith had drawn on in suggesting that the Central Intelligence Agency had been involved in getting the Arrow cancelled, felt compelled to write a letter of correction published in the Financial Post when he learned from an article that appeared late in the production process that The Arrow was laying the destruction of the completed Arrows at Diefenbaker’s doorstep when he himself had published documents in his book Storms of Controversy years before showing that it was the chief of the air staff rather than the prime minister who was to blame. Campagna letter, Financial Post, 24 August 1996, 14. On Keith Leckie consulting with Campagna see Campagna to Leckie, 11 January 1990, 2001-012/003(14), KRL, F0188, CTASC; Leckie notes, Meeting – Paul [sic] Campagna, 30th [January 1990?], 2001-012/03(10), F0188, KRL, CTASC; Campagna to Leckie, 8 February 1990, 2003-057/002(39), F0220, MYL, CTASC; Campagna to Leckie, 25 October 1996, 2003-057/002(18), F0220, MYL, CTASC; Keith Ross Leckie to Jim Burt, 30 November 1995, 3, 2003-058/002(06), F0188, KRL, CTASC.

38 James Floyd, Notes on the draft of the projected film ‘The Avro Arrow Story’ by Keith Ross Leckie, 2001-012/002(28), F0188, KRL, CTASC.

39 Keith Ross Leckie to James Floyd, 30 April 1996, 2001-012/001(10), F0188, KRL, CTASC; see also e.g. Keith Ross Leckie to J. A. McLean, 7 October 1996, 2001-012/001(10), F0188, KRL, CTASC re authenticity claims. On awareness of previous use of fictional names in recounting the Arrow story see The Legend of the Avro Arrow audience programme, National Arts Centre, 18-January – 3 February 1990, 2001-012/003(14), F0188, KRL, CTASC; Toronto Star clipping, 10 February 1990, K1, 2001-012/003(12), F0188, KRL, CTASC; Robert R. Robinson to Mary Young Leckie, 9 May 1989, enclosing copy of his roman-à-clef, Scrap Arrow: A Novel (Don Mills, ON: General Publishing, 1975), 2003-057/002(39), F0220, MYL, CTASC.

40 James Floyd to Keith Ross Leckie and Mary Young Leckie, 5 May 1996, 2001-012/002(28), F0188, KRL, CTASC; see Keith Ross Leckie to James Floyd, 30 April 1996, 2001-012/001(10), F0188, KRL, CTASC. ‘Jim Floyd did give me a hard time on my early draft’, Keith recently recalled; ‘actually all my drafts.’ Keith Ross Leckie to author, 24 March 2024.

41 Keith Ross Leckie to James Floyd, 14 May 1996, 2001-012/001(10), F0188, KRL, CTASC.

42 Mary Young Leckie and Paul Stephens to Jacques Desrochers, 31 May 1996 (draft), 2003-057/002(19), F0220, MYL, CTASC.

43 See James Floyd to Keith Ross Leckie, 11 June 1996, and attached note to file, 29 May 1996, 2001-012/001(10), F0188, KRL, CTASC. The two significant name changes involved engineers Kay Shaw and Charles Grinyer, who became composite characters Kate O’Hara and Edward Critchley.

44 On purchase of the screen rights and reliance on Shutting Down the National Dream (see note 8) see Jim Burt to J. A. McLean, 7 October 1996, 2001-012/001(10), F0188, KRL, CTASC; Keith Ross Leckie typed acknowledgement draft for 1997 edition, 2003-57/003(39), F0220, MYL, CTASC. For the tie-in edition see McGraw-Hill press release, 2003-057/002(42), F0220, MYL, CTASC.

45 Greig Stewart to Keith Leckie, 25 June 1990, 2001-012/002(29), F0188, KRL, CTASC. Stewart did, however, develop a better understanding than Floyd of the way that historical drama was not the same as documentary history: see ibid.; Stewart to Leckie, 26 November 1990, 2001-012/002(29), F0188, KRL, CTASC.

46 Greig Stewart, ‘Prologue Update’, autumn 1996, Shutting Down the National Dream, 1997 edition, 5.

47 On CBC promotion of The Arrow see e.g. Tony Atherton in Ottawa Citizen, 6 January 1997, E5.

48 On the CBC’s financial commitment see Schedule A -The Film Works - Financing Plan, 22 February 1996, 2003-057/002(37), F0220, MYL, CTASC. On overall costs see budget, 22 May 1996, 2003-057/001(22), F0220, MYL, CTASC; budget summary, 27 November 1996, 2003-057/002(40), F0220, MYL, CTASC.

49 CBC press pack, 30, 2003-057/002(42), F0220, MYL, CTASC.

50 See Production Script, 2003-058/002(29), F0188, KRL, CTASC.

51 Toronto Star, 11 January 1997, Starweek Magazine, 36.

52 Globe and Mail, 11 January 1997, D2.

53 Financial Post, 18 January 1997, 25.

54 TIME, Canadian edition, 20 January 1997, 49; see also e.g. Canadian Historical Review 78, no. 4 (1997): 701.

55 Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, 21 January 1997, A5.

56 Calgary Herald, 20 January 1997, A8.

57 Gazette [Montreal], 11 January 1997, G7; Globe and Mail, 10 January 1997, C2; see also e.g. Kitchener Record, 10 January 1997, A8.

58 Gazette [Montreal], 6 January 1997, Show 1.

59 The Province, 10 January 1997, B9.

60 Toronto Star, 11 January 1997, 3.

61 Ibid., 12 January 1997, B8; see also e.g. Vancouver Sun, 11 January 1997, B1; Calgary Herald, 12 January 1997, E6.

62 Macleans, 13 January 1997, 52. For a relatively rare negative review based on an artistic assessment of the production rather than its historical veracity see Tony Atherton in Ottawa Citizen, 11 January 1997, D1/Edmonton Journal, 12 January 1997, C2.

63 Jim Floyd to Mary and Keith, 18 December 1996, 1, 2001-012/002(28), F0188, KRL, CTASC.

64 TIME, Canadian edition, 20 January 1997, 49; Financial Post, 18 January 1997, 25; see also Canadian Historical Review, 78, 4 (1997), 701.

65 See e.g. Globe and Mail, 15 January 1997, C4.

66 Edmonton Journal, 18 January 1997, C4.

67 See Times-Colonist [Victoria], 25 February 1998, C1; Edmonton Journal, 28 February 1998, C5 and 1 March 1998 C8; Leader-Post [Regina], 2 March 1998, C5.

68 The Leckies, for instance, teamed up with the CBC again on another historical drama, Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion, broadcast in 2000: see 2003-058/002(29-35), 2003-058/003(01-12), F0188, KRL, CTASC; 2006-006/004 (01-03, 05-07, 15-22), 2006-006/005(05), 2006-006/006(13-15), 2010-055/002(08-11), F0220, MYL, CTASC.

69 On first rebroadcast of The Arrow see Ottawa Citizen, 27 December 1997, D6. On the first VHS tape issue see Times-Colonist [Victoria], 3 October 1997, E3. On subsequent dissemination see Chris Gainor, Who Killed the Avro Arrow? (Edmonton: Folklore, 2007), 208.

70 Douglas Fisher, ‘Shooting Down the Arrow Myth’, clipping from Sunday Sun, 26 January 1997, 2001-012/002(30), F0188, KRL, CTASC. As one Arrow afficionado later wrote, The Arrow broadcast seemed to have ‘reignited a national angst.’ Bill Zuk, The Avro Arrow Story (Toronto: Lorimer, 2011), 127.

71 See e.g. Calgary Herald, 15 September 1997, A14, 20 January 1997, A8, 27 January 1997, A7; Financial Post, 8 February 1997, 20; Gazette [Montreal], 16 January 1997, B2, 19 January 1997, A6, 25 January 1997, B2; Globe and Mail, 18 January 1997, D8, 19 January 1997, D7 23 January 1997, A16; Hamilton Spectator, 15 January 1997, A11; Macleans, 14 January 1997, 38, 3 February 1997, 4; Ottawa Citizen, January 1997, B6; Toronto Star, 14 January 1997, 38, 18 January 1997, B3; Vancouver Sun, 1 February 1997, B6.

72 Macleans, 13 January 1997, 56-7. Callwood, who had covered Avro back in the 1950s, was played by Mauralea Austin in The Arrow.

73 National Post, 4 January 1999, A3.

74 Edmonton Journal, 21 March 2000, A3; see also Zurakowski, Not Only About the Flying, 188–9.

75 Palmiro Campagna, Requiem for a Giant: A. V. Roe Canada and the Avro Arrow (Toronto: Dundurn, 2003), 160. Despite the many factual lapses in the miniseries Campagna admitted that ‘it makes for interesting viewing.’ Ibid., 162.

76 Avro Arrow search, Library and Archives Canada, https://library-archives.canada.ca/eng (accessed June 28, 2023). Several new authors, moreover, seem to have been at least partially inspired by the miniseries: see e.g. Peter Zuuring, The Arrow Scrapbook (Dalkeith, ON: Arrow Alliance, 1999), 4. Academics, meanwhile, mostly continued to situate the CF-105 in a broader historical context and view cancellation as the right decision under the circumstances: see e.g. Robert Bothwell, Alliance and Illusion: Canada and the World, 1945-1984 (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2007); Sean M. Maloney, Learning to Love the Bomb: Canada’s Nuclear Weapons During the Cold War (Washington, DC: Potomac, 2007); Andrew Richter, Avoiding Armageddon: Canadian Military Strategy and Nuclear Weapons, 1950-63 (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2002).

77 See Reel Canada, The Arrow, https://reelcanada.ca/film/the-arrow/ (accessed July 2, 2023); Historica Canada, Heritage Minutes, https://www.historicacanada.ca/productions/minutes (accessed June 28, 2023). see also Katarzyna Rukszto, ‘History as Entertainment: Heritage Minutes and the Uses of Educational Television’ in Programming Reality: Perspectives on English-Canadian Television, ed. Zoë Druick and Aspa Kotsopoulos (Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2008), 171–86.

78 For instance the construction of a second full-scale replica of the Arrow as the centrepiece of a new, privately funded Toronto Aerospace Museum (see e.g. Toronto Star, 22 September 2001, S04, 28 September 2006, A18), and press coverage of the hunt to find and recover the scale models of the Arrow fired out into Lake Ontario in the mid-1950s for testing purposes (see e.g. Sunday Star, 9 August 1998, A1; Globe and Mail, 25 June 2004, A1; Toronto Star, 3 January 2013, GT1, 11 September 2017, GT2).

79 ‘I always knew the film have to go farther than representing a careful and exact recreation of the true Arrow story’, the screenwriter wrote retrospectively, adding: ‘I needed to create a legend for contemporary audiences.’ Keith Ross Leckie to James Floyd, 9 January 1997, 2001-012/002(28), F0188, KRL, CTASC. On The Arrow (and Arrow) as myth among academics see e.g. J. L. Granatstein and Dean F. Oliver, The Oxford Companion to Canadian Military History (Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press, 2011), 29; Sean M. Maloney, Avro Arrow: The Obsession and the Myth, https://www.seanmmaloney.com/avro-arrow-the-obsession-and-the-myth/(accessed July 2, 2023); see also Andrew Richter, Ottawa Citizen, 21 February 2019, A8. For a recent academic summary of the rise and fall of the aircraft see Russell Isinger and Donald C. Story, ‘Hubris: The CF-105 Avro Arrow Program and the Golden Age of the Royal Canadian Air Force’, in On the Wings of War and Peace: The RCAF During the Early Cold War, ed. Randall Wakelam, William March, and Peter Rayls (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2023), ch. 5.

80 On the Lavi see e.g. In Israel, lingering bitterness over a failed fighter project, UPI, 15 October 2013, https://www.upi.com/Defense-News/2013/10/15/In-Israel-lingering-bitterness-over-a-failed-fighter-project/78961381856103/ (accessed March 15, 2024); Moshe Arens, The Three Lies That Shot Down the Lavi, the World’s Greatest Israeli Fighter Aircraft, Haaretz, 28 September 2017, https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2017-09-28/ty-article/the-three-lies-that-shot-down-the-lavi/0000017f-e125-d804-ad7f-f1ffd8080000 (accessed March 15, 2024); John W. Golan, Lavi: The United States, Israel, and a Controversial Fighter Jet (Lincoln, NB: Potomac, 2016). On the TSR2 see e.g. Andrew Brookes, TSR2: Britain’s Lost Cold War Strike Jet (Oxford: Osprey, 2017); Stephen Hastings, The Murder of TSR-2 (London: Macdonald, 1966); A. F. C. Hunter, ed., TSR2 With Hindsight (London: Royal Air Force Historical Society, 1998).

81 The closest thing may be Starfighter: Sie wollten den Himmel erobern, a 2015 German television film drama blaming—in line with popular mythology—the numerous fatal crashes following the adoption of the Lockheed F-104G by the Luftwaffe in the early 1960s on a flawed American aircraft and a West German coverup. See Arno Frank, Der Albtraum vom Fliegen, 12 November 2015, Der Spiegel, https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/tv/starfighter-auf-rtl-gelungenes-flieger-drama-a-1062125.html (accessed March 12, 2024).

82 Stephen Cole, Here’s Looking at Us: Fifty Years of CBC-TV (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2002), 6.

83 See Reynolds Museum, https://reynoldsmuseum.ca/aviation (accessed June 30, 2023).

84 See Avro Museum, Arrow II project, https://www.avromuseum.com/arrow-ii-project.html (accessed June 30, 2023); Calgary Herald, 29 January 1997, B4, 26 March 2018, A2.

85 The Arrow (1997), YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJwBHtYHIaw (accessed March 15, 2024).