Canadian Reaction to the Events in

Europe
Following the lead of British Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain, William Lyon Mackenzie King pursued a
policy of appeasement with Germany and Italy.

In 1937 King visited Hitler and found him to be a man of

deep sincerity and a genuine patriot who truly loves his
fellow man
When Germany seized the Sudetenland in
Czechoslovakia, the Munich Pact (signed by Britain,
Germany, France and Italy) allowed the territorial grab
without any objection. King sent a message to
Chamberlain thanking him for his work towards peace.
Hitler quickly followed up by capturing the rest of
Czechoslovakia and started the Second World War by
invading Poland on Sept 1, 1939.

Canadian Reaction to the Events in

Europe
At the outbreak of the war, a small minority of Canadians
called for neutralism and pacifism. The most notable figure
being the CCF leader J.S. Woodsworth.

Canada went to war not because Hitler was a monster who

had invaded Poland, not to fight for democracy, not to save
the Jews of Europe but simply because Britain had gone to
war. Britain had promised to defend Poland if Hitler
invaded.
Because of the 1931 Statute of Westminster, Canada now
had independent control of its foreign policy.
It is true that King waited week after Britain declared war
before doing so himself, but this was mostly to prove that
Canada could do so; there was never any doubt that
Canada was Britains banking ally.

Canadian Reaction to the Events in

Europe
Few Canadians felt any excitement as the war began
Ten years of depression, unemployment, and hard
times had sapped the national will, and there were
too many who remembered the dead and maimed
from the Great War
King pledged to not introduce conscription for
overseas service.
Canadas role would be one of limited liability during
the war. This meant that Canada would contribute
what it could and use the war to rebuild its economy.

The Military Role of Canada

To mobilize the economy for war, King created the Department of
Munitions and Supply in 1940 under the direction of industrialist C.D.
Howe.

This department was the driving force behind Canadas industrial

contribution to the war.
At the outset of the war in 1939, King announced that Canadian
forces would play three key roles:
1)

an infantry division would be sent to Europe

2)

the Royal Canadian Navy would shepherd convoys across the

Atlantic

3)

the Royal Canadian Air Force would run the British Commonwealth
Air Training Plan(BCATP)
The BCATP took advantage of Canadas wide-open spaces and
relative safety. Aircrew trainees from all across the Commonwealth
came to Canada to be turned into pilots, navigators, operators, and
bombardiers.

The Military Role of Canada

Many argue that the 132,000-strong aircrew produced by the
BCATP was Canadas greatest contribution to WWII.
As Germany quickly conquered virtually all of continental Europe
by the summer of 1940, Canadas plan for limited liability was
jettisoned.
Recruiting was stepped up, war production was increased to
supply the British demand, and units of infantry, artillery, RCAF
squadrons were hurried across the ocean.
From 1939 until late 1941, Canada was Britains principal ally in
the war effort.
Thousands of RCAF members were integrated into the Royal Air
Forces Bomber Command where they engaged in dangerous
missions carrying the war into the heart of Germany every night.

Canadas Military Role

The death toll for Canadas participation
in WWII included 22,917 in the army,
17,101 in the RCAF and 2204 in the Navy.
(approximately 42,000)
By the end of the war Canada had the
third largest Navy and the fourth largest
air force in the world.

Total War
By 1942, Canada was
committed to a policy
of Total War which
meant that all
industries, materials
and people were put to
work for the war effort.

Inter-American Diplomacy
Both Canada and the USA were worried about their own national
security by the summer of 1940 and decided to move towards
greater cooperation.

Roosevelt and King were friendly and their governments had

negotiated trade deals in 1935 and 1938, and there had even been
tentative military staff talks in 1938.
In August 1940 King called FDR and suggested a meeting at
Ogdensburg, New York.

There they established a Permanent Joint Board on Defence to plan

for the defence of the continent and to coordinate the deployment of
their forces.
The Ogdensburg Agreement was historic because it marked the
shifting of Canada out of Britains sphere of influence and into that
of the USA. Responses to the Ogdensburg Agreement were
positive in North America but Winston Churchill was understandably
critical.

Inter-American
Diplomacy
King again visited FDR in April of 1941 at the Presidents
home in Hyde Park, New York.

The resulting Hyde Park Declaration saw the USA

agreeing to buy more raw materials and manufactured
goods in Canada as well as allowing components to be
imported into Canada under Lend-Lease. All of this
allowed Canada to sidestep dollar deficits and more
effectively supply the British war effort.
Thanks to the Hyde Park Declaration, Canadas
economic problems were quickly erased and the
Canadian war economy boomed.
As a result, Canada was soon in a position to give away
billions of dollars in munitions and foodstuffs. In total,
Canada gave Britain $3.5 billion in aid.

Inter-American
Diplomacy
By the end of 1941, Canada started to be partly
ignored by Washington, DC. The USA was now
formally aligned with the other superpowers of Britain
and the USSR in waging the war and had less time
for a middle power
In an attempt to have more influence Canada applied
the functional principle. For example, in diplomatic
endeavours such as the Combined Food Board
(which allocated scarce foodstuffs), Canada forced
Britain and the USA to allow Canada a larger share of
decision-making as a reflection of Canadas role as a
principal food exporter.

Canada was also active in cooperating with the USA

on atomic and scientific research as well as in
intelligence matters.

Impact of the War on

Labour
Increased demands for wheat, lumber, fish and minerals made
unemployment disappear
Government and businesses desired peace on the labour front in
order to maintain production
Ottawa passed regulations that recognized labours rights to
bargain collectively and organize, to fair wages and a fair deal.
The primary regulation was Privy Council Act 1003. PC 1003 was
modelled on the USs Wagner Act and became the basis for all
subsequent labour law in Canada.
One preamble to PC 1003 states that, "the common well-being" is
promoted "through the encouragement of free collective
bargaining and the constructive settlement of disputes."
Union strength doubled from 359,000 in 1939 to 711,000 in 1945.

Impact of the War on

Business
While some business leaders were unhappy with the new
rights of labour, overall business was good during the war.
There were products to be made in every factory and the
cost-plus contracts with the government eliminated the
usual risks for owners
The government aided the construction of plants, gave
easy write-offs for costs and depreciation and, although
taxes were high, profits were still good.
Unnecessary industries were squeezed out of the
marketplace and forced to convert to war production. Eg.
Fridges to Bren guns or tank tracks

Impact of the War on the

Economy
Living standards improved all across the country during the war.
The Gross National Product (GNP) rose from $5.6 billion in 1939
to $11.8 billion in 1945 and average wages, personal savings and
government expenditures rose with it.
The cost of living remained static because of price controls and,
in spite of high taxes, there was more money in Canada than
there had been for years.
There were few things to buy due to military production so
Canadians gave billions back to the government when they
bought Victory Bonds.
It was a peoples war in Canada, fought by the people with
equipment produced by the people and paid for by the people,
and for once the people seemed to get some of the benefits.

Rationing: A Little Goes a

Long Way!
To ensure there was a large enough supply to meet both military
and civilian needs, certain staple goods were rationed.

Rationed Items Included:

Meat, Butter, Tea, Coffee, Gasoline, Tires (rubber), Alcohol,
Clothing Fabric and Silk

Paying for the War

The Canadian Government did raise taxes during the
WWII to help pay for the cost of the war.

The Canadian government turned to an old idea:

Victory Bond drives.

The government conducted nine Victory Bond drives

between June 1941 and October 1945. These
campaigns raised nearly $12 billion by the end of the
war.

Conscription
King did not want to see a repeat of the Conscription
Crisis that had damaged French-English relations
during World War One.
French and English Canadians needed to remain
united, but this would be impossible if conscription
was imposed on a reluctant Quebec by the AngloCanadian majority
The National Resources Mobilization Act was passed
in 1940 to create a conscripted force but for home
defence only.

Conscription
This policy seemed favourable to most French
Canadians, who had no quarrel with being expected
to defend Canada.

As the war deepened, King came up with the idea of a

national plebiscite to free his government from its
promise to not impose conscription.
In early 1942, Quebec voted 72.9% against
conscription while in Ontario (and most of English
Canada) only 17.7% voted against forced military
service overseas.

King now found himself in a difficult position: should

he listen to the majority will and impose conscription
or favour national unity and not alienate Quebec?

Conscription
The National Resources Mobilization Act
was amended to make overseas
conscription possible but only if it was
deemed necessary.
King craftily claimed it was not
necessarily conscription, but conscription
if necessary
By 1944, there was a shortage of
Canadian troops in Europe. Because
Canada insisted on controlling its own
forces in the war, a long supply line and
reinforcement chain was necessary.
Reinforcement shortages arose and
wounded Canadians were being sent back
out the front.

Conscription
King decided that conscription had become
necessary and sent 16,000 NRMA men overseas.
In the end 2463 NRMA soldiers made it to the front
and, of these, only 69 were killed.
The fallout in Quebec was sharply critical, but it did
not destroy the Liberal government in Quebec.
King still seemed the best of a bad lot of Anglo
politicians to French Canadians.
By stalling until the end of the war, King had
avoided a major division and the bloody riots that
had accompanied the conscription crisis during
WWI.

Impact of the War on the Role of Government

The state began to intervene in
every sphere of life, allocating
resources, controlling
production, and determining
wages.

The Wartime Prices and Trade

Board froze prices and wages in
1941 to avoid spiralling inflation.
Ration cards or tokens were
issued for scarce items such as
gasoline or meat
Housewives were encouraged
to plant Victory Gardens to
produce their own foodstuffs as
well as to save fats and metals
for the war effort.
The government mobilized for
war in a way that made WWI
efforts look amateurish.

Impact of the War on the Role of

Government
Canadians were afraid that depression conditions would return after the war;
People wanted jobs, security and a good standard of living.
In response and under the influence of Keynesian economics, the federal
bureaucracy became convinced that it needed to play a major role in directing the
economy.
In 1940 a contributory scheme of unemployment insurance was created.
Further, in 1944 the family allowance or baby bonus began sending a monthly
payment for each child.

These and other numerous programs created the modern welfare state or social
welfare net that Canadians have come to expect.
The Liberal party stole these social welfare planks from Opposition parties (most
notably the CCF) and established itself as the primary ruling party of Canada
because it delivered the goods.

The government had changed with the war, and ideas of state intervention that in
the 1930s had been denounced as unjustified interference with the laissez faire
tradition were now heralded as essential

Impact of the War on Aboriginal

Peoples
3000 First Nation Canadians served during
WWII. This statistic does not account for any Inuit
or Metis participants.
Because of the entrance restrictions used by the
air force and navy, most Aboriginal people served
in the army.
Aboriginal men joined to gain employment, to
fight against Nazism, and to carry on the tradition
of their fathers and uncles who had served in
WWI

Impact of the War on Aboriginal Peoples

The war produced many decorated
Aboriginal heroes. For example,
Tommy Prince of Manitoba served
as part of an exclusive battalion
doing specialized reconnaissance
and raiding missions. As the most
decorated Canadian war hero,
Prince was awarded the Military
Medal by King George VI.
Despite their sacrifices, Aboriginal
soldiers still faced discrimination
and often returned to a Canada that
relegated them and their families to
the second-class citizenship of
reserve life.

It must be remembered that many

First Nations soldiers were fighting
for democracy abroad while they
didnt even have the right to vote in
federal elections!

Impact of the War on

Women
Wives and older daughters stepped into industry to supply the necessary labour lost by
men fighting overseas
By 1944, more than 1 million women were working full time and this figure does not
include part-time women workers or the 800,000 women working on farms.
In 1943, 261,000 women were employed in war industries making artillery pieces, tanks,
ammunition, ships and aircraft. In contrast to the sham of Rosie the Riveter in the USA,
Canadian women did much of the same work as men in factories.
As a result, women earned substantially higher wages than were possible before the war.

Women also participated actively in the war effort.

Nearly 50,000 women enlisted in the Canadian Womens Army Corps, the RCAFs
Womens Division, and the Womens Royal Canadian Naval Service.
A further 4,500 served as nursing sisters in the forces overseas.

The war did not emancipate women or win them full equality, but it did increase their
opportunities by providing room for work outside the domestic sphere.

With so many men

enlisting, Canada faced a
labour shortage as early
as 1941, most notably in
war-related industries.
One of the main
strategies of the
Canadian Government
was to recruit women for
the work force.

Veronica Foster or Ronnie The Bren Gun

Girl, John Inglis Co. in Toronto, ON

In The Army Now

In 1941, for the first time in
Canadian history, women were able
to enlist in their own divisions of the
Army, Navy
and Air
Force.
Although Canadian women were not
allowed into combat during the
Second World War, they did just
about everything else.
Women served as nurses, stretcher
bearers, drivers, machine operators,
cooks and secretaries. They also
flew Canadian built planes to bases
in Britain
They were paid roughly 60% of what
males in the military were paid

Top Secret: Camp X

Camp X, which operated in
Oshawa, Ontario from 1941 to
1946, was a training camp
responsible for training recruits
for the Special Operations
Executive of the British Security
Coordination during World War
II.
It was comprised of two
sections, the Special Training
School No. 103, which trained
allied agents in the techniques
of secret warfare, and Hydra, a
network which communicated
messages between Canada,
United States, and Great
Britain.

Reaction to the Holocaust in

Canada
In the 1930s German Jews fled Nazi Germany in order to
escape persecution.
The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 had removed the rights of
Jewish citizens and Kristallnacht in 1938 was a
government-sponsored attack on the Jewish community.
Frederick Blair, Kings anti-Semitic minister of immigration,
had effectively shut the doors to any Jews attempting to
come to Canada. When asked how many Jews should be
allowed to immigrate, Blair responded, one is too many.
Canada also turned away the steamship St. Louis that was
filled with German Jewish refugees. When the ship
returned to Germany, half of its passengers would perish
during the Holocaust.

Reaction To The
Holocaust
As a result of Blairs policies, Canada allowed fewer
than 5000 Jews refuge in Canada during Hitlers
reign. This is in comparison to the USA (240,000) and
Argentina (25,000).
Canada during WWII was still a very W.A.S.P. country
and anti-Semitic views were still very common.
Though many people view Hitlers systematic
murdering of 6 million Jews and 5 million other
undesirables (Gypsies, homosexuals, disabled
people, Slavs and leftists) as a key feature of WWII, it
was not a primary concern for Canadians during the
war.

Reaction to the
Holocaust
By 1942, information detailing the slaughter of
Jews became available to Allied leaders.

The Canadian Jewish Congress organized

protests and did publicity to raise awareness of
the issue and to allow refugees into Canada.
At the end of 1942, Canadian officials admitted
that they knew 2 million Jews had been killed.
Despite this, they argued that the solution was to
defeat Germany militarily, not to admit refugees.

Reaction to the
Holocaust
Due to anti-Judaism within the general population, there was little
support for accepting refugees or immigrants.
King was aware that pursuing a strong policy of refugee
admission could possibly cause him to lose the next election.
When a petition was put forward by the Canadian National
Committee on Refugees, nativist and anti-Judaic groups
mobilized against it.
For example, the Canadian Legions paper wrote, The future of
Canada depends on the preservation of British institutions...there
is no room in Canada for the cut throat competition of Japs or
refugees until all returned soldiers were re-integrated into
Canada.

Reaction to the
Holocaust
At the end of the war there were 250,000 Jews left in Europe looking for
homes. They were among the millions of DPs (Displaced Persons) still in
camps.
In 1947 Canada allowed 8000 Jews into Canada under a few programs
for orphans, first-degree relatives and needle trades/fur workers.
On the positive side, this reversed the decades-old trend of refusal and
represented a higher percentage of Jewish immigrants (15%) than the
total population of Canadian Jews as part of Canadian society(1.5%)

On the negative side, this total was pitiful compared with the demand.
Also, it only came after the crisis of the Holocaust was over. Finally, and
coincidentally, Canada only opened its doors at the time of the founding of
Israel. Thus, many Jews decided to settle there instead.

Canada and the Atomic

Age
Canada had assisted the USA in its Manhattan Project of
developing the atomic bomb.
A research and development facility to be used as part of the
Manhattan Project was scheduled to be built in Montreal, but was
cancelled when the bomb was developed earlier than planned.
Canada provided uranium from its western mines to be used in
the atomic bombs.
After WWII ended the world quickly split between the capitalist
west (USA, Britain, Canada, France, West Germany) and the
communist east (USSR, and its satellites such as East Germany,
Poland, etc.)
Although Canada never armed itself with atomic bombs, it did
participate in the Cold War by joining the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO).