KREW KUTS: History - Continuities & Discontinuities

By Bernie Krewski

The past is not absent, it has presence. This is what Eelco Runia explains in “Moved by the Past: Discontinuity and Historical Mutation” (2014). It is available and accessible to us in concrete forms, right here and now in our everyday lives, frequently too self-evident to be noticed. The past can also instigate unusual surprises, initiate strong feelings, and move us in ways we never expected.  

The following news reports “moved” me as I explored news events that occurred here in 1965.

HEALTH CARE

The year began with positive news on the health front. Dr. Head of Cereal was granted admitting privileges to the Oyen Hospital. This brought the number of medical staff to three who have hospital admission capabilities. Dr. McCracken of Oyen and Dr. Baker of Cereal have been with the Oyen Hospital ten and eight years respectively.

The Hospital Board recently purchased an anaesthetic machine, partly facilitated by a generous donation from the New Brigden Community Club.

A smooth staffing transition occurred in February when Mr. M. Herbach, formerly of Hanna, was appointed administrator of the hospital, replacing Maurice Rees who moved with his  family to Milk River. Mr. Rees occupied that position for the last four years.

On January 7, the Big Country Health Unit announced that “Oral Vaccine Program Starts January 15” and will continue until April. For the third year in succession, the province of Alberta is offering the public oral polio vaccine free of charge.

Dr. Dita K. Williams, Medical Officer of Health, had this to say:  “In the dark days of the polio epidemics, doctors, patients, and worried mothers hoped for a safe and certain means of protection against the disease. The battle against the polio virus was a dramatic and heart stirring one. Today we have the powerful weapon of immunization which is now extremely simple and of proven safety and efficiency.”

This routine news item led to two interesting trails or continuities. What would have been the public response to this announcement if it had happened during the recent COVID-19 pandemic, considering the intense debate about vaccines and immunization that occurred in many parts of Canada?

Moreover, that debate continues. For those interested in learning more about this pandemic, they would benefit from reading “The Wisdom of Plagues: Lessons from 25 Years of Covering Pandemics” (2024) by Donald G. McNeil Jr. He compares, for example, the responses of three countries – Canada, Germany, and the United States. Their per capita income and public health experience is similar, and each country received their supply of vaccine at about the same time. Canada comes out on top. American failure to implement the standard science-based control protocols, according to McNeil, led to 540,000 needless deaths among the 1.1 million people who perished.  

And how will we handle the next pandemic that is expected to occur in our lifetime?

There is a second historical trail to this polio vaccine news announcement – a personal one. It was a breakfast meeting that I had with Dr. Williams, years later, in April 1983. I was employed in Alberta’s public service. By then she had completed another four years of study,  adding to her medical training, and was a practicing psychiatrist. Both of us were immersed in the turmoil of restructuring health care, comparable to what is happening now in Alberta.

Our meeting was an example of two strangers, health practitioners, having a sudden, meaningful conversation to resolve a potential political issue simply by applying honesty, straight-talk and common sense. It was a moment I will never forget!

WHEAT & CHINA

This brief news item was published in the Hanna Herald on January 28, 1965: “Mrs. Russell Johnston of Helmsdale will be showing slides and speaking on her tour of China in the Cereal School Auditorium on Saturday, Feb. 6 at 8:00. The event is sponsored by the Cereal Home & School Association, the Helmsdale FWUA and the Naco FWUA.”

 Mrs. Russell Johnston. Photo provided by her son, Don Johnston

On the surface, seemingly a miniscule event. However, this expedition had a significant connection to a much larger national and international story.   

The Calgary Herald provided details about the tour under this headline on November 18, 1964: “Modern China Remains Largely Unknown Land.” Following a series of natural calamities resulting in disastrous crop failures in 1959-1961, the reporter noted, China began buying large quantities of wheat from Canada.

Knowing little about agriculture in China, the Farmers’ Union of Alberta/UFA decided at their annual convention in 1962 to organize a farmers’ tour to learn more about China. Its purpose was to increase trade between the two countries and develop greater understanding between these two peoples.

A party of 32 Canadians left Vancouver on September 2nd, 1964, for a three-week tour of mainland China. The group consisted of 7 women and 25 men from five provinces – farm organization leaders, active and retired farmers, two medical scientists, and members of the agricultural press and radio. Mrs. Louise Johnston, president of the Farm Women’s Union of Alberta, was one of the delegates (MTCH, v. 2, 366-368). The tour group visited six major cities, industrial plants, communes, historical shrines, parks and cultural centres. In Peking, (now Beijing), they joined a million people celebrating China’s National Day, Oct. 1.

Many developments preceded this agricultural tour.

The People’s Republic of China was established in 1949, but Canada refused to recognize it because of its communist political foundations. That was also the year that Pierre Trudeau, then a young lawyer and writer, visited China for the first time. Chinese and Canadian armed forces then became engaged in combat during the Korean war (1950-1953). That conflict also ended the missionary work of the United Church in China that dated back to 1892.

Canadian Agriculture Minister Alvin Hamilton visited China in 1959, setting the stage for the first sale of Canadian wheat to China. In 1960, at the invitation of the Chinese government, Pierre  Trudeau and journalist Jacques Hébert, experienced a month-long tour of China, recounted in a book entitled “Two Innocents in Red China.” When he became Prime Minister, his government was one of the first western countries to recognize China, diplomatically, in 1970, two years before Richard Nixon’s well-known diplomatic overture and visit to China.

 There was a lot of activity regarding China at the University of Alberta where I was a student in 1964 -65. A student at a desk next to me was from Taiwan, studying the opium wars between Britain and China in the mid-19th century. Professor of Chinese history Brian Evans, born in Taber, had just returned from a trip to China and shared his experience. Chester Ronning, esteemed Canadian diplomat born in China and former principal at Camrose Luthern College (now Augusta), visited campus. He was engaged in a special mission to Hanoi mediating the conflict in Vietnam.

Oh, how the ordinary can be so extraordinary!