C.D. Howe honoured in grandson’s documentary

During the Second World War, C.D .Howe was known as the Minister of Everything.

His grandson Thomas Howe, who was eight years old when the longtime minister in the cabinets of Mackenzie King and Louis St. Laurent died, is doing his best to keep his grandfather’s memory alive. The younger Howe, 58, on Tuesday night will present a decade-old documentary at the Thunder Bay Museum, a commemoration of the 50^th anniversary of the elder Howe’s death.

Thomas Howe said he made the documentary so ensuing generations will remember the man who helped migrate the Canadian economy from an agricultural based, to an industrial one during the war and one spurred by consumers at war’s end.

"I was conscious that a younger generation of Canadians had kind of forgotten him to some extent. I wanted to preserve his memory. It was the only documentary about his life. My hope is that would bring his career to the attention of more Canadians," he said, noting it was televised a number of times when it was first released.

Born Clarence Decataur Howe in Waltham, Mass. in 1886, he received an engineering degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and arrived in Fort William in 1913, after a stint at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

In July of that year he took on the role as chief engineer for the Board of Grain Commissioners for Canada, opened an engineering firm in Port Arthur and over the course of the next two decades helped shape the waterfront through the design and construction of the cities’ grain elevators.

In 1935 he was elected as Liberal in the Port Arthur riding, a seat he held for the next 22 years.
While in cabinet C.D. Howe lived up to his nickname. Among the portfolios he held were transport, munitions and supplies, reconstruction and supply, trade and commerce and defence production.

While Minister of Transport he laid the groundwork for what would eventually become Air Canada, building airstrips across the country.

He also later reformed the Canadian National Railway and helped establish the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

"He was a pretty major character in Canadian history," his grandson said. "He was elected in 1935 and was in government until 1957. These were the transformative years for Canada. He was minister of all production during the Second World War and he kind of transformed the industrial capacity of the country. He did a lot."

Tuesday’s special presentation of the documentary, C.D. Howe, Minister of Everything, begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Thunder Bay Museum, located at 425 Donald Street East.