It Seems Like Only Yesterday: Air Canada the First 50 Years

Interesting 4-page Introduction by H.W. "Herb" Seagrim, a bush pilot who rose through the ranks to become executive vice-president of Air Canada. 32 pages of b/w photographs.

From the d.j. flap: "Ever since C.D. Howe's time, Air Canada managers and the government of the day have had to balance political considerations with the airline's business needs in such matters as passenger routes, aircraft purchases, and the maintenance of obsolete facilities. As the author points out: 'Air Canada has succeeded despite its government ownership, not by virtue of any advantage this conferred on it.' Yet as the airline grew to be one of Canada's leading corporations, it became the victim of its own success and the subject of a hostile mythology claiming it was 'a waste of the taxpayer's money.' Today, as a national asset worth more than half a billion dollars (1986 estimation), whose payments to the federal treasury have far exceeded the subsidies it has received, Air Canada has becom an internationally recognized success." This is the fascinating story of that early success.