Calgary & Southern Alberta

The Calgary Tank Regiment pinned down on the beaches during the raid on Dieppe
Courtesy of the Glenbow Collection

The immediate economic impact of war on the southern Alberta home front was to end the unemployment crisis connected with the Depression. Over the next six years, 85,000 men – nearly half of all eligible males in the province – enlisted in the armed forces. Activities at armed forces bases, the Suffield chemical warfare research station (established in 1941) and at the air fields associated with the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan brought an influx of servicemen from other provinces and countries, which led to the expansion of the construction and service industries in many local communities. The establishment of POW camps also had a major impact on local economies, particularly in Lethbridge and Medicine Hat, where the camps held some 12,000 inmates.

The expanded need for fossil fuels generated new activity in the region's coalfields of such proportions that the federal government passed legislation in 1943 to forbid coal miners from enlisting. The boom proved short-lived. While coal mines in the Crow's Nest Pass area remained open into the 1970s, the introduction of natural gas home heating systems, and of diesel-fuelled trains after the war made most coal mines economically unviable by the late 1940s. The federal government's renewed interest in Alberta's heavy oil reservoirs, a product of wartime concern for the adequacy of Canada's fossil fuel reserves, was also temporary. The energy demands of the war years, however, served as catalysts for the dramatic post-war events that inaugurated Alberta's economic dependence on its oil and gas reserves.

World War II also contributed to major changes in southern Alberta's farming industry. It not only ended the agricultural depression, but also altered the economic structure of the industry, and the region's demographic profile. Increasing livestock, feed and produce prices revitalised the sugar beet farms in the Cardston area, and encouraged wheat farmers to diversify. The war-induced labour shortage and improvements in the quality of farm machinery accelerated the rate of farm mechanisation. The resulting shift from small, labour-intensive farms to large operations requiring fewer workers, coupled with the economic attractions of southern Alberta's booming towns and cities, promoted urbanisation. Alberta's overall population changed little in the war years, but by 1951 over half the province's people lived in urban areas.

The War helped generate long-term social and political changes in southern Alberta. The interaction between Albertans and military personnel from outside the province, general concern for the nation's defence, and the cosmopolitan view of the world that overseas veterans brought back with them at the war's end broadened people's knowledge of other parts of Canada and the world. Reactions of horror to Nazi atrocities also helped to modify ethnic relations within the province.

The wartime labour shortage altered women's position in society. Over 4,000 Albertan women enlisted in the armed forces. Many others entered the paid labour force. These changes in economic status were superficial and short-lived. Most enlisted women received menial assignments. After the war, the government ended programmes to assist women working outside the home. The economic impact of returning male veterans, and the psychological desire of both men and women for a return to "normal" family life induced most women to leave the paid job market. Yet, in the long run, the wartime experiences of women would help to set the stage for the "women's movement" of the late 1960s and 1970s.