Canada prepares for war

• 1)The Canadian Parliament didn’t choose to go to war in 1914. The country’s foreign affairs were guided in London. So when Britain’s ultimatum to Germany to withdraw its army from Belgium expired on 4 August 1914, the British Empire, including Canada, was at war, allied with Serbia, Russia, and France against the German and Austro-Hungarian empires. Meanwhile for WWII ,Britain’s declaration of war did not automatically commit Canada, as had been the case in 1914. But there was never serious doubt about Canada’s response: the government and people were united in support of Britain and France. After Parliament debated the matter, Canada declared war on Germany on 10 September. Prime Minister Mackenzie King promised that only volunteers would serve overseas.

• 2)The demands of total war meant that the federal government became more involved in planning and controlling the economy. In April 1940, the Department of Munitions and Supply was created and industrialist C.D. Howe was put in charge. He was given the authority to do whatever it takes to gear up the economy and deal with wartime demands. He convinced businesses to manufacture goods they had never produced before such as bombers , army vehicles , and tanks. The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP), was a massive, joint military aircrew training program created by the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, during the Second World War

• 3) “Canada was reluctant in joining the war because of their lack of a military and the fact that they recently came out of the great depression “

Parliament was in favor of going to war, although Minister of Justice , Ernest Lapointe spoke against conscription and how the liberal supporters in Quebec would be fuming if conscription were to be implemented . Even though Canada was not obligated to go to war when Britain did , they still did . They did so because of what Germany did to Poland and because they had to support Britain and France in the fight against evil. Despite war being given the green light , there are some who were opposed to it such as the leader of the co-operative commonwealth federation (CCF) , J.S Woodsworth. He argued in favor of Canada remaining neutral and the fact that violence does not solve anything .  The BCATP was a major contributor to the war effort. The BCATP trained more than 130 000 pilots, navigators, flight engineers, and ground crew. The total cost was more than $2.2 billion, of which Canada paid more than 70 percent which goes out to show how much Canada wanted to help out during the war