Things were very different in 1939 — a pivotal year when Canada wavered on the doorstep of a clouded future.

Some years are more spectacular than others, and 1939 was no exception. Canada was a different place: steak was twenty-nine cents a pound and a brand-new Ford coupe could be bought for just $856. It was a year when the king and queen toured Canada and wowed to use a showbiz term everyone from Toronto and Vancouver to Gogama and Craigellachie.

It was also a year when Canada wavered on the doorstep of a clouded future: isolation and neutrality or the continued embrace of the British Empire? The onset of war and the Royal Visit settled all that as Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King beat back external and internal threats to keep the tapestry of national unity from unraveling.

Through Canada on the Doorstep you’ll discover the births, deaths, storms, international intrigue, and politics that made 1939 so memorable.

William Rayner is a semi-retired journalist who has been a keen observer of British Columbia’s historical scene for more than 40 years. Born in Winnipeg in 1929,William was educated there before joining the Royal Canadian Navy in 1947. After five years’ service, including action in the Korean War, he entered the newspaper business. Although he wrote and edited for the Trail Daily Times, the Victoria Times, the Vancouver Herald, the Montreal Star and the Globe and Mail, William spent most of his newspaper career with the Vancouver Sun. In 1971, he edited the much acclaimed Vancouver Sun Centennial Edition.

Since retiring from daily journalism in 1988, William has written a number of articles for magazines and newspapers. From 1990 to 1995, he wrote a biweekly column for the Vancouver Province.

William describes himself as “a political chronographer who probably knows more about the past 130 years than is good for me.” His hobbies include watching trains, playing bad chess and passable Scrabble, chasing tornadoes each spring and reading (especially newspapers).

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