The Dollar a Year Men

Timing is everything, and Allan Levine has hit the bull’s-eye with his account of how business leaders were recruited to Ottawa to assist the massive government effort that supported Canada and its Allies during the Second World War. The country’s leaders faced an immense challenge. They had to acquire and produce equipment for rapidly expanding Canadian forces, support Britain when its own production fell short and build an industrial system capable of manufacturing aircraft, ships, vehicles and weapons. In doing so, they transformed the Canadian economy. Levine, a respected Winnipeg-based author, draws on archival and published sources to tell this complex story with clarity and depth in an engaging and accessible way.

In 1939, Canada was still largely rural and agricultural. By 1945, it had become an industrial power, with the world’s fourth-largest air force and navy, plus a well-equipped, battle-tested army. This transformation owed much to business, engineering and administrative leaders who left private industry to serve the public; those are the executives featured here. Some 800 specialized professionals served as “dollar-a-year men” (they were paid a symbolic $1 per year). Levine focuses on people in the Department of Munitions and Supply — led by the powerful and controversial C.D. Howe — showing who was recruited and from which companies, how they collaborated (or clashed) and how their skills contributed to the war effort. Levine also describes tensions with British and American leaders who, while needing Canadian production, sought to protect their own industrial dominance.

What mattered most was their sense of duty and their understanding of the fascist threat

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