News and Views Volume 32
www.winstonchurchillcanada.ca
Spring 2012
Dear Fellow Canadian Churchillians: New Members A very warm welcome is extended to Coneliu Chisu, Gerard Downey, James Corcoran, Keith Irish and Sheryl Mercer.
Next Event
The AGM of the Society will be held on Leap Year day of February 29th 2012. After the business part, which we always keep short, there will be shown a film which has received rave reviews – “Winston Churchill: Walking With Destiny” narrated by Sir Ben Kingsley. A flyer is included and details posted on our web site; the last event in October 2011 drew a record attendance and we suggest early reservations.
Annual Dinner Will be held on Thursday May 10th 2012, the 72nd anniversary of the day when Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of Britain. A flyer will be sent out with full details in due course.
ICS Canada/Churchill Centre 29th Annual Conference As mentioned in previous newsletters this will be held in the Royal York Hotel from 11/14 October 2012. A committee of Randy Barber, Chuck Anderson, Cliff Goldfarb, Gord Walker, David Brady and Terry Reardon is working on the programme, which will be advised by flyer and web site details, in due course.
Chartwell Bulletin The Bulletin is now produced monthly and is downloaded to our web site.
Page 2 New Society in Ottawa
www.ottawachurchillsociety.com
We are delighted that a society has been formed in Ottawa. “The Sir Winston Churchill Society of Ottawa,” with the Chairman being Ronald Cohen, the compiler of the astonishingly detailed bibliography of Churchill’s published writings. Their first event was a sold out dinner on 30 November 2011, with the speaker Allen Packwood, Director of the Churchill Archives Centre, at the University of Cambridge. We look forward to a close relationship with this important addition to the Churchill family in Canada. Library of Parliament Display: March – June 2012 A Partnership between the Churchill Archives Centre, the Library of Parliament, the Churchill Centre and ICS Canada, will present a display in the Library of Parliament in Ottawa to commemorate Churchill’s “Some Chicken: Some Neck” speech, which he delivered in our House of Commons, 70 years ago, on 30 December 1941. This will include original pages of the speech. Further details will be shown on our web site, in due course.
From the Bookshelf A report on the occasion, related below, was suggested by a new member, Gerard Downey of Toronto – thanks Gerard. This extract is in a book to be published in October 2012 – “Winston Churchill and Mackenzie King: So Similar, So Different, by Terry Reardon.” (With appropriate blush at self promotion!) “Churchill’s tour of North America included a stop in Toronto on 3 March 1932, sponsored by the Simpsons department store, with the fee being the princely sum of $2,500. The arena had been built the year before and Churchill was the first person of international renown to speak there. Despite newspaper hype and fees of 50c to $1.00 the audience totalled only six thousand, which was a disappointment. Churchill had used lapel microphones during his U.S. tour, but the hockey broadcaster Foster Hewitt warned him that using such a device with the Gardens sound system would cause an echo. Churchill turned to Hewitt and said, ‘Young man if I want your advice I will ask for it.’* Hewitt was right and Churchill discarded the lapel microphone, refused to use the stand up microphone and thus many could not hear him.” *Maple Leaf Gardens, Memories & Dreams 1931-1999 (MLG, Toronto, 1999) xxxxx The War of 1812 – from A History of the English Speaking Peoples – Winston S. Churchill “On paper the forces were very unequal. The population of the United States was now seven and a quarter millions, including slaves. In Canada there were only five hundred thousand people, most of them French...Peace negotiations had been tried throughout the war, but it was not until January 1814 that the British had agreed to treat...Both sides agreed upon the status quo for the long boundary in the North...The results of the peace were solid and enduring. The war was a turning-point in the history of Canada. Canadians took pride in the part they had played in defending their country, and their growing national sentiment was strengthened...henceforward the world was to see a threethousand-mile international frontier between Canada and the United States undefended by men or guns.”
Comments, suggestions, articles would be appreciated. Please write or e-mail to Terry Reardon, 182 Burnhamthorpe Rd, Toronto, Ontario, M9A 1H6. Tel. 416 231 6803. E-mail: reardont@rogers.com.