planning took place for an airway system to reach from Edmonton into the far North. Foundation of civil airlines The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) petitioned to start air service in 1919 but initially did not get involved in aviation. By 1930, Canada was one of the few countries without a national airline. In Western Canada, Western Canadian Airways was founded in 1926 by James Richardson. The airline specialized in northern operations, and was particularly noted for an airlift of materials and men for surveying associated with the port of Churchill in 1927. Following acquisition of some competitors, in 1930 the airline was renamed Canadian Airways. Cherry Red Airline was founded in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan in 1928 for similar purposes. The effect of the Great Depression was severe on the Canadian civil aviation industry. The Federal government did not wish to spend money on aviation while the economy was in poor condition. R.B. Bennett was famously quoted as saying he didn't want government-funded aircraft flying over farmers whose fields were blowing away around them. Government air mail contracts were cancelled, putting small aviation companies reliant on mail into financial difficulty. Tasks such as air photography, transportation of police to northern posts, air mail, and other civil operations, briefly in the hands of the private sector, were taken up by the RCAF to make it politically acceptable to continue funding it. The Canadian government did not have a national policy in place for development of civil aviation. With the Air Force and Government Civil Air Operations in direct competition with private companies, and with the Post Office having no greater directive than obtaining air mail service at the lowest possible cost, civil aviation developed in a hap-hazard and slow fashion. Lack of a national trans-Canada airline permitted U.S. air lines to obtain important trans-border routes. The British Imperial Airways had no Canadian operator to co-ordinate with for trans-Atlantic routes and so routes served by the US Pan Am were used to carry on transcontinental traffic from Atlantic flights. Lack of reliable air mail contracts made it impossible for private aviation companies to operate on a sound financial basis. Without airway facilities, freight, mail and passengers were being carried by foreign airlines instead of a Canadian airline. Much of this delay in development was the result of Andrew McNaughton's role as head of the Department of National Defence, where he protected Air Force