Figure 1.--Here is a Canadian version of Rosie the Riveter. Veronica Foster, (1922 - 2000) popularly known as 'Ronnie, the Bren Gun Girl', was a Canadian icon representing nearly one million Canadian women who worked in the manufacturing plants that produced munitions and materiel during World War II, the great mjority had never done factory work bfore. .

Canada was not a major economic power at the onset of World War II. Even so, Canadian food stuffs, direct cash contributions to Britain, and weaponry was a major assetts to the British war effort, especially before American Lend Lease kicked in. Canada also help supply countries fighting the NAZI war machine, most importantly the Soviet Union. Canada was a relatively small country in terms of population, about 11.5 million population. The Canandian economic contribution to the Allied war effort was out of all prooortion to kits small popualtion. And for a small country, Canada had a small industrial base. This was largely because the giant American automobile industry spilled over into Canada. As result, Canada became a major supplier of military vehicles to the British Army. It also like American conveted car manufacturing to aircraft production. And perhaps most importantly creating a whole new industry, creating shipyards to build escort vesseks for the North Atlantic convoys. Interestingly, the Germans occupied several small countries, which had industrial sectors of various sizes. Uniformily within the NAZI Grossraum, output declined and in most instances declined substantially. Canada in sharp contrast substantially increased its industrial output as well as that of other sectors. The Candadian ecinomy mnore than doubled during World Sar II. Canada's large agricultural sector played an important role from the beginning of the War. Canadian food played a major in keeping Brfitain fed and in the War. In addition, Canada was blessed with a host of vital natural resources neeed to wage war. These resources included lumber, minerals, and other resources including of all things rubber -- a resource previously more associated with tropical environs. These resources were fed into both American and Canadanian factories and fed through the North Atlantic convoys to Britain. It was an amazing feat of economic mobilization -- industrial production (ships plsnes, ans vehicles), agricultural products especilly wheat from the vast Prairie; lumber from the Pacific coast; and miberals from all over Cabada -- -all injected into the Allied war effort.

Industry

Canada was not a major industrial power, but for a small county (in population) did have an substantial indutrial base. And until American Lend Lease kicked in, was Britain's pribcipal supplier of war material. The Department of Munitions and Supply was created to overee the mobilization of the economy and the transition from consumer goods to war production (April 1940). C.D. Howe was appointed to head the agency which created 28 Crown Corporations to mass produce war material. As a result, the country very quickly began staggering quantities. Canada which virtually did not have an aircradt industry before the War was producing more than 4,000 aircraft annually (1942). And tomensure Britain could afford purchasescredit barrangements were set up. Exports to Bitain reached $1.2 billion (1944). To achieve all of this, alabor was mobilized, workers in manuacturing quickly increased 50 percent (1939-41). Major changes occured im the country's imdustrial sector after the War. American investments led to a substantial expansion -- new factories, transportation, and communication. Canadian factories turned out everything from rifles to Lancaster heavy bombers The existing motor vehicle industry was significantly expanded for tank and truck construction. One of the most important industrial effort was expanding shipyards and repair yards and opening new ones. One of the most important efforts was to build escorts for the Atlantic convoys, a very important aspect of the Battle of the Atlantic. Over 1,000 warships and cargo vessels were built, along with thousands of auxiliary craft, small boats and others. [Pritchard] Canada began the War almost without a navy and ended the War with one of the world's largest. Canada also acquired an air force and an aviation industry. As in America, unemployment lingering from the depression disappeared. Canada was a rare World War beligerent whose infrastructure was substantially expanded during the war. Canada's war industry production ranked fourth among the Allied countries, only exceeded by the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom. Les than a third was actually used by the Canadian military. The rest was shipped overseas to the allies, orimarrily Britain. Canada produced 815,729 military vehicles, including 45,710 tanks and other armored vehicles. Canadian-made vehicles were especially important in equipping the British Eighth Army in North Africa and Italy. Canada also produced large quantitie of rifles, submachine guns, light machine guns, anti-tank guns and anti-aircraft guns. It also poduced the multi-purpose 25-pounder artillery piece widely used by British and other Commonwealth forces. .

Agriculture

Canada helped feed Britain and and the other Allies in World War I. [Canada Food Board] Canada also shown in food production during World War II. Canada with it vasts western parie provinces had an enormous potential. Canada at the end of World War I had an econmy still vety focused n agrculture. Canadian farms produced over 40 percent of the country's GDP. [Shefrin and Coke] The population had been gradually moving into tons and cities, nit quite a fast as in America, but the same basic process. At the time of the War, some 45 percent of Canadians still lived in rural areas. ustralian farms had become much more productive. While the farm population was decining, harvests were increasing. Before the turn of the century, some 60 percent of the population was needed to feed Canada, but by the time of World War II it was only 25 percentof the population. Canada had become one of the great bread bread baskets of the world. Canadian farmers planted 29 million acres and aharvested 540 bushels (1940). Canada's dairy heard had also expamded, over 4 million milk cows. A major effort was made to increase was to increase pork prouction, in part to help feed Britain. The hog count reached 9.5 million during the War. Asigniicant trend toward mechanizatin begam after World War I. There were 48,000 tractors in 1921 and 159,000 by 1941 and with higher horsepower. . Even so, they shipped such large quantities to Britain that food rationing had to be introduced.

Natural Resources

Canada while having only a small population was a very large country. Not as large as suggdsted by the Mercntoir projedction of most mzaos, but still very large. And that huge area was richly endowed with the natural resources needed to wage war. The Canadisn economy was orimarily based on fur during the French era nd early British era. Serttlers in the more populted areas noted noted mnineral deposits such as coal and copper. Virtually nothing was know about resources of the vast unsettled areas. The first industrial mining operation was an iron mine at Forges du Saint-Maurice near Trois-Rivières in Quebec. Copper mining bergn at Bruce Mines, Ontario (1848). Canadian mining industry continued to expand during the 19th century and early-20th century. The Yukon Gold Rush (1892-1912)bergan the opening up of remote sareas. World War II would begin a massive increase in mining operrations. Canada today has some of the wiorld's lsrgest mining opertions. As Britain was thrust into another world war, it need expanded overseas supplies of lumber, minerals, and other resources. And it found them in Canada. There were large coal deposits which during the War was critical for industry. Mining operations help supply the war industries, including asbestos, cadmium, nickel, potash, sulfur, and titanium, and zinc. It was also a major producer of iron ore, gold, copper, silver, lead, and a number of ferroalloys. Canada's large oil resource was still not developed. There were a range of infrastructure projects to open up remote areas to mining. Particularky important was aluminum. The Northern Aluminum Company started construction of the Arvida aluminium smelter (1925). The company remamed itself, Northern Aluminum Company Limited was renamed the Aluminum Company of Canada--ALCAN. One year later the first cells at Arvida plant began to produce aluminium. Canada mostly notably provided the alunimum needed to build aircraft (40 percent of Allied production). There are no bauxite mines in Canada. The country's refinery and smelters use ore and refined alumina imported from other countries. What Canada had was hydro-electric power -- providing the vast anounts of electrity needed to refine aluminum. Other metals included: nickel (75 percent), asbestos (75 percent), zinc (20 percent), lead (15 percent), and copper (12 percent). And Canada was the only sources of uranium, except for uranium already minded in the Belgisn Congo and seized on a U-boat. This made Canada a vital partivipabt in the Manhattan Project. One resource Canada did not have was rubber. Canada was rich in natural resources, but rubber with Canada's northerly location was not one of them. This created a crisis when the Japanese seized Malay and Borneo where most of the world's natual rubber was produced. Here we see a Canadian rubber drive in the Rosemont district of Montreal. The boys were collecting all spare rubber products for the War effort (figure 1). The rubber problem was solved by crash programs in both Anerica and Canada to produce snthetic rubber. Of all the natural resources Canada produced, rubber is the most surprising as it is a commodity more associated with tropical environs.

Created: 3:03 PM 2/18/2021
Last updated: 3:03 PM 2/18/2021