On that one you'd have a valid point for setting the start year to 1949 or 1950. Who was he?
Carnell? He was the mayor St. John's Newfoundland until just after Newfounland joined confederation. He died in 1951only two years after becoming a Canadian citizen,
never having achieved an office or appointement in Canadian federal politics. The people of St John's remember him fondly for instigating
"a vigorous program of sewer, water, and street improvements"
Berton was a talk show host and writer.
"He spent four years in the army, rising from private to captain/instructor at the Royal Military College in Kingston." His own bio doesn't even mention that it was training for the intelligence branch of the army. What it does say is this:
"He spent his early newspaper career in Vancouver, where at 21 he was the youngest city editor on any Canadian daily. He wrote columns for and was editor of Maclean's magazine, appeared on CBC's public affairs program "Close-Up" and was a permanent fixture on "Front Page Challenge" for 39 years. He was a columnist and editor for the Toronto Star and was a writer and host of a series of CBC programs. "
It's obviously a joke, and a pretty funny one at that. Pierre Berton as Head of Intelligence under Mackenzie King? Excelent. Whoever thought that up knew how to make Canadians laugh.
On that score its an excelent choice. How about Neil Young as Armaments Minister?
The fact is that none of the people identified in this role had much at all to do with Canadian intelligence activities at all, except Maurice Pope who was in charge of censoring officers letters for the DOD. Ames, is ok I guess, given that he did some paper shuffling at the League of Nations, and was actually a Canadian Member of Parliment for
a single term, though he is better known for his sociological essays. Cerar too since he was in the military.
The persons you are really looking for are Sir
William Stephenson (
Distinguished Flying Cross, Military Cross, French Legion of Honour, and Croix de Guerre with Palm) and Colonel William "Jock" Murray who actually became the
first Canadian Director of Military Intelligence after the war ended. These are the two who basically founded the organization that Pierre Berton briefly worked for at a very junior level:
Stephenson participated in re-establishing a working relationship between the British SIS and American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and established the British Security Co-ordination (BSC) HQ in New York as a base to conduct secret warfare operations from. The BSC eventually included the SOE, SIS, Security Executive, MI-5, and an extensive intelligence-communications web. Bermuda Station was established as a satellite base for various BSC communication-interception activities.
Another good choice would be King's hatchet man
Norman Alexander Robertson, who served as King's Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and who was principle in handling the defection of Igor Gouzenko after the war.
I guess my point is that if we are going to get down to the knitty gritty of some minor details of the cabinet positions for Albania, then we might as well make the point that there was no such person as John Baron Tweedsmuir who is identified as the Head of State for Canada.
There was a Baron
of Tweedsmuir named John Buchan who was Governor General of Canada during the war, and also the author of the best seller "the 39 Steps", but no John Baron Tweedsmuir.
