Jannik Kneer

Erin Madsen

Humanities 10

1st December 2024

    How WWII’s Industry Affected Canadians 

In war once must have advancements, and to push those advancements one must have industry. Once the second world war had broken out, there was a new need for work, and fast. This push for industry during the war fuelled a shift in the lives and habits of Canadians at home.

Once the war had broken out, the world needed work. We needed raw materials like lumber, and metals, and also grains and meats, to feed troops overseas. Work was then also needed to turn the raw materials into munitions, and vehicles overseas (Madsen). Canada had an impressive workforce for vehicle manufacturing, with them building more than 4000 aircrafts, 14000 tanks, and more than 16000 artillery pieces, due to factories being in total war mode (Madsen). Once the war kept pushing, more and more men were trained and shipped overseas, leaving these positions open, Even though the goods still needed to be made, this led lots of Canadian women to join the workforce.

Since these Canadian labours were working most of the day, the government funded dorms built close to the companies, so that they wouldn’t need to move so much this was the first shift, social of living closer to work (Madsen). This would stay post war, with the shift from smaller community living, to suburbs and other living communities. This led to Canada’s wartime economy blooming, people had extra money, but had little to no goods to buy because most of Canadian resources would be shipped to Britain (Madsen). To avoid inflation, the Canadian government put victory bonds in place. Victory bonds would be reverse loans, were you would give extra money to the government to fund war effort, and be paid back after the war. This plus the wartime prices and trade board freezing all wages and prices, and the introduction of food rationing, kept inflation manageable (Madsen).

Once the war had passed, there was a sense of relief, but also a sense of waywardness. Unlike other allied forces, we did not have to rebuild bombed cities, or fear another invasion. This made the Canadian government weary, as to avoid economic recession, as in WW1 with the munition factories closing post war (Cook). To avoid this slide back to recess, the government helped factories switch from munitions, and other wartime goods, to more civilian used goods (Cook). Tax cuts, money and sale of government assets for low prices helped Canada’s avoidance of recession, along with government payouts for all who were in service along with loans for farmland, homes and the creation of businesses (Cook). 

Another massive change that came with the veteran support was the support for education. Before the war Canadian universities were very specific about enrolment, only allowing the best of student to enrol (Cook). This change led to universities having to handle double the amount of enrolment, and having to grow in size, leading to a massive change in Canadian education. With this came a great shift, in the day to day lives of regular people. Once veterans had returned from the fight, there was money to spend. With the cashing in of war bonds, and the money from then factories people were ready to spend money on luxury goods, like cribs and furniture, preparing for the increase of children from the baby boom (Cook). However, housing wasn’t as abundant. An estimation from the legion in 1946 estimated that they would need more the 400,000 houses (Cook). To combat this Prime Minister King created the Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation, a government funded program to increase housing (Cook). 

The massive shift that the push for industry brought along was not just technological, but also social. This lead to Workers fighting for more pay, and would strike even when it was restricted. Therefore the CCF (Co-operative Commonwealth Federation) and it’s platform  gained popularity, due to its views on social reform (Madsen). The CCF was created in Calgary in 1932, composed of Socialist and labour groups (Morley). It wanted to help Canadians who had been affected by the Great Depression, and wanted economic change (Morley). The party had governing powers in Saskatchewan, under Premier Tommy Douglas, who became the first leader of the NDP (Morley). While the CCF never had National power, many parties  adopted their ideas, which ended up helping form the Canadian welfare state(Morley). In 1940, unemployment insurance was brought in, to protect those who had been affected post depression, this stayed post war, along with the creation of Family Allowance, in 1945 (Madsen). The Family Allowance was a government funded payment to family with children, to manage the cost of raising kids (Guest). This was the first of Canada universal welfare programs, which would pay no matter income, or assets (Guest).

All of these changes show how much can change over the span of a decade. What starts as an economic recess, can shift to a total war mode economy, finally pushing to become a more adjusted economy to meet the needs of everyday people. All of this combined into a force of change for good, who’s effects can still be felt today. We had the start of Canadas universal healthcare, or being the other beneficial systems procured by a past troubled time, there were truly monumental changes made.

Works Cited

Cook, Tim. “After Victory: The Legacy of the Necessary War” Written 2013,  Posted August 24, 2020

https://www.canadashistory.ca/explore/military-war/after-victory-the-legacy-of-the-necessary-war

Guest, Dennis. “Family Allowance” February 7, 2006, updated December 18, 2013

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/family-allowance

Hiller, Norman. “War Bonds” February 7, 2006, updated April 28, 2015

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/victory-loans

Madsen, Erin. “The War at Home” Humanities 10, Nov 13 2024, Seycove, Lecture.

Morley, J. “The CCF” February 6, 2006, Updated March 26, 2021

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/co-operative-commonwealth-federation

The War Museum. “The Wars Impact on Canada”, Created: June 20, 2008. Last update: October 16, 2017

https://www.warmuseum.ca/firstworldwar/history/after-the-war/legacy/the-wars-impact-on- canada/