Below is a chapter from NYC's latest book, No Expectations: A Memoir by James N. McCrorie.
NO EXPECTATIONS is a brief memoir of a Montreal working class
kid, the son of Scottish immigrants, who lowered his sights, abandoning a lively
ambition to either go to sea or become a railroader, and settling for the life
of an academic. The choice did not keep him out of some of the historical
struggles of his time, including the fight for medicare in Saskatchewan in 1962,
the wild cat strike of 1964, when CN railroaders shut down the railroad,
paralyzing the nation, and university reform, which dominated campus life
throughout the 1970s.
You can purchase this book HERE.
Chapter 10 MEDICARE
.It would not be an
exaggeration to say that I was thrilled by my research work. The whimsical
thought of railroading was banished from my mind. I was travelling all over the
province, meeting and interviewing all manner of farm men and women, becoming
acquainted with the intriguing history of the province, marveling at how so
many men and women, many non-English speaking when they arrived, dared to
settle this formidable semi arid desert and create upon the land one of the
most enlightened and progressive human communities in Canada.
There was another
consideration. I was falling in love with this semi arid desert. True. I missed
Montreal, the St. Lawrence River valley and the Canadian Shield. (I was yet to
discover that the shield was part of the far north of the province; a region I
was yet to visit.) But the variety and complexity of the plains and the
parkland began to attract me. Experience and acquaintanceship were undermining
my initial displeasure with my new geographical surroundings.