The Steel Company of Canada

There has been some cool music stuff lately, but that's not really my headspace right now.
What's important is the Steel Company of Canada ("The Steel Company" to any of you oldtimers out there, or Stelco to the rest of us).
I wonder if people realise the importance of what has been happening there in the last 2 or 3 years. First the history lesson, then I'll bring it back to today.

The industrialist of the late 1800's and early 1900's was a bit different than the CEO's we know today. They were completely ignorant in their attidues to the working class, but at the same time they had achieved prosperity in very young countries. Building an industrial base went hand in hand with nation building. So, despite the disdain the likes of a Rockerfeller or a Huey Hilton in Stelco's case, might have had for the average Joe working man, they were still very patriotic. They wanted what was best for the country ( the number of industrialists — or their sons — in Hamilton that were war vets is astounding). In this same patriotic mindset, two steel companies were formed. In 1903, an amalgamation of smaller steel companies gave birth to the United States Steel Company in Pittsburgh. The first company worth a billion dollars in the world. This is a part of the heart that would form the economic powerhouse of the 20th century the we saw in the States. Up here in Canada, there were two ideas that were prevailing back then that are sadly lost today.

1. We are Canadians! We gained our independance in 1867. We started later as a country than the U.S., and there is a huge population disparity between the two nations. But every time we get around Canada Day the press is full of "what does it mean to be Canadian?", is it hockey or maple syrup? Is it bilingualism or health care? Before any of those things existed (except maple syrup), there was one defining thing that made us Canadian. We are not Americans! And implicit in that is that we are better than Americans. We stood by the Queen. I'm a descendant of United Empire Loyalists who were people who came up from the States that were on the losing side of the American Revolution.  We are better than that rabble. I know that when you get down to the bone we are all the same. But it was forces from Hamilton that stopped American regiments in Stoney Creek during the War of 1812. Out numbered 5 to 1, I might add. But we knew how to get things done. And it's only in modern times have we lost our way.

2. In 1903 we were a very young country, 36 years old in fact, and we needed to let go of Mom's apron and fend for ourselves. We needed an industrial base, to create wealth, and produce for ourselves what we had been importing from England and the States. One facet of this was the steel industry. To the best of my knowledge, steel manufacturing in Canada started in and around Montreal in the early 1800's ( Stelco still has ties with Lachine, Quebec). But due to Hamilton's prime real estate at the head of Lake Ontario, raw materials can be shipped here by boat much easier than most places, as well as our availability of running water and electricity early on, this became the home to the bulk of Canadian manufacturing. Seven years after the creation of US Steel, the Canadians responded with the Steel Company of Canada, an amalgamtion of various independent steel mills that had sprung up in Hamilton because we were on the vanguard of technology back then!  To me the 20" Mill is the best remnant of this time. As Stuart turns into Queen Street, down by Pier 4 Park, there stands the shell of old-timey steel making.
When it closed in 1990,  it was the oldest operating steel mill in North America. It started in in 1853, and was long before Stelco. It was also a manual mill, which is totally unheard of today. This means that a man with long tongs has to manipulate a piece of hot steel spagetti into a "mill", that will help shape it into the desired specs. On the west side of Queen, on what is now vacant land, was the 10" Mill and I believe the 4" Mill, predating even the ancient 20" Mill.

Now after the implosion of Stelco, that I am personally convinced was orchestrated from the inside. We open the doors to the Americans, and give up one of the companies that was (and is) vital to our nationhood. Stelco is closed for the first time in 99 years.  What does Canada have left? No more Stelco, Dofasco, or Hudson's Bay. Our major breweries have been sold off. No more canning of our Niagra fruitbelt produce. Borje Salming got into the Hockey Hall of Fame for pete's sake (Swedish, homosexual, men's underwear designer, who couldn't stay on his feet. That's why he got 500 stitches across his face.)! What's left Canada? And all this happened before the so-called Great Recession. The bigwigs in their suits have a huge hate on for us. The men with their curly moustaches and monacles never would have stood for this. It's their weaselly descendants that have made a mint selling off what Canadians had built. Now we are subservient to foreign overlords. And everyone has electricity and running water now. How will we ever reclaim our rightful position in this country? And how will this country retain it's rightful place in the world? Don't ask Harper, to him, everything is going according to plan.

Buy Canadian!

The Hamilton Kid

ps. Every Monday, there are boys from USWA Local 1005 at the corner of King and James. Last Monday, I was stuck in traffic near the intersection. There were a couple 20 year old girls stuck in their car a few lanes over. They were leaning out of their car yelling "1005 sucks!", and "we don't care about your pensions!" If I was ten years younger I would have snapped. It took all my strength to not get out of my Studebaker (made in Hamilton) and put that great big car jack through their windshield. I truly fear for our future.

Comments

[Jimmy Pudjunas]

Hey Glen, Great column!! Way to say what's on your mind and open eyes that are less educated on the subject. I, myself, have not been effected personally by the trade shutdown but I am sure to be in the long run is what I gather from your column. Thank you for making me realize how Hamilton has helped, thanklessly, to create a steel industry only to leave the Hamiltonians that provided the labour out in the cold.

Sad, sad day in "Steeltown"
Stupid Jimmy Garbage Face