Armaggedon on Tour
| Published date | 01 September 2006 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070200606100314 |
| Date | 01 September 2006 |
| Author | Andrew Burtch |
| Subject Matter | Coming Attractions |
Andrew Burtch
Armaggedon
on tour
The “On Guard, Canada!” civil defence convoy and
responsible citizenship in the early Cold War
| International Journal | Summer 2006 | 735 |
In 1953, the Cold War was entering its sixth year. The USSR, the United
States, and their allies sparred over the future of a divided Germany. A hot
war still raged in Korea, where Canadians were patrolling, fighting, and
dying to defend South Korea from Chinese “volunteers.” Canadian defence
expenditures had skyrocketed to meet the global challenge of a divided
world. Behind all of this was the stunning power of the atomic bomb and
the growing fears that local conflicts in Germany and Korea would spiral
outwards into a suicidal nuclear war. In response to political and military
insecurity, many countries developed civil defence programs to prepare
their populations for the very worst.
During the fall and winter of 1953, the “On Guard, Canada!” civil
defence convoy traveled to major cities across Canada. The exhibit, origi-
nally designed and displayed in the United States,was the first nationwide
Andrew Burtch is the historian for the post-1945 period at the Canadian War Museum,
and is completing his doctoral dissertation at Carleton University. The author would like
to thank the many people who read drafts of this article in its earliest forms, suggested new
readings and directions, and encouraged him to develop his ideas further. Thanks are espe-
cially due to Norman Hillmer, Susan Whitney, James Opp, Tim Cook, Dominique
Marshall and colleagues Ryan Touhey, Stacey Zembryzcki, David Hood, and Christine
Rivas. For reasons of space, the number and detail of citations in this article have been
reduced. For the full version, please e-mail the author at andrewburtch@rogers.com.
COMING ATTRACTIONS
| Andrew Burtch |
| 736 | International Journal | Summer 2006 |
publicity campaign launched by the federal government to convince
Canadians of the need to adopt civil defence measures. The federal civil
defence agency, in cooperation with its provincial and municipal counter-
parts, employed the exhibit to make the case that the long, watery distances
separating Canadians from Cold War conflicts in Europe and Asia no
longer protected them. The enemy, at a moment, could reduce their cities
to rubble with atomic bombs, salt the earth with volatile biological agents,
and poison their air with suffocating chemicals. To meet the horrors of
modern warfare, 100,000 young and old visitors were shown how to sup-
port civil defence in their homes and in their community. The high num-
ber of visitors to the exhibit did not lead to any significant increase in the
number of volunteers for civil defence services.
Civil defence authorities advertised more than just protective meas-
ures. They also promoted civil defence as a vital and permanent component
of “good citizenship” during the Cold War. In the immediate postwar years,
the Canadian government strove to highlight the
rights
enjoyed by
Canadians as citizens by developing a citizenship education program. Both
the Canadian and American versions of the convoy attempted to depict civil
defence as part of the core
obligations
of citizenship. Preparing a basement
shelter and saluting the flag were equated visually with the defence of cher-
ished values such as freedom of speech. The exhibition displays, and the
way in which attendance was promoted and organized, depicted a hierar-
chical order of citizenship that emphasized patriotic voluntarism and pre-
scribed strict gender divisions suggesting how men and women could best
fulfill their obligations to their community.
The study of citizenship is a varied field, and in Canada scholars have
investigated the process by which the individual immigrant or immigrant
communities seek, find, or are granted membership in the host community.1
1 Several authors examine this process, which has been termed “citizenship acquisition,” and
apply theoretical models to determine whether the process of attaining membership is a per-
sonal, psychological distinction, or a more complex determination of this process that is influ-
enced by kinship and social networks. See Francisco Colom-Gonzalez, “Dimensions of citizen-
ship: Canada in comparative perspective,”
International Journal of Canadian Studies
14
(autumn 1996): 95-109; James S. Frideres et al., “Becoming Canadian: Citizenship acquisition
and national identity,”
Canadian Review in Studies of Nationalism
14, no. 1 (1987): 105-21. The
most comprehensive treatment of the subject in Canada is found in William Kaplan, ed.,
Belonging: the Meaning and Future of Canadian Citizenship.
(Montreal: McGill-Queen’s
University Press, 1993).
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