By Dorothy Nixon 2004
All Rights Reserved

The summer of 1967  was 'the summer of love' and the summer of race riots in the US, but in Canada it was a momentous time for much better reasons, the summer of the World's Fair or Expo 67 in Montreal. That delirious year, Centennial Year, was a so called 'watershed' or 'coming of age' for Canada; 12 months, it has been described, of unparalleled optimism and pride in our young country; our hundredth anniversary of Confederation.

Youth culture prevailed: more than ½ the population of  Canada (indeed North America) was under 25. British Carnaby Street 'mod' fashion epitomized by the jaunty mini-skirted British 'bird' or girl was front and center.  Indeed, all things British were very big at the time: 'Swinging London" as well as the Redgrave Sisters made the cover of Canadian Time Magazine. Georgy Girl, (Lynn Redgrave) Blow Up (Vanessa Redgrave) and Alfie (Michael Caine and Beatle girlfriend Jane Asher) were playing  in local theatres.

Two Montreal-born entertainers, both handsome Jewish males in their 30s, were embarking on their paths of fame: William Shatner and Leonard Cohen. Two of the biggest pop culture celebrities in Canada (well, everywhere) were a 17 year old Cockney waif with sunburst eye makeup nicknamed Twiggy and a University of Toronto professor and media guru/futurist, Marshall McLuhan.  Don't Look Back, Dylan advised.  And we didn't.  .

1967 has been described as The Last Good Year by Pierre Berton, as The Year That Changed Cinema, with Bonnie and Clyde, which premieried at Expo, as well as the Best Year Ever in Pop Music. In and around anglo Montreal, radio was the communications medium  of choice for young people. Kids  listened to the likes of Charles P. Rodney Chandler and Dean Hagopian on their transistor radios and kept track of the respective weekly hit lists.  One of the most popular new DJ's was an import, a former British merchant marine sailor  named Roger Scott on CFOX the grooviest station of all.  In late May of 1967 Scott aired 'pirated' tapes of the album Srgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Album, before the album was officially released. My older brother was mightily impressed.

But these same heady Expo months were also a time of tension in the Middle East with Six Day War where we came close to nuclear war ….again... and 'the tipping point' for Vietnam and a time when decisions were made that 'signaled the end of Britain's' imperial adventure'.* 

In  1967 the  British wanted to pull out of 'East of Suez' entirely.  They could no longer afford to be there. While  school children from Victoria to Gander were learning the words to  CA NA DA, Bobby Gimby's giddy  centennial year signature song, the Americans were putting pressure on the British to stay or at least to delay the pull out announcement. President Lyndon Johnson even bribed them, offering to back the pound sterling and "solve all your financial problems."* So, if Lyndon Baines Johnson appeared to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders, as he rode that long long  escalator up past the kitschy photographs of Marilyn Monroe and James Dean in the American Pavilion at Expo 67 on his  official visit, that's  because he did. (* Matthew Jones' Decision Delayed Historical Review.)

Malaysia, the 15th country to sign up for the World's Fair - in July '64 (plot 3320 Ste Helene's Island) didn't have a pavilion in the end.   They had pulled out; perhaps  because Singapore had been expelled from the Malaysian Federation in 1965 ( to quell the unrest between the Chinese and the Malays) and couldn't come up with the money.  Or maybe Tengku Abdul Rahman didn't approve of the plot's location, next to Taiwan's. Malaysia's first PM  had visited the Expo site in '64.

One wonders what Bobby Gimby felt about all this: the so called Pied Piper of Canada, a former CBC musician and bandleader,   is reported to have composed them an unofficial anthem, Malaysia Forever, and earned his whimsical moniker, on a visit to Singapore in '62.

The song itself is steeped in mystery;   no former colonial or expert in Malaysian studies I have reached has ever heard of it. Negara Ku has been Malaya's (Malaysia's) national anthem since 1957Gimby's daughter begs to differ. CLICK


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