Robin Carson

If you are near or over 70 , you can probably remember the early 1960s winter-works campaign waged by John Diefenbaker ’ s minister of labour , Michael Starr , and the Unemployment Insurance Commission . Or , if you cannot remember the campaign , you can almost certainly remember the jingle “ Why wait for spring ? Do it now / While there are men who know how ,” and can also probably hum it .

The jingle ( composed by the late George Blackburn ) was everywhere in Alberta during the winter months . Radio stations played it , and Alberta ’ s few television stations aired black-and-white animations with the jingle in good , three-part harmony . If there ever was an earworm , it was that jingle !

In Edmonton , my father , Stuart Carson , had joined the then-National Employment Service ( NES ) in the late 1950s as an employment counsellor . Because of the many broadcast and print media contacts that he ’ d made in his work in theatre , Dad was named to the NES committee promoting winter works for northern Alberta . There was a mild recession at the time , and the Progressive Conservative Government saw an opportunity to put people to work during the long months of winter when many of them usually drew unemployment insurance . Certainly , it seemed like an excellent plan , and my father was enthusiastic about his new responsibility .

My father ’ s task was to promote the winterworks program , so if you ’ re a northern Albertan , and still have that “ Do it now !” jingle in your head , that is probably the fault of my father . My father also had to visit job sites that were using federal money to close in their projects against winter weather and to heat the projects using enormous blowtorch-like

Why wait for spring ? Do it now When there are men who know how . If the job is interior , then the work is superior if you don ’ t wait for spring . Why wait for spring ? Do it now !

propane heaters . All sorts of projects were trying out new and sometimes innovative techniques , and my father was expected to be present to report on them .

Although my father , like his colleagues , dressed in a suit and tie , some of his worksite visits were fraught with danger . On one of his trips to a jobsite , closed-in and heated , Dad got too close to the propane heater and his overcoat caught fire . The fire was put out immediately , but the hem-edge of the coat was forever scorched . ( Forever , until the drycleaners hoping to conceal the scorch marks burned to the ground .)

Before the 1950s , it was common for Canadian tradespeople to draw employment insurance during the winter months , as most construction work stopped when the snow fell . The NES ’ s Do It Now campaign encouraged Canadian homeowners and businesses to use the winter months to complete home renovations and construction projects , creating work for the many available tradespeople and reducing seasonal unemployment levels . The legacy of this campaign can be seen all around us today — construction season never stops !

Robin Carson now lives in Charlottetown where construction booms twelve months of the year . Robin waited almost a year for an electrician , for example — they , like carpenters , painters , and other trades , are that busy !

news & views SUMMER 2023 | 17