Allan Levine on Canada’s ‘Dollar a Year Men’ in World War Two

Did you know that in World War II, Canada’s “best business brains” traded Bay Street boardrooms in support of the country's war effort?

In this episode of History Matters, I sit down with Winnipeg-based historian and author Allan Levine to talk about his new book, The Dollar a Year Men: How the Best Business Brains in Canada Helped to Win the Second World War (Barlow Books, 2025). 

We open with a gripping story from December 1940: C.D. Howe, E.P. Taylor, and other Canadian industrialists crossing a U-boat–infested Atlantic, only to see their ship torpedoed and still pressing on to London to negotiate urgently needed munitions for Britain.

From there, Allan and I trace how a small, mostly agrarian country of just over 11 million people became the fourth-largest industrial power in the Allied war effort. We explore the rise of C.D. Howe as Minister of Munitions and Supply, the “dollar-a-year men” who left lucrative private-sector careers to serve, the creation of Crown corporations, and the “bits and pieces” subcontracting system that turned refrigerator and bicycle factories into producers of tanks, guns, and Lancaster bombers. Along the way, we talk about labour tensions, accusations of war profiteering, and how Mackenzie King’s cautious political genius coexisted with Howe’s bulldozing efficiency.

We also zoom out to ask bigger questions: What does this wartime experiment in state–business partnership tell us about Canadian political culture, emergency powers, and the limits of parliamentary accountability? Why has this story been so neglected in mainstream Second World War histories? And what lessons—good and bad—might it hold for governments facing crises today?

If you enjoy historically grounded conversations about Canadian politics, World War II, economic history, and the people behind the policy, this episode is for you.

Allan Levine

https://www.linkedin.com/in/allan-levine-90284869/?originalSubdomain=ca