It was, in its day, the largest construction project in the world, requiring removal of more earth and rock than the Suez Canal. An area the size of Manhattan was flooded, forcing the relocation in the name of progress of thousands of residents. The most modern construction techniques were employed, including new organizational systems and the first computer in Canada.
As a nation-building exercise, it might have been on a scale with the epic enterprises of Canadian history. But the St. Lawrence Seaway and Power Project is now something of an embarrassment—an opportunity lost or perhaps even a strategic mistake of immense scale.
That perspective was hardly on display in 1959 when Queen Elizabeth II, accompanied by U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower, presided over opening celebrations and boarded the royal yacht...
Drew Fagan is a former Ontario deputy minister and policy-maker with the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (Global Affairs Canada). He is now a professor at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, and a Public Policy Forum fellow.
Advertisement
Advertisement