The Fabulous 50s.

People in retrospect sometimes dismiss the 1950s with the term for a style of cigarette packaging at the time--"Flat Fifties." But surely that's refuted by a decade when Canada's GNP doubled, the value of manufacturing nearly did, petroleum production increased fivefold, as did iron ore output, while the Canadian dollar, still a paper bill, exchanged at a premium with the US greenback. Despite earlier Canadian nervousness about a pugnacious America, the Korean War throttles up Canada's economy to new heights. Bigger military budgets build up the aircraft, electronics and shipbuilding industries and their suppliers. Further, such industries are able to shift readily to peacetime projects, notably in electronics in the new TV and stereo age. The 1950s also brought Canadian TV, produced the polio vaccine, the first jetliners and pioneer computers. Not to mention rock 'n' roll and Elvis. The present may have a hard time matching all that. INSET: Multimillionaire E.P. Taylor is off to the races.