Declassified records show federal civil defence planners considered creating an elite list of Canada's brightest and most skilled people who would be protected from nuclear war and tasked with helping rebuild the country.The 1954 Privy Council proposal called for a "preservation of brains and skill" initiative that would identify Canadians whose intelligence and experience were considered essential to keeping the government functioning and restoring the country after a nuclear attack."As far as it may be possible, special facilities should be provided to preserve the lives of persons whose intelligence and experience may be essential both to maintain the sinews of government in time of disorder and to rebuild the country after an initial onslaught in major centres of population," said the secret memo.Blacklock's Reporter said the proposed list would have included gifted Canadians from both the public and private sectors. The memo did not identify any individuals, and there is no indication a final "brains and skill" list was ever completed.The records show officials were increasingly concerned Canada's civil defence planning had failed to keep pace with the destructive power of hydrogen bombs."We should reappraise the problem of civil defence in light of what we now know of the destructive force of the thermonuclear bomb," said the memo, which was sent to the Department of Health, then responsible for civil defence.Officials complained local governments did not appear to appreciate the potential devastation of a thermonuclear attack on a Canadian city.Local authorities "were just not seized with the seriousness of the whole problem of dealing with the dropping of a hydrogen bomb on a built-up area," the memo said. "This is pretty evident."Federal planners also acknowledged Canada's preparations remained rooted in the experience of the Second World War despite the dramatically greater threat posed by nuclear weapons."All our thinking at the moment is based on World War II concepts and ideas," said the memo.Officials were also contemplating how Canada's constitutional system could continue if much of the country's senior leadership was wiped out in a single strike."We have been considering the constitutional difficulties which would arise if the Governor General, the Supreme Court and a large number of the members of both houses were to be killed at one time," said the memo."In this connection we should be interested to know what measures might be planned for the preservation of the Queen and the succession to the Throne.".Another Privy Council memo, Discussion Paper On Public Protection, warned Canadians were becoming increasingly concerned about the apparent lack of bomb shelters."Public opinion is running high," said the document."The fact there is no visible evidence the government is taking practical steps to provide shelter for the populace lends credence, in the public view, to the idea that perhaps nothing can or will be done."Officials calculated building bomb shelters capable of protecting residents throughout Canadian cities and suburbs would cost the equivalent of roughly one-tenth of the national budget.Civil defence planners also produced grim estimates of Canada's prospects in a Soviet nuclear attack.Experts calculated approximately one-quarter of Canada's population could be killed, while only three Canadian cities — Regina, Saskatoon and St. John's — were expected to survive a nuclear war.
