Mobilizing Canada’s Resources

Mobilizing Resources

• Canada was not prepared for war in 1939.

• Army had only 4500 men, a few dozen anti-tank guns, sixteen tanks and no modern artillery. Navy and Air Force had outdate equipment and few recruits.

Mobilizing Resources

• Canadians remembered the horrors of WW1, but still had no trouble finding volunteers: over 58,000 people volunteered in the first month alone!

• Why do you think people would have volunteered?

Mobilizing Resources

• After years of Depression, many Canadians attracted by the $1.30 a day pay (plus support for spouses and families)

• Many felt strong ties to Britain

• Others felt a new sense of national pride.

Mobilizing Resources

• Early in the war Mackenzie King hoped to try and keep as much of Canada’s war effort on the home front (in order to avoid conscription).

• One way they tried to contribute:

The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan trained pilots and flight personnel from all over the Commonwealth.

Ottawa administered the Plan and paid most of the costs, although the majority of graduates, eventually drawn from many Allied countries, went on to serve in Britain’s Royal Air Force.

• Used Tiger Moth training planes built in Toronto.

Mobilizing Resources

• The Plan was a huge undertaking: maintained 231 training sites and required more than 10,000 aircraft and 100,000 military personnel to administer.

• More than half of its 131,553 graduates were Canadian.

Total War

• What is meant by the phrase, “Total War”?

Total War

• The Canadian Govt. became extremely involved in the planning and control of the economy.

• Appointed C.D. Howe the minister of the Department of Munitions and Supplies.

• Told industry what to produce, how to produce it, and how much to produce.

Total War

• Businesses were convinced to start manufacturing goods they had never made before: for example, auto companies began to make tanks and military vehicles.

• Munitions factories began to open in Ontario and Quebec, Vancouver began to make ships, Montreal new planes and bombers.

Total War

• If the private sector was unable to produce what was needed, Crown Corporations were created.

• Govt. ran telephone companies, refined fuel, stockpiled silk for parachutes, mined uranium and controlled food production.

• Farmers were told to produce more wheat, beef and other foods.