In those days about the only North American news we could get while travelling was picking up the International Herald Tribune from time to time. And the only news out of Canada that summer was a leap frog contest on Vancouver Island somewhere. I remember being struck by how unimportant Canada seemed to be in the world.
We had been very disappointed in 1969 with the NDP not being able to wrest power from the iron grip of the Socreds and I remember commenting to Jim that I would bet my year's salary that we'd be having more years with the likes of Wacky Bennett and Flying Phil. Jim's parents (fervent NDP'ers) picked us up from the airport in Vancouver and were very excited and hopeful about the NDP winning and whisked us off to vote. We had moved to Victoria in 1971 but were still on the voter's list in Vancouver.
As tired and jet lagged as we were it was an amazing night to watch the election results with Jim's parents and see the NDP become our government.
