C.D. Howe

C.D. Howe was a businessman and politician who was responsible for many different innovations that were introduced to mainstream Canada from the start of his career in the 1920s as an engineer until the time of his death in 1960. Where he proved himself worthy was on the public stage during all the wars Canada was involved with during his lifetime. In WW1 he helped innovate the grain industry by helping to introduce grain elevators in the prairies which was essential to the home front war efforts. In WWII he was responsible for overseeing all industry production of equipment and munitions which was an essential role in the federal government at that time and it was a very demanding position with a lot of responsibility. After the ally victory of the two World Wars he then contributed again to the war efforts of the Cold War. He played a contributing factor to developing Canada’s nuclear industry in case of an upcoming attack as the Minister of Defense Production. On top of his war efforts he was also responsible for the establishment of a number of crown corporations such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Trans-Canada Airlines and the oil pipeline which extends from Alberta to central Canada.

It was not necessarily just Howe’s war efforts which qualify him for a lasting place in Canadian history but rather his ability to fuse both government and business which benefit all stakeholders involved. His capability to facilitate very complex and accurate deals that satisfy the desires of all parties involved was what made Howe so influential in his tenure in Politics. One of his nicknames was “Minister of everything” because he was nearly the minister of literally almost everything. Throughout his career he was the Minister of Railways and Canals, Minister of Marines, Minister of Munitions & supply, Minister of Reconstruction, Minister of Trade & Commerce and finally the Minister of Defense Production.

It was his versatility and ability to adjust to his surroundings that made him suitable in each of these different roles. The one function in his skillset that elevated above competing politicians and businessmen of his time was his ability to blend business and government so seamlessly. It was the approach he took to never trying to satisfy only one side and establishing equal benefits for all parties involved regardless of the industry or marketplace

Clarence Decatur Howe, generally referred to as C.D. Howe, was born in Massachusetts on January 15, 1886 and spent his adult life living in Canada as a businessman and a politician until he died on December 31, 1960. Howe was a true innovator who always looked at certain issues in Canada from a different point of view which made him the trendsetter that he was. His life in Canada started when he took a professor role at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia and later worked for the Canadian Government as an engineer developing wheat elevators. Howe was an exceptional networker and always kept his finger on the pulse regardless of the field that he was in. Through his work out west on the wheat elevators his political savvy and hard working attitude caught the attention of prime minister William Lyon Mckenzie King. Eventually Howe performed duties as a Liberal Cabinet Minister and before being promoted to his first major public responsibility which was Minister of Department of Munitions & Supply heading into WWII. One of Howe’s greatest achievements came following the war when he was the minister of Trade and Commerce and under his jurisdiction transitioned the economy from an agricultural to an industrial based economy. Following WWII he really focused his time and efforts on establishing crown corporations that would prove to be vital to not only the Canadian economy but also to Canadian culture. These crown corporations included the CBC as well as Trans-Canada Airlines which were both created in the 1930s following the great depression. After the establishment of these crown corporations his next major task at hand was as the Minister of Defense Production during the Cold War where he was responsible for setting up a nuclear industry and defense system for Canada. His last great achievement which secured his position in history was the establishment of the pipeline that brings natural gas from Alberta to central Canada which was constructed just prior to his death.

Throughout his over 40 year career Howe has demonstrated both business and political successes that demonstrated wisdom far behind his time. The first success Howe had on a national scale was developing modern wheat elevators and transport lines to store and ship a much greater amount of wheat than before. This was literally a life saver for Canada as these new wheat elevators were installed just a few years prior to the war and helped to feed not only Canadian soldiers but all ally soldiers as food became scarce as the war progressed. Not only did it feed their fighting soldiers but it also allowed Canada to profit greatly from these high volume wheat elevators and surpass many of its competitors in the volume of wheat exports. Another key achievement in Howe’s life was when he was named Minister of Department of Munitions and Supply during WWII. Howe oversaw the operations of the production of Ally equipment and ammunition such as guns, planes, tanks etc. He also gathered a large amount of external funding from outside investors for different wartime effort programs.

Following the war Howe was promoted to Minister of trade and commerce where he implemented many reforms to successfully transition the economy from agriculturally based to industrial. His final major accomplishment came in the 1950s when C.D. Howe and the Liberals lobbied for a pipeline to flow oil and natural gas from Alberta to central Canada. After a long debate with many compromises, they were allowed to install a pipeline which helped etch his legacy into Canadian history. His accomplishments did not occur at random but rather they followed a succinct pattern of expansion and foresight. Howe was a man that stuck to his convictions and was a great deal maker who conjured up many elaborate business contracts that were too complex for many civilians at the time to understand. The way in which C.D. Howe was able to connect business with government in a fluent manner was what makes him such a noteworthy and polarizing figure in Canadian history and many present politicians have taken a page or two out of Howe’s strategy book.

Wheat elevators, also referred to as grain elevators, are large storage facilities that can house a bulk amount of product and have it conveniently ready to transport. Grain elevators come in a variety of shapes and sizes and can range from one single structure for smaller farming operations to large scale multi-building storage facilities that are also responsible for shipping logistics. At the turn of the 20th century the prairies were producing more wheat than they could store and so they could not maximize on their revenue potential. Even though they were not selling all of the grain they possibly could they were still only second to the U.S. in world grain exports. With the arrival of the grain elevator technology in Canada, it was sure to give their agricultural economy a boost to stimulate growth.

Although this technology was innovative to say the least, it did not surge through the marketplace as one would expect. It was very slow to be adopted due to the high costs and the risk of trying something that they have just heard of. Finally in 1913 the government decided to intervene and assist these Canadian farmers by creating a Grain Commission that would regulate the grain industry in Canada. Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden realized how important the grain industry was to Canada and how necessary it was to keep a watchful eye over the market and use a guiding hand to ensure maximum potential for Canada’s exports. As mentioned, Howe was the engineer on this project and he was very hands on. He not only kept close relationships with all the major farmers in the prairies as well as close ties to federal government, he also personally innovated the engineering process behind the grain elevator enhancing it to store a greater volume of grain while being able to ship with greater ease. Howe’s knowledge of the grain industry in the west was essential to his development moving forward into his political career. In the west, the grain industry was a key issue that politicians, agriculturalists and investors paid close attention to.

In 1912, Alberta had only 279 grain elevators in operation. By 1929, a few years prior to the great depression which crushed the grain industry, Alberta had 879 elevators in operation. A contributing factor to this was the intervention by the federal government to assist the grain producers in storing and transporting a higher volume of product. The timing of the emergence of the grain elevator technology was nearly perfect for Canada. They developed their new grain infrastructure less than five years before WWI. Throughout WWI grain was a necessity for ally soldiers and the capacity that was needed overseas could not have been attained with the old system of grain storage and transportation. It is not guaranteed that any more soldiers would have starved it would have just been much more difficult and expensive to find that amount of wheat anywhere else in the world.

Two years into the war Howe was on the interior of the grain industry in wartime Canada and he saw the business potential in the grain market. He realized how scarce grain was abroad and how essential it was to the ally forces so he resigned from the Grain Commission and opened up his own grain elevator business which he would profit immensely from until The Great Depression in the 1930s when the price of grain plummeted.

The reason why Howe’s involvement with the grain elevators is so significant is for a few reasons. First off, this is where he initially makes a publicly recognizable name for himself and earns himself a considerable amount of money which helps him gain influence and status in Canada at that time. As well, whether he knew it or not this was his introduction to politics in the West and his establishment among the key players and influencers in the province. The success he had in the grain industry also proves himself worthy among Prime Minister McKenzie King who eventually decides to hire him as Minister of Munitions & Supply which was a very important and taxing role during WWII.

By 1935 Howe was out of the grain industry and he had moved onto politics. At the start of WWII the federal government created the Department of Munitions & Supply which carried the responsibility of organizing industry in Canada for the duration of WWII. King decided that Howe proved himself during his war efforts in the First World War so he was the best candidate to assume this brand new position for WWII. The way in which Howe ran Canada’s industrial domestic relations was much different than any government bodies like it at its time. Howe, a seasoned businessman, decided to conduct operations more like a major corporation and less like a government run organization. Howe’s inner circle of confidants were not government workers or civil servants rather established business executives who understood the challenges they were up against. Most of Howe’s closest business associates at the Department of Munitions & Supply only were compensated $1 a year and they later became to be know as the “dollar a year men”. This concept of only accepting $1 for a years worth of work was to show their true commitment to their country so all the money the department had to spend could go to where it was really needed which was oversees and not in their pockets.

Although Canada was not a key influencer or instigator of WWII, they played a very important supporting role not only through their export of grain and other food but also in munitions. Throughout WWII $11 billion was spent in Canadian Industrial production producing over 1.7 million small arms weapons, 16,000 aircrafts and 815,000 military vehicles and 50,000 tanks and armored gun carriers. This was only a percentage of the variety of equipment that Canada produced during WWII. It is also important to note that Canada was not building all these products for their own military but for the rest of the allies as well. By the end of the war Canada supplied only 30% of their munitions and supplies to their own military, while the remaining 70% went to the rest of the Ally forces.

This department was unlike almost any other political department because it was a wartime department with far reaching authority. As the minister of the department, Howe was technically able to do almost anything necessary to attain the scarce materials needed for munitions and supply. Regardless of if it meant seizing private property or changing government contracts. The task of this department was to find and collect any materials necessary for the use in production for WWII equipment. In 1940 the ally forces were at a disadvantage to the German forces overseas and their equipment was running low and Canada did not have the funding to produce additional materials. In such a crucial moment in the war Howe stepped up for his country and used his position as a Minister to create new crown corporations and gain external funding necessary to provide the allies with equipment, which he did in a timely manner.

1940 was a very significant moment in not only Howe’s career as he organized the munitions support but also for the ally army as Germany had just conquered a few key countries and the financial troubles could have easily lead to an early German victory in WWII. Howe’s wartime contribution on the home front is comparable to not only anyone in Canada, but anyone in any of the supporting ally countries. His quick thinking and savvy political attitude was a key success factor in the outcome of the Second World War and without the inputs of C.D. Howe it could have easily turned out differently.

One of the most prolific aspects of C.D. Howe’s career was his ability to efficiently blend government with business in a way that was never done before. His keen eye for upcoming trends in addition to his considerable political and financial influence allowed him to help introduce and publicize the modern technologies of the time. Technologies such as commercial aviation, nuclear facilities, radio broadcasting and the oil pipeline were all contributions influenced to some degree by C.D. Howe. It is the introduction of these commonplace technologies that solidified his position in Canadian History as someone who not only greatly assisted in war efforts on the home front, but also revolutionized Canada’s economy.

Prior to WWII when Howe was only a cabinet minister he witnessed the emergence of commercial aviation abroad. He realized that even though Canada’s population was insignificant and scarce in comparison to some of the other large and technologically advanced countries, there was a definite opportunity for this specific innovation in Canada. Initially he attempted to organize a partnership between the federal government and the Canadian National Railway (CNR) to create an airline that operated in Canada. After long negotiations the two parties were unable to settle on the exact details of operations and how many seats each respective party should get on the board of directors. The next option for Howe and the federal government was to establish a publicly owned airline in Canada which eventually happened in 1937. Howe debuted the newly established Trans-Canada Air Lines by taking a flight from Montreal to Vancouver on July 30th which flew from “dawn till dusk” and was later described privately as a rather uncomfortable flight due to the new civilian planes. This brand new commercial aviation company eventually went on to become Air Canada, the leader in Canadian commercial aviation in the 21st century.

Around the exact same time as the Trans-Canada Airlines was established, the radio broadcast industry was just getting off the ground on a mainstream level. Just as Howe saw a need with the airlines he saw the same potential with the radio industry. In 1936 the federal government established the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation with a minor but significant contribution to the formation and legislation of the company. He was responsible for assigning the executives and leaders of the new company. It was his effective networking that allowed him to place the correct staff to allow the CBC to flourish and become a central part of Canadian history for the next 80 years.

C.D. Howe’s final implant on not only the Canadian economy but also Canadian history came in 1956 within a decade before his death. This significant accomplishment was the result of intense lobbying in order to create a natural gas and oil pipeline that began in Alberta and extended into central Canada. Unlike his contribution to the CBC and Trans-Canada Airlines, he had a deeper connection and felt stronger ties to the pipeline issues. He established his career out west in an industry that revolved around using their vast national resources and transporting it to the populations core where it was needed. Just as he saw the potential for grain elevators in the 1920s he saw the same opportunity with the oil and natural gas industry in Canada almost thirty years later.

After realizing that a pipeline across Canada is necessary considering both the supply of the fossil fuels in Alberta and the demand for oil in central Canada, the logistics and financing have to now be sorted out. The first issue that needs to be sorted out is how Canada is going to pay for this extensive pipeline stretching across the country. The most obvious answer at the time was American investment considering the successful performance of the North American economy following WWII. Canadian nationalists were upset with the idea of the U.S. owning such a large portion of Canadian business and this was a big issue while debating the financing options. In the end the federal government agreed to allow U.S. investors to own half of the pipeline while Canada maintained control of the remaining half. The next issue of contention was deciding the route of the pipeline. There were two initial options as to where the pipeline was going to be constructed and routed throughout Canada. One option was to create a fully Canadian route stretching east and west just north of the border. The second option was to create a pipeline that had a port in Winnipeg that extended south into the mid west of the United States in order to distribute natural gas and oil to the United States. This issue seriously halted the process of developing a transcontinental pipeline until the issue was finally resolved in 1954 and construction was set to begin in just a few short years.

Howe was an essential part of the negotiation process and without him the deal may not have went through. He was able to balance both the business aspects of raising money and securing the land to build the necessary infrastructure. He was also able to manage the political aspect of negotiating between countries and appropriately lobbying for certain legislation to help his cause. This is the same skill set which made him appropriate and qualified to set up the other crown corporations in his career such as the CBC and Trans-Canada Airlines.

Howe’s military prowess and reliability on the home front was exactly the type of politician/businessman that Canada needed at this time of extreme uncertainty. Howe not only understood the circumstances of the situation oversees but he also embraced his position and thought of innovative ways of assisting his fellow allies. All though he tended to bite off more than he could chew in terms of workload, he always seemed to get the job done and he surrounded himself with an efficient team around him. The ability to network and put the best possible people in the right positions could be considered one of his greatest talents. Very few politicians in Canadian history have had even close to the amount of minister positions in the federal government as he had and it was his flexibility and self awareness that allowed him to transition between minister roles wherever he was needed. His contribution to the numerous crown corporations that he assisted in establishing could also be attributed to not only his work ethic but his ability to spot upcoming trends and capitalize on them. The intertwining of business and government in not only wartime efforts but also with the post war crown corporations is a testament to his meticulous planning and political character. The roles he fulfilled within Canadian politics is unparalleled to nearly anyone in Canadian politics for his hands on experience and his efficient demeanor.

Bibliography

Bothwell, Robert, and William Kilbourn. C.D. Howe, a biography. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1979.

Harbron, John D., and C. D. Howe. C.D. Howe. Don Mills, Ont.: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1980.

"WWII: Canadian War Industry." Canada at War. http://www.canadaatwar.ca/content-17/world-war-ii/canadian-war-industry/ (accessed July 11, 2014).

Government of Canada. "The Gas Pipeline Affair." Parks Canada. http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/lhn-nhs/qc/stlaurent/natcul/natcul2/natcul2g.aspx (accessed July 13, 2014).

"Alberta's Grain Elevators." Grain Elevators Alberta. http://www.grainelevatorsalberta.ca/articles/HRM-history.pdf (accessed July 12, 2014).

Nerbas, Don. Dominion of capital: the politics of big business and the crisis of the Canadian bourgeoisie, 1914-1947. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press 2013, 1981.

"Dictionary of Canadian Biography." Biography.ca. http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/howe_clarence_decatur_18E.html (accessed July 15, 2014).

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[ 1 ]. (Bothwell, Page 23)
[ 2 ]. (Ibid, Page 48)
[ 3 ]. ("Dictionary of Canadian Biography.")
[ 4 ]. (Harbron, Page 276)
[ 5 ]. (Nebras, Page 63)
[ 6 ]. (Ibid, Page 64)
[ 7 ]. (Harbron, Page 12)
[ 8 ]. (Ibid, Page 27)
[ 9 ]. (Nebras, Page 56)
[ 10 ]. (“Dictionary of Canadian Biography”)
[ 11 ]. (Bothwell, Page 325)
[ 12 ]. (Nebras, 114)
[ 13 ]. (Bothwell, Page 48)
[ 14 ]. (Ibid, Page 49)
[ 15 ]. (Ibid, Page 49)
[ 16 ]. (Bothwell, 54)
[ 17 ]. (“Dictionary of Canadian Biography”)
[ 18 ]. (“Alberta Grain Elevators”)
[ 19 ]. (“Dictionary of Canadian Biography”)
[ 20 ]. (Nebras, Page 39)
[ 21 ]. (Nebras, Page 63)
[ 22 ]. (“Dictionary of Canadian Biography”)
[ 23 ]. (Harbron, Page 183)
[ 24 ]. ("WWII: Canadian War Industry")
[ 25 ]. (Bothwell, Page 316)
[ 26 ]. (“Dictionary of Canadian Biography”)
[ 27 ]. (Ibid)
[ 28 ]. (Harbron, Page 168)
[ 29 ]. (Bothwell, Page 237)
[ 30 ]. (Harbron, Page 276)
[ 31 ]. (Ibid, Page 276)
[ 32 ]. (“The Gas Pipeline Affair”)
[ 33 ]. (Ibid)
[ 34 ]. (Bothwell, Page 343)