Canada’s Delayed Declaration of War.

[John McGillivray]

When the UK declared war on Germany following the invasion of Poland, Canada waited a full week before doing the same. Many people have critizied the Canadian Government for foot draging, or as not showing enough loyality to the British Empire.

However, there appears to be a practical reason for this. According to Gordon Corrigan in his book “Blood Sweat and Arrogance The Myths of Churchills War” the British had order large amounts of war material from US suppliers before the start of the war. With the British declaration of war, this material could not be shipped to the UK because of the American Neutrality Act which was in effect in 1939. Since Canada had not delared war along with the British, this war material could be shipped to Canada. So during that week of Canadian foot dragging, American companies were busy rushing as much of the war material ordered by Britain across the border into Canada, to make an end run around the Neutrality Act.