tation in Ottawa and the world of the grain industry. He moved the head office of the company from Kingston to Win- nipeg in 1923.
THE FATHER OF CANADIAN AVIATION
James Richardson’s foray into aviation began through a chance meeting with a grounded pilot on a rainy day in Au- gust of 1926. Richardson immediately began to recognize how aviation could assist the process of developing north- ern Canada’s mineral resources. Later that year, he formed Western Canada Airways Limited with Harold A. “Doc” Oaks as manager and pilot, mechanic Al Cheesman and J.A. MacDugall as trea- surer. Richardson’s first aircraft, a Fokker Universal, would be called “the City of Winnipeg.”
Te fledgling company received a ma-
jor break when it secured a supply con- tract from the Canadian government to deliver drilling equipment to engineers working on the northern railway to Churchill on Hudson Bay. Despite har- rowing adventures, the aviators hauled eight tons of gear and 14 workmen to Fort Churchill,
completing the first
large airlift into the North and making Churchill the terminus of the railway and eventually the home of Canada’s most northern deep-water port. In the autumn of 1928, Western Can-
ada Airways launched an experimental airmail and passenger service between the cities of Winnipeg, Regina, Calgary and Edmonton. Te first flight took off on Sept 13 with five passengers, includ- ing John Bracken, the Premier of Mani- toba.
tract
In 1929, WCA was awarded a con- to
transport mail of International across Airways the
prairies. In the same year, Richard- son and other partners acquired con- trol
and
Canadian Transcontinental Airways, eastern Canada’s two largest firms. In 1930, Western Canada Airways became part of a new and larger company, Ca- nadian Airways Limited, with Richard- son as president. Te company was also establishing new markets in fisheries, forestry and customs patrols. Passenger trade was burgeoning especially across the North.
The Hub
FIRST NATIONAL AIRLINE With operations from coast to coast,
Canadian Airways became Canada’s first national airline. Although its mail transport contracts were terminated in 1932 due to funding cutbacks associated with the Depression, Canadian Airways carried on. Winnipeg was poised to be Canada’s most important aviation centre with the second largest airport facility on the continent, behind only Chicago. In 1937, a new Liberal government in Ottawa
reversed former commit-
ments to Canadian Airways with the formation of Trans-Canada Air Lines (TCA), to be operated out of Montreal. Te backroom deals that cut Canadian Airways out of the transcontinental routes was said to have broken the heart of James A. Richardson. Canadian Air- ways, instrumental in creating a trans- continental air system, was sold late in 1941 and quickly merged into the Ca- nadian Pacific Railway-owned Canadian Pacific Airlines. James A. Richardson died suddenly on June 26, 1939 at age 54. For his many contributions, he was posthumously honoured in Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame as the Father of Commercial Avia- tion in Canada. Te recognition of the remarkable leg-
acy of the Richardson family was real- ized once again when it was announced in December 2006 that Winnipeg In- ternational Airport would be renamed Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport. Tis same year James A. Richardson and his descen- dents were honoured with the Mani- toba Aviation Council Pioneer of Flight Award.
Summer 2014 • 15
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