I don't remember too much of the 1972 Democratic and Republican conventions as a kid except what might have been on Canadian news. We had only moved into our new house in 1970 and a had a black and white television with rabbit ears and really only two channels. CBC French channel really didn't come in that well in River Heights without a rooftop antenna. We got Videon cable in 1971 and a colour TV in the same year. The colour TV was a gift from my mom's parent's.
It was our first exposure to ABC, CBS and NBC at home. Our family had begun to venture down to Grand Forks, North Dakota the same year and had discovered Saturday morning cartoons. We would stay at the Town House motel as it had a pool and all shopping at the time was downtown as Columbia Mall was a few years away from being built.
In 1972 in our travels to the States, I noticed the political signs for Republican and Democratic candidates and even in elementary school, it was an impressive site. Pretty much even before elementary school, I was aware of politics through the news. The words Vietnam was something I heard on the news all the time. I knew Canada was not in it but our neighbour to the south was.
As a child in Canada experience the joy and pride of a new flag, a 100th birthday party for the country and a new prime minister called Pierre Trudeau, there seem to be a celebratory mood everywhere. This was followed by Manitoba's birthday in 1970 and Winnipeg's birthday in 1974. Meanwhile the U.S. seemed to be in chaos with wars, assassinations and street riots.
Travelling to the U.S. at length showed the U.S. was much more than that. North Dakota and Minnesota were familiar territory and comfortable for those in Winnipeg travelling. It had exciting differences too. Cartoons for one. Cereals for another. And for 7 year old me, the pageantry and colour of a U.S. election was hard to look away from.
As mentioned, I was a bit too young in 1972 to stay up late watching the U.S. conventions. On a school night, it would be unusual for me to be up past 9 and that is when things were just getting going for conventions. However, by 1976 I was old enough and aware enough about real differences in the U.S. and Canada. Our family travelled months in the U.S. in the early 1970s which gave a different spin on what one saw on TV and through entertainment.
The amount of media exposure a kid could have by 1976 to the U.S. was overwhelming. And with only a dozen TV stations, the shared experiences via that medium were more widespread. Kids all over were watching Six Million Dollar Man in 1973. Today, there is far more diversity in entertainment offerings. May don't watch TV at all in favour of video gaming. As far as news goes today, if kids don't see it on TikTok, it often is something they don't know about.
As a little kid I remember the whole house watching the Apollo lunar landings in 1969. The broadcast were watched by nearly 90% of the population. Today that number would seem to be impossible no matter the newsworthiness. CBC covered the landing for hours just as all world networks did. The National on CBC TV was on at 11 pm so my exposure to news was mostly from the local news at 6:30 PM, Yes, you heard that right. CBC's 24Hours news program ran 6:30 to 7:30 until 1977. In our house, we had CBC Radio on and listened to the national news at 6 while eating at the dining room table. With no microwave, toaster oven or other cooking devices, dinners took longer to prepare. In 1971, we'd listen to As it Happens at 6:30 PM with Barbara Frum before the TV might go on.
The 1972 U.S. election saw Richard Nixon re-elected with the biggest majority ever by a Republican. The U.S. economy was booming even as the Vietnam War continued. The Canadian economy, by contrast, was slumping and the Trudeau government was re-elected with a minority. In Manitoba, it meant the only Liberal representation was businessman James Richardson who served in the cabinet. As as kid I saw how Trudeau went from loved to hated in four years. It was mystifying. However, in retrospect the Canadian and U.S. elections happened almost at the same time and a turn to Republicans in the States had some impact in Canada as people compared economies. The 1972 Summit Hockey series was on at start of campaign but did little to help Pierre Trudeau make people forget inflation.
Since Canada has different part conventions, there is no excitement of selecting a leader and policy debates can be a little dry. Both the Liberals and PCs had leaders in 1972. Even Nixon has to secure his party's nomination despite being incumbent president. All I remembered from the 1972 Democratic National convention in New York was that it was chaotic. The Vietnam War still raged on but an extremely Democrats were not able to capitalize and ran on a very liberal platform. Their nominee McGovern was not able to balance the ticket with a big city Democrat with Kennedy-like popularity and by the time he secured the nomination he ended up giving his acceptance speech around 3 AM. Nixon would go on to beat McGovern badly.
It would be the following year that I began delivering the Winnipeg Tribune. I had started filling in the year before and started my own route the next year. For kids, comics was often the first thing they read in the paper. Often sports might come next. I was already interested in the news so as a carrier I would usually read the paper cover to cover. People in Winnipeg were either Free Press people or Tribune people.
The Vietnam War was still a major issue but something called Watergate began to emerge in the U.S. and appearing in the papers in Winnipeg. Nixon dominated the headlines. It was around 1973 that I started watching American evening news more regularly. At first it was CBS and Walter Kronkite, then some NBC with John Chancellor. However, because ABC kept trying to reach new audiences, I would tune in to them and often keep watching their programming into the evening.
I mention the networks because CBS, NBC and ABC all build large studios at Democratic and Republican conventions. It is a rather impressive fare when seen with the backdrop of every state having markers for their delegates and the large convention arena seating. As mentioned, I was a bit too young to have been following the 1972 U.S. conventions but the 1976 ones were a different story.
In 1975, Saturday Night Live started on NBC and in the central time zone, it was on at 10:30 PM. It was the perfect program for weekends for younger people. While I had seen presidential and political humour on Johnny Carson, the craziness of SNL was unparalleled. Nixon was gone but they managed to parody Gerald Ford with pratfalls done by Chevy Chase that were hilarious.
It was shocking to me how popular Nixon was in 1972 and by 1974 he was most hated. My memory of him leaving out the back door by Marine helicopter while Ford took over in the front door remains with me today. The shocking decline felt familiar to me as in 1968 Trudeau was super popular but by 1972 had fallen hard.
I had been interested in politics right from Kindergarten. A teacher had told my parents that I shouldn't be worried about the Arab-Israeli conflict. I obviously had talked about it at school after listening to the news at home. By 1973, I was seeing a war in Israel and was still asking questions but school was a great place to ask them. My school text often had American references to presidents in them. Canadian history was thin. World history even thinner.
By 1976, I was able to take in the Republican and Democratic National Conventions. Gerald Ford had to fight a contested nomination with a few challengers such as Ronald Reagan in the convention in Kansas City in August. I was unfamiliar with the primary system but I do know that there were many who were not happy in the party with the Fall of Saigon, détente and what happened with Nixon's resignation.
By contrast, the Democrats seemed more upbeat and Jimmy Carter, Governor of Georgia ran as an outsider. In 1975, our family had passed through Georgia on the way to Florida. I remembered Carter's name from our travels there. Carter chose Walter Mondale, the senator from Minnesota.
The one thing I really remembered was the keynote speech from the Democratic convention in New York was Barbara Jordan, the first black woman to address at convention. She had recently been elected to Congress in Texas. It was a great speech and was the first time I had heard of a keynote speech before. It was amazing and surprisingly, no duplicated in the 1980 convention.
Jimmy Carter won the election but a terrible economy, price and wage controls and Iran taking American hostages crushed Democrats in the polls. Ronald Regan was back. I remember a little about the conventions. They were a little chaotic but then the who election cycle was overshadowed by American hostages. The Republican convention in Detroit had a keynote speaker who spoke with no notes for 37 minutes and probably set the tone for what was to come with Reagan. It really was a movement.
I won't go into all the conventions but in 1984 Reagan's speech to Republic National Convention and Mario Cuomo's speech were among the finest ever given at a convention ever. I have included Cuomo's speech above.
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