Go North, Young Man: The Great Canada

Status
Not open for further replies.
The Prologue
PROLOGUE

July 1, 2017


Canada at 150: The Century That Was
Steve Paikin for The Canadian

Canada, our home and native land. A way of simply describing the land mass that most of those who read this newspaper live on, but also a portion of our national anthem and a way of expressing the love of that vast landscape. A landscape that the eighty-three million people that today inhabit Canada have adopted and prospered upon, turning a nation of many different landscapes and many far more different peoples into a single cohesive nation, a nation that we proudly speak of, that we all hold up high as a shining beacon of the greatest of advancement of the human species. We look back at our successes as things to be proud of and our failures as things to learn from, learning and speaking of a history most proud.

The "Century of Canada". Welfare Capitalism and the Asian Arrivals. Komagata Maru. The Somme, Vimy Ridge and Passchendaele. The Six Nations Brigades and the Treaty of Orillia. The Women's Suffrage and Social Credit Movements. The "Men of Honour" and the "Voyages of the Damned". The Battle of the Atlantic. The Royal British Columbia Regiment and the HMCS Vancouver. Operations Husky, Overlord and Iceberg. The Battle of Kapyong. Peacekeeping. The Avro Arrow. The Islands Referendums. Expo 67. The 1972 Constitution. Cyprus. Boat People. The Ottawa Treaty and Jerusalem. The Cape Town Mission. Operation Messiah. The 9/11 attacks, Operation Yellow Ribbon and Operation Apollo. The "Life Flights". All examples of times in our shared history where Canada and its people stood up and showed the world what we stood for, looked at ourselves in the mirror and realized what we were doing wrong or achieved something others thought couldn't be done, all because it was the right thing to do.

The right thing to do. An easy phrase to say but one which has been fraught with peril, if for no other reason than the machinations of men and nations who see red where we see green. What the 'right thing to do' is is always a matter of debate, and so it has been throughout our history, as peoples from practically everywhere on Earth have shouted and squabbled what they feel the best way forward is. But in the end, a number of shared beliefs have always prevailed - individual freedom and liberty, partnerships of those who sought to create a world within Canada, a strong desire towards the advancements of both science and the humanities and support and defense of those less fortunate imperiled by the flaws of man. No matter our differences, these things have become as much a part of our identity as the shared portions of our identities, from the flag and the symbols to our beloved national pasttimes.

We look at those who seek to be one of us and ask "What is the chapter of history you seek to write?" To answer that question for the benefit of Canadians of Tomorrow, perhaps we need to seek out what our past was and what it means to us....
 
Last edited:
Part 1 - Pre-Confederation
Part 1 - Pre-Confederation

Canada began as the result of a desire of Britain to avoid the problems that had resulted in the American revolution, well aware that the Quebec Act had been considered by many of the American Revolutionaries alongside the four 'Intolerable Acts' that had been a primary catalyst to the Revolution. Well aware of the actions of William Lyon Mackenzie and Louis-Joseph Papineau and seeking to assimilate the French-Canadian population of Quebec, Britain's attempt at first establishing control of Canada in the Union Act of 1840 had indeed had the opposite effect, as it became obvious that both complete anglicization of the French-Canadian population was unlikely and ultimately resisting integration into the United States was dependent on a form of political independence.

But what started Canada's evolution even beyond the need to find accommodations between English and French speaking peoples in Canada was the problems that Canada's native population, who had been supporters of the British during the War of 1812 and had fought alongside those who had sought to repulse the Americans. While America was defeated in the war, it was obvious almost immediately after the War that the Americans had absolutely no intention of treating Native Americans with respect, and it showed in their movements, particularly after the war - thus forcing the British to either accept what amounted to cultural genocide or allow the Natives to establish themselves in Canada. By the time of the Rebellions of 1837 Native Canadians had moved into Canada in numbers, and the knowledge of the problems that Washington had inflicted on the Six Nations Confederacy and the Shawnee in particular resulted in huge numbers of the Native Canadians migrating into Canada, forming nearly an outright majority in portions of southern and eastern Upper Canada. The Six Nations, wedged between a rock and a hard place with the British (many of whom had open disdain for them) and the Americans (widely seen as far worse than the British), found themselves becoming adamant supporters of the reform efforts, seeking to peacefully carve themselves out a place among the groups of Canadians, and doing so in many cases by both trading with European colonists and also through their own systems of collective defense. The Indian Removal policy of the United States, passed in 1830, accelerated this trend, somewhat to the disdain of some but the support of the reformers and those opposed to the Americans, well aware of the efforts of Tecumseh and his efforts to rouse the tribes to the defense of their land during the War of 1812. The knowledge of the very poor relationship between America and the native tribes led to more than a little bit of gamesmanship by the British. While eventually relations between London and its colony grew to be fairly cordial, America's past wasn't forgotten and in more than a cases forgiven, particularly with the Fenian Raids. The Native Canadian influence would be seen in the Oregon Treaty, which became a problem to the Americans as news of the actions of the Americans further east would ultimately cause the 1846 Oregon Treaty to come apart as Native tribes, in no small part agitated by British colonial authorities, would not accept American authority over the territory north of the Columbia River. Facing upheaval and the difficulty in controlling territory, the British and Washington ratified the new Oregon Treaty, which established the boundary as the Columbia River west of the crossing of the Columbia River and the 49th parallel, thus giving the entire Salish Sea region to the British. The discovery of gold on the banks of the Thompson River in 1858 forced a major change in the way the region was governed, and the colony of British Columbia was formed in 1858 as a result. Recognizing that the United States was likely to push for complete ownership of the Pacific Coast, both British colonists and Natives pushed for entry into the new Canadian federation, and British Columbia's representatives were among those who were the signatories of the Seventy-Two Resolutions.

By the 1850s, movement towards confederation was seen as inevitably, as men like John A. MacDonald sought to unite factions behind the idea of Canada as a federation, seeking the support of the likes of George Brown and Georges-Etienne Cartier - and to the initial surprise of MacDonald, both Cartier and Brown were publicly supportive of the Six Nations' involvement in Canadian affairs. While the relationship here would remain rocky for many years to come, the tactics of negotiation honed by those seeking to establish Canada as a federation were indeed assisted by the involvement of Native Canadians, and while racism against them would not by any means sink away, in the aftermath of the Indian Removal policies Canada came to be seen as something of a haven for some tribes of North American Indians, an image which would prove to be a massive benefit to Canada's future expansion. Indeed British Columbia's entry into Canada would come to pass in large part because of the Natives of the West Coast, who while plenty suspicious of the British had even less love for the United States. Confederation of the British North American colonies was seen by London as a way of allowing Canada to defend itself against the Americans, while the British in North America saw it as a way of forever establishing a loyal to Britain nation on the North American continent, the French saw it as a way of increasing their own political power and resisting creeping Anglicization of their culture and for Native Canadians of providing themselves a real safe haven from the Americans. Entry into Confederation for British Columbia came with the promise of safety, but their isolation was such that their primary stipulation was that they be connected to the rest of Canada by rail by 1877 - a tall order, but noting the rapid construction of the Transcontinental Railroad in the United States, Victoria felt it was a stipulation that they could make, particularly with their desire to give the British Ocean a connection to the Pacific Ocean.

The American Civil War added to the impetus for Confederation. Britain had not officially supported the Confederacy in America's brutal civil war, but American politicians in the aftermath of the war were more than willing to call for America to expel the British from North America, and problems with everything from population pressures (an increasingly-acute problem in the St. Lawrence River Valley and parts of the Maritime Provinces) to desires to exploit the resources that many felt existed in the Rupert's Land territories controlled by the Hudson's Bay Company pushed confederation along. The American purchase of Alaska in 1867 added to it, even though Confederation had been agreed to before the purchase was completed, it was seen by the Fathers of Confederation (and indeed Queen Victoria, who was more than happy to give assent to the move) as a way of heading off America's expansionism. The entry of British Columbia into the constitutional delegation was followed by those of Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland, but while the former would join Confederation, the latter chose not to. (This decision would change later on.) On March 29, 1867, the British North America Act was given assent by Queen Victoria, with the Federation of Canada (the 'Dominion' name was rejected out of consideration for the many diverse populations of the country and a desire to seem in control of its own affairs) becoming a reality on July 1, with John A. MacDonald as the first Prime Minister of Canada, with six provinces as part of Canada - Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and British Columbia.

The original plan of building Canada in the minds of many of its founders was that Confederation, which while granting Canada a wide degree of autonomy was far from complete independence from the United Kingdom, would allow Canada to both satisfy demands for more local control of its own affairs while at the same time remaining a devout member of the British Empire. Within a generation, however, new minds and ideas would arise which would change everything about Canada and its future as a nation....

EDIT: I had Alaska go both ways. Whoops.
 
Last edited:
Another thing I've just thought of, maybe some more thorough testing of the Ross Rifle, so that the Canadians
have a reliable home grown rifle. Maybe earlier work on converting the obselete Number III models into
Huot Automatic Rifles and you might have a stronger smallarms industry during the interwar years.
 
Some Bloke made good points about more reliable Ross rifles and more Huoy light machine guns.
Sometime during the 1930s Canada needs to recognize that the colonies cannot depend upon British industry to arm the colonial soldiers during World War 2, so Canadian factories more closely align with American factories and start developing weapons specifically for Canadian conditions.

So let's start with Huot lmgs. Mark 1s would retire after a few years of abuse by the Canadian Army, to soon be replaced by more reliable Mark 2 and Mark 3. The Huot Mark 4 would be a lightened, shorter version for paratroopers and mounted troops perhaps even a bullpup configuration. Bullpup LMGs prove popular with mounted infantry.

Long Branch Arsenals would still make many thousand Sten gun barrels, production of the rest of the SMG would be farmed out to local automobile factories who would tinker with Sten Mark 6 and Mark 7 that have reliable safeties and a parts count even smaller than the Sten 3. The Mark 7 would be a bullpup originally designed for paratroopers, but prove insanely popular with tankers and support troops because it is small enough to fit in a belt holster not much bigger than a pistol.

Meanwhile other gun smiths would develop an anti-tank rifle that fires a higher-velocity shell than the Boys AT rifle. It would fire semi-automatic, with a long-recoil action to reduce damage to the gunners, shoulder.
Meanwhile Canadian mining engineers would develop shaped charges for the next generation of AT weapons.

Speaking of AT weapons, Canadian foctories would get their hands on early versions of 17 pounder gun drawings and start building them for Valentine hulls built in Canadian factories. Thousands of Canadian-built Valentine Archers would be shipped directly to Russia obviating the need to develop SU76 SP gun.
Other 17 pounder barrels would be installed in Ram 3 tanks and a wheeled AT armoured car. Only a few Ram 3 tanks would be produced, but thousands of RAM 3 turrets would be retrofitted to Sherman chassis. These turrets would come with extensive turret bustles and a variety of tool boxes bolted to the hull, so many tool boxes that you could barely see the original armour ..... but neither could a Panzerfaust gunner.

Speaking of mounted troops, Canadian Army brass would recognize that tracked vehicles are too slow and too short-ranged to defend most of Canada, so Canadian automobile factories would build multiple prototypes of wheeled scout cars, armoured cars, APCs and SP artillery.
For SP artillery, I am picturing a 6 or 8 wheeled truck that lowers the baseplate/recoil spades off the back end. Only the engine and crew compartment would be armoured against shrapnel making for a comparatively light chassis that can shoot and scoot away from counter-battery fire.
The Canadian-pattern SP gun would also have a bull-dozer blade hanging off the front end to allow it to dig its own gun pits, ammo trenches, etc.
 
Last edited:
Part 2 - The Birth of the Nation
Part 2 - The Birth of the Nation

When Canada was granted responsible self-government in 1867, few saw it as the beginnings of a world power, but it was seen as a positive by many and a negative by a few. Those in Washington who remained committed to Manifest Destiny saw it as a real loss - many of these same people had been less than impressed by Canada's relationship with its native populations and the rewriting of the Oregon Treaty that had resulted from their actions - but Washington at that point had their hands full with Reconstruction, which was rapidly spiraling into a mess as the South stubbornly resisted attempts at integrating men of color into their societies as anything near equals. The American Civil War had had its effect on Canada as well, both in terms of economics and social policies, which particularly with regards to Native Canadians softened substantially in the years after Confederation. It had also enormously reduced support for the idea of a complete break from the crown, raising the 'peace, order and good government' ideals up to a prominent position among the country's national leaders. The new federation would, however, face it's first serious test of its problem-solving ability within a few years of its creation.

The fraction of Canada was shortly followed by demands to annex the land owned by the Hudson's Bay Company. Far from being troubled by this, the Company (who had been struggling to make money for decades because of the cost in maintaining such a vast landscape) cordially negotiated with Ottawa and Ottawa annexed the land in 1869, which then resulted in the appointed governor, William McDougall, to make clear that the territory was low subject to Canadian laws. This did not go over well with the local Metis inhabitants, however, leading to Louis Riel's negotiations with Ottawa to establish Manitoba as a province. During this process, however, trouble brewed. While Riel had made a very good call in having an equal number of English and Metis representatives, the Thomas Scott Affair, where the pro-Canadian Orangeman was accused, tried and convicted of plotting to kill Riel and subsequently hanged, caused a political storm. While the Metis felt they had been justified in their actions, in Ontario in particular Scott's death caused a massive uproar. Facing calls for his resignation, sporadic conflicts between some Protestants and Native communities and calls for punitive retaliation against the "half-blooded bastards", MacDonald sent a force to Winnipeg to 'restore order' but with explicit calls to not start trouble. This, however, did not go over well with other Native communities or many French, who saw the move a jackbooted attempt to fix a problem that didn't really exist in the first place. Regardless, the negotiations to make Manitoba a province were successful, and before the troops ever got there the objective of the federal troops had been changed to enforcing federal laws and regulations in the new province. Riel and his forces withdrew from Fort Garry without a shot being fired, and many of the objectives he had sought in negotiations (namely a separate French school system and respect for Catholicism) were indeed created as part of the creation of the province. MacDonald did, however, rapidly discover just how deep the divisions within the country were - while the Protestants of Ontario and many parts of the Maritimes demanded Riel's head for the death of Thomas Scott, both the French Canadian and Native Communities largely sided with the Metis, causing the first of what would be a number of deep divisions within the new country. The Metis had not only created Manitoba, but they soon made it clear that their demands for land ownership and involvement in the new province's politics were to be taken seriously, and the Native tribes of the region heavily sided with the Metis over the English settlers, which made the early governance of the province difficult. While Riel fled Canada for the United States, in the interests of not antagonizing French Canadian or Native Canadian interests any further, MacDonald and the Canadian government largely let the issue lie. They had bigger issues to deal with in any case.

MacDonald and his allies quickly came to a realization - while English-descent Canadians were a majority in Canada, they were not a massive majority and the interests of French-speaking Quebec, to say nothing of Native Canadians, were proving to be at odds. Canada needed a bigger population and a bigger economy, and the way to do that was to expand its boundaries and seek out immigrants, even those not of English-speaking nations. The 'National Policy' was developed as a result, but the implementation of said policy ended up being put on hold on account of the Pacific Scandal, where one of the chief bidders of the Transcontinental Railway project, Sir Hugh Allan, used what amounted to bribery of over 150 Conservative Party officials in an attempt to get the contract, which resulted in MacDonald's defeat in the 1874 elections. His successor, Alexander MacKenzie, quickly got to work having the government build the railroad themselves. Allan's Canadian Pacific Railway nevertheless began its own efforts at building a railway, primarily going north from Toronto and the Ottawa Valley. While the 1877 timeline for the building of the Canadian transcontinental railroad was not reached, Alexander's willingness to expand rail service from both directions proved helpful for support in British Columbia, as contractors not only began building west out of Ontario (the primary bases being the mining town of Sudbury and the Lake Huron port town of Sault Ste. Marie) but also east out of British Columbia. MacDonald's return to power in 1878 meant a return to the building of railroads, but by this time Mackenzie, who had happily supported immigration growth, had convinced investors both in Canada and abroad that there was money to be made settling the Prairies, and Canada's fantastic population growth in the 1870s and 1880s (Canada's population grew from 3,826,500 in 1861 to 5,542,300 in 1881) bore the truth of this - and with that came the reality that Canada really needed to get its new arrivals settled on the Prairies and get its connection to the Pacific built. The long-dominant Grand Trunk Railroad in Ontario quickly joined the CPR in building across the West from Northern Ontario, and while the building across the Muskeg of the north shore of Lake Superior proved arduous, both lines were operating to Winnipeg by 1880. Under the guidance of CPR manager William Van Horne, the CPR stayed closer to the US border, rejecting Sir Sanford Fleming's original transcontinental route proposal, which was promptly picked up by the Grand Trunk Pacific. The CPR was able to locate a route across the Rockies through the Kicking Horse and Rogers Passes, allowing trains to shave as much as a whole day off of transit times to the Pacific Coast. By 1883, both lines were building into the Rockies, and it was a race to see who would finish first - but despite that, both companies were by 1884 approaching insolvency, hammered by massive costs (in some cases in the Rockies, as much as $300,000 a mile) and slow growth of both traffic and settlers. But as that happened, luck turned for both of them in the form of the North-West Rebellion.

While the Red River Rebellion had largely achieved its goals with little violence, the North-West Rebellion was not so. Angered by the belief (more than a little justified) that the treaties signed by the Canadian government hadn't been worth the paper they were printed on, open rebellion broke out in Saskatchewan, led by Louis Riel, who came up from the United States to do so. Having turned the Rebellion into a fight about the place of Native Canadians within Canada, his rebellion soon rapidly grew to encompass Native Canadian tribes in Manitoba, Northern Ontario and British Columbia as well, while support for them in Native-populated locations in Ontario and Quebec was also loud and noticeable. Ottawa quickly dispatched a sizable portion of troops to Saskatchewan and Manitoba, along with detachments sent to Fort William, Kenora and Fort Frances as well as locations across Northern Ontario. This lowered the problems from the Lake Superior tribes and allowed for efficient movement of troops to the North-West territories, but it cemented plenty of problems between these tribes and Ottawa. The North-West Rebellion ended up lasting through the spring, summer and fall of 1885, with sizable portions of the Cree tribes of the Prairies siding with the Metis after the outbreak of violence. Riel's claims of God having sent him back to Canada as a prophet were widely considered to be heresy and made a major impact in the decision by many tribes to stay out of the mess. Local English-descent settlers stayed completely out of the situation on either side (fearing Metis or Native retaliation more than anything else), but the moves of the Metis turned out entirely differently than in 1869 and 1870.

The Rebellion's end in November 1885 led to the arrests of almost all of the leaders involved - and a major, major problem for MacDonald. By this point, while Ottawa and the Anglophones had carried the day in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, the realities hadn't changed much. Many Cree and almost all of the Blackfoot tribes had stayed out of it, and impassioned pleas by the likes of Poundmaker and Big Bear that they had only sought better conditions for their people caught major traction among French-Canadian and Native communities, to the point that tensions grew dramatically in Quebec and southern Ontario, with many French canadians believing that Riel and the Metis were being unfairly singled out. Regardless of that, Riel, Metis allies Gabriel Dumont and Honore Jackson along with ten Native leaders (including Poundmaker and Big Bear) were all tried for treason. MacDonald ended up making a monumental mistake here - at Riel's trial in Regina, all of his jurors were English or Scottish Protestants, and his conviction was pretty much a formality. Despite months of appeals, Riel and Cree ally Wandering Spirit were hanged on November 16, 1885, sparking a firestorm - the Orangemen orders openly and proudly spoke of the action, claiming it was revenge for Thomas Scott. On November 21, an Orange Order parade in Toronto ran headlong into a collection of Natives who were none too impressed with this. Its not known who fired first, but it was known that Toronto's police forces openly sided with the Orangemen. Thirty people were killed and over a hundred and sixty injured, and the event caused multiple rounds of violence between Native communities in southern and eastern Ontario in November and December, resulting in over 150 people killed and widespread problems, particularly as it became obvious that French-Canadians weren't on Ottawa's side.

Recognizing this and fearing civil war, MacDonald commuted the death sentences of all others so sentenced for involvement in the North-West Rebellion and ordered that the Metis be treated the same as any other citizen in the Prairie Provinces. MacDonald also faced down the massive mistrust of the Catholic Quebecers that largely resulted from this, but the decision to hang Riel politically pretty much finished the Conservatives in Quebec for decades to come - a situation made worse by the Liberals, whose mistrust of Edward Blake saw him replaced during the fall of 1885. Angry Quebecers, it seemed, could be the way of the Liberal Party once again breaking the Conservatives, and in the 1887 elections, that's exactly what happened, with MacDonald soundly defeated by Wilfrid Laurier in the 1887 elections. MacDonald accepted the decision and made it clear to his more than a little irate supporters that the ideals of Canada must be upheld, even at the cost of compromises with those different from them. His statement would be a harbinger of what was to come.

The completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway in November 1885, followed by the Grand Trunk Pacific in August 1886, caused a vast swath of the prairies to be able to be inhabited, and MacDonald's National Policy was supported by Laurier, despite the Liberal Party's initial desires to seek north-south reciprocity that seemed more logical to many. The problem here was that Ottawa's ability to push for a national identity was seen by supporters of reciprocity in the United States as being merely a prelude of what many in America still felt as the inevitable political union between Canada and the United States. The Liberals, faced with a seething French-Canadian community, angered Native communities and the enormous investments made in the CPR and GTPR, was forced to rapidly change course, which Laurier approved of wholeheartedly. The CPR moving its terminus from inland Port Moody to coastal Vancouver in 1887 was quickly followed by the GTPR, and to the surprise of many the local Chinese populations, many of whom had been brought to Canada for the express purpose of building the railroads, stayed behind to form a nexus of people of color in Vancouver, which remained despite the racism that was often pushed in their direction. Further south along Puget Sound, the cities of Seattle and Tacoma that had been established by the Americans before the renegotiation of the Oregon Treaty also sought railroad service, and the completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad to Portland in 1883 had almost immediately led to calls for lines into Canada. Ottawa had no issue with this, and the Northern Pacific began operations to Seattle, Tacoma and Vancouver by 1889. Accepting the obvious limitations of Portland's port compared with those of Puget Sound, the ports of Vancouver, Seattle and Tacoma became important, and both CPR and GTPR quickly moved right along with the NP. Thus was created the "Four Rail Barons of Canada" - James J. Hill, Donald Smith, George Stephen, Richard Angus, Duncan McIntyre and William Van Horne - who both quickly gained control of not only the CPR but also a vast railroad system in the United States.

Indeed, Laurier's election and policies would define Canada. Seeking openly to reject the divisions among populations, Laurier called for an English-French partnership for Canada that was done with the support of Canada's native tribes, and their inclusion if they sought to be part of Canadian society, accepting that many still felt their treaties were nation-to-nation agreements that should be treated as such. Laurier was an adamant supporter of individual freedom, religious tolerance and decentralized federalism, effectively creating many different communities that still pledged allegiance to Canada, which would become an autonomous country within the British Empire. He firmly believed that Canada was a superpower waiting to exist, and his first speech to Parliament in 1887 - the famed "Century of Canada" speech - reinforced this view, and the policies of the Liberal government were tuned to make that happen. Canada's vast new landscapes seemingly beckoned new immigrants from everywhere, and both the CPR and GTPR were soon slugging it over freight rates, with the two companies rapidly becoming bitter competitors for a market. The massive profitability of the railroads led to a third railroad, the Canadian Northern, beginning construction across the prairies in the 1890s. What had mere villages became real towns and eventually cities - Vancouver, Victoria, Seattle and Tacoma were already there, and the massive population growth in the prairies soon did the same for Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer, Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg, Battleford, Prince George, Thunder Bay, Lloydminster and Brandon. Massive population growth onto the prairies did indeed establish Anglophone dominance of the prairie provinces, but the Native populations and the Metis did not go quietly, and over the years more than a few of them would migrate into major cities, where they steadfastly refused to give up their identities, among other factors leading to the creation of the Native Brotherhood of British Columbia in Vancouver in 1892, a forerunner of the Native Brotherhood of Canada that proved to be an influential voice of Native Canadians by the 1910s. More than a few migrants also moved into the mineral-rich (if very poor farmland) regions of Northern Ontario along the National Transcontinental railroad route and the Canadian Pacific. Such was population growth that Alberta and Saskatchewan became Canada's eighth and ninth provinces in 1894.

Laurier and his decisions had opened up a new world, and even with Canada's monumental population growth after confederation, economic growth outstripped even that, and by 1900 Canada was already one of the most prosperous nations on Earth, and Canadian governments and many of its great industrialists were already hard at work turning the country's enormous resource wealth and fertile soil into a vast system of industrial companies and economic projects, sowing the seeds of truly immense growth and influence to come....
 
Some Bloke made good points about more reliable Ross rifles and more Huoy light machine guns.
Sometime during the 1930s Canada needs to recognize that the colonies cannot depend upon British industry to arm the colonial soldiers during World War 2, so Canadian factories more closely align with American factories and start developing weapons specifically for Canadian conditions.

You are not incorrect, but I'm having visions of Canadian arms industries going much, much further than that. Some Bloke's points about the Ross rifles are entirely true and will be followed, but there will be much more. By WWII Canada's industries will be capable of creating their own weapons from scratch. Canada won't be a resource-extracting nation for long....

So let's start with Huot lmgs. Mark 1s would retire after a few years of abuse by the Canadian Army, to soon be replaced by more reliable Mark 2 and Mark 3. The Huot Mark 4 would be a lightened, shorter version for paratroopers and mounted troops perhaps even a bullpup configuration. Bullpup LMGs prove popular with mounted infantry.

Long Branch Arsenals would still make many thousand Sten gun barrels, production of the rest of the SMG would be farmed out to local automobile factories who would tinker with Sten Mark 6 and Mark 7 that have reliable safeties and a parts count even smaller than the Sten 3. The Mark 7 would be a bullpup originally designed for paratroopers, but prove insanely popular with tankers and support troops because it is small enough to fit in a belt holster not much bigger than a pistol.

Meanwhile other gun smiths would develop an anti-tank rifle that fires a higher-velocity shell than the Boys AT rifle. It would fire semi-automatic, with a long-recoil action to reduce damage to the gunners, shoulder.
Meanwhile Canadian mining engineers would develop shaped charges for the next generation of AT weapons.

Speaking of AT weapons, Canadian foctories would get their hands on early versions of 17 pounder gun drawings and start building them for Valentine hulls built in Canadian factories. Thousands of Canadian-built Valentine Archers would be shipped directly to Russia obviating the need to develop SU76 SP gun.
Other 17 pounder barrels would be installed in Ram 3 tanks and a wheeled AT armoured car. Only a few Ram 3 tanks would be produced, but thousands of RAM 3 turrets would be retrofitted to Sherman chassis. These turrets would come with extensive turret bustles and a variety of tool boxes bolted to the hull, so many tool boxes that you could barely see the original armour ..... but neither could a Panzerfaust gunner.

Speaking of mounted troops, Canadian Army brass would recognize that tracked vehicles are too slow and too short-ranged to defend most of Canada, so Canadian automobile factories would build multiple prototypes of wheeled scout cars, armoured cars, APCs and SP artillery.
For SP artillery, I am picturing a 6 or 8 wheeled truck that lowers the baseplate/recoil spades off the back end. Only the engine and crew compartment would be armoured against shrapnel making for a comparatively light chassis that can shoot and scoot away from counter-battery fire.
The Canadian-pattern SP gun would also have a bull-dozer blade hanging off the front end to allow it to dig its own gun pits, ammo trenches, etc.

I might have to steal a few of these ideas. Any objections? :)
 
Your previous timelines went into some detail with the knock on effects
on the Commonwealth as a whole, might we see the same thing here?

The plan in OTL's WWII was for Britain to sell equipment to the Dominions,
but the nature of the war itself meant that Britain barely had the shipping
or capacity to equip itself, which meant the Dominions (especially Australia)
felt abandoned, looking to America for supplies and protection and the
Commonwealth drifted apart politically post war.

Here, it seems that Canada (at least the Army) with be much more
self sufficient.

Will similar effort be made with the other services (the reference to HMCS Vancouver
suggest so)?

Will Australia follow suit and make greater efforts toward industrialisation
and self sufficiency than OTL's interwar years (perhaps with assistance from
Canada in the 30s)?

Just curious, what is the PoD? Or have we not come that far?
 
I'm not honestly sure how to go about the Commonwealth yet. Domestically Canada is gunning for self-sufficiency and industrial power in its own right instead of reliance on either Britain or America, which is going to cause a few issues. I think Australia and Canada's relationship will be different simply because both will be more able to handle both domestic and foreign affairs without having to seek help from Washington or London.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top