World War II and Canada

During the 1930’s, Canadians wanted to avoid involvement in another European war, but, as a member of the British Commonwealth, Canada followed Great Britain loyally in declaring war on Germany. Measures taken in the closing months of 1939 prepared the way for significant Canadian contributions to the Allied war effort.

As fears that a European war might break out increased during the last half of the 1930’s, most Canadians, including Prime MinisterWilliam Lyon Mackenzie King, felt Europe’s problems were none of their concern. Anglo-Canadians went to war enthusiastically in 1914 at the outbreak of World War I but were repulsed by the savage nature of trench warfare and were disillusioned by revelations of greedy, secret Allied war aims and deceitful stories of German atrocities. Although loyal subjects of the British Commonwealth, Canadians did not think European continental affairs were important for them.

French Canadians endorsed isolationism even more strongly than Anglo-Canadians did. French Canadians had bitter memories of their young men being conscripted to fight and die in World War I, a conflict fought in the interests of Great Britain, a nation for which they had little sympathy. These memories guided their responses to events leading to World War II. Their attitudes posed a difficult challenge for Prime Minister King when he belatedly realized war was inevitable. His majority in the Canadian parliament depended upon Quebec electing a large number of Liberals. To bring a united Canada into the war he had to maneuver skillfully, finding a way of promising to avoid conscription without alienating British Commonwealth loyalists.

Threats of War

King demonstrated his isolationism immediately after the Liberal Party won control of the Canadian parliament in October, 1935. When Italy invaded Ethiopia on October 2, the League of Nations voted to apply sanctions. King took office as prime minister on October 23, and affirmed Canadian participation in the sanctions. When the sanctions proved ineffective, some proposed stronger measures, including an oil embargo that would have brought the Italian war machine to a halt. Canada’s representative at the League of Nations, a civil servant, tried without success to get specific guidance on the issue. Believing he was carrying out the wishes of his government, he backed the oil embargo, only to be repudiated by King.

King defended his action by asserting that oil sanctions might have brought on a Mediterranean war that was none of Canada’s business. Britain and France were no more eager to face war and effectively condoned the conquest of Ethiopia. Neither the threat posed by Germany’s reoccupation of the Rhineland in March of 1936 nor the signing of the Tripartite Pact by Germany, Italy, and Japan in November of that year caused Canadians to alter their attitude.

The Canadian response to Europeans seeking asylum reflected the same lack of concern over European problems. Although Canada became a leader in refugee resettlement after World War II, during the Depression, the country granted few immigration permits, and almost none to Jews. Anti-Semitism was rife in Canada during the 1930’s, especially in Quebec, where French Canadians resented the tendency of Jews to ally with Anglo-Canadians. The government’s attitude was summed up in the response of a senior official that forms the title of the standard study of the topic: Asked in early 1945 how many Jews Canada would admit after the war, he replied “None is too many.”

After attending the coronation of King George VI in 1937, Prime Minister King visited Germany, where he was feted by the Nazis and granted a lengthy interview with Adolf Hitler. King told the Germans that Canada would come to the defense of Britain if war broke out, which could hardly have impressed the Nazis, considering how small Canada’s armed forces were. King came away from his meeting certain Hitler only wanted to rectify border problems and had no intention of starting a general war.

Like the majority of Canadian citizens, King approved British appeasement of Hitler and sent British prime minister Neville Chamberlain a congratulatory telegram for the September, 1938, Munich Agreement that effectively dismembered Czechoslovakia. Not until Hitler seized the remnants of Czechoslovakia in the spring of 1939 did King become disillusioned.

Preparations for War

Despite believing that war could be avoided, the Canadian government prudently expanded defense expenditures in the late 1930’s over vigorous opposition from members of the Canadian parliament and political commentators who thought the spending unnecessary. Some asserted the true defender of Canada from Europe’s troubles was the British navy; others claimed the United States would come to Canada’s aid under the Monroe Doctrine if the country was threatened.

Canada’s defense budget rose from $17 million in 1935 to $33 million in 1937; by spring 1939, it had reached $64 million. The expenditures supported some ten thousand full-time military personnel and fifty thousand militiamen. The Royal Canadian Navy had about two thousand men and eight ships. The air force’s three thousand men had just thirty-seven possibly war-ready airplanes; the five-thousand-man army had only two light tanks and four antiaircraft guns.

In 1937, King and U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt discussed joint military planning and began secret technical discussions between Canadian and American staff officers. News of the discussions infuriated rigid isolationists, who feared Canada might become involved in American wars, while Canadian imperialists complained that any collaboration with the United States was a betrayal of the British Commonwealth.

Loyalty to Britain was demonstrated, and reinforced, during the successful tour of Canada by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in the spring of 1939. An adoring throng greeted them when they landed at Montreal on May 17. As the royal couple progressed across the prairies, enormous crowds, whose numbers often exceeded the population of the cities where the royal train stopped, gathered to greet them.

Outbreak of War

When Britain declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939, most Canadians realized the time for debate was over. King, as he had promised, called the Canadian parliament into session to consider an independent declaration; on September 10, Canada joined the war. King’s long-term opposition to compulsory service, and his pledge that there would be no conscription for overseas service, successfully blunted opposition from Quebec and brought a united, if reluctant, country into the war.

In the four remaining months of 1939 the Canadian government laid the basis for a war effort that would make a major contribution to defeating Hitler’s Germany. Among the Western Allies, only Britain and the United States did more.

King strengthened his cabinet by appointing successful executives to manage war production, finance, and agriculture. Canada was still suffering from the Great Depression and had many unemployed workers and surplus land available. Farmers expanded production, assuring that a steady supply of food was sent to Europe. Canadian factories geared up to build airplanes, guns, and other war matériel. Shipbuilding concentrated on boats designed for convoy duty in the Atlantic Ocean.

Impact

What began as a modest war effort in the fall of l939 grew markedly as the war progressed. Canada succeeded in sending a significant amount of food, munitions, and war matériel to Britain, guarded by newly built Canadian warships.

Perhaps Canada’s most important contribution to the war was the British Commonwealth Air Training Agreement, which was signed on December 17, 1939. Canada established facilities on its prairies, far removed from disturbance by actual warfare, where most airmen from Britain and the rest of the Commonwealth were trained. Britain’s massive air war over Europe would not have been possible without the Canadian program.

Without conscription, Canada raised and sent a substantial military force into action in Europe. From their original derisory ten thousand men, the armed forces expanded exponentially. By 1943, as the Allies prepared to invade Normandy, Canada had 494,000 army, air force, and naval men and women in Great Britain, all of whom were volunteers.

Bibliography

Abella, Irving, and Harold Troper. None Is Too Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe, 1933-1948. Toronto: Lester and Orpen Dennys, 1982. Thorough examination of the Canadian response to Jewish refugees.

Bothwell, Robert. The Penguin History of Canada. Toronto: Penguin Group, 2006. General history of Canada that provides context for Canadian involvement in World War II.

Douglas, W. A. B., and Brereton Greenhous. Out of the Shadows: Canada in the Second World War. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1977. Patriotic history of Canada’s participation in World War II.

Hutchison, Bruce. The Incredible Canadian: A Candid Portrait of Mackenzie King: His Works, His Times, and His Nation. Toronto: Longmans, Green, 1952. Mostly friendly account of King’s reactions to the threat of a European war.

Keshen, Jeffrey A. Saints, Sinners, and Soldiers: Canada’s Second World War. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2004. Excellent descriptions of the Canadian home front during the war.

Nolan, Brian. King’s War: Mackenzie King and the Politics of War, 1939-1945. Toronto: Random House, 1988. A critical examination of King’s preparations for war.