Canada was involved in World War II almost from the beginning, entering the war in September of 1939 when it realized the threat posed by Nazi Germany (What). All persons over the age of 16 were required to register for war service, and compulsory military service for home defense only was begun (Canada). Prime Minister King assured the public there would be no conscription for overseas service. However, as the war dragged on, it became clear that the government would not be able to keep this commitment, and all the provinces, except Quebec voted in favor of conscription for overseas service if needed. After the Normandy invasion of 1944, the manpower drain was so severe that conscripts were sent overseas to reinforce the troops in Europe.
While the war losses for Canada were great, they gained economically as war productivity ended the Great Depression and greatly increased the labor force (Canada). Canadians produced the goods needed to fight the war - raw materials, farm products, and manufactured goods - on a volume never experienced before in Canada. Industrialization advanced rapidly, as did major advances in technology. As is always the case, war was good for business.
A division of the new Canadian Active Service Force was transported to the United Kingdom and an agreement was made to establish the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan in Canada, which developed the air force for Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, and was under the direction of the Royal Canadian Air Force (Canada; What). This project trained more than 131,000 air crew personnel for the Commonwealth, with Canada contributing 72,800 pilots, navigators, aerial gunners and bombardiers, and flight engineers, who saw service in almost every theater of the war. The Royal Canadian Navy increased from less than a dozen vessels to over 400, and served primarily as an antisubmarine and convoy fleet in the North Atlantic, with some of it...