mainly to assert its new autonomous status and to remind the Europeans that
Canada, as a North American country, had concerns that were different from
theirs. As World War I had showed, European countries had trouble getting along
with one another, whereas Canada and the United States lived in peace. The iso-
lationist impulse, shared with the United States, was vividly expressed by
Canada's delegate to the League of Nations in 1924: Canadians, he said, lived
"in a fireproof house far from inflammable materials."

The unwillingness to commit itself, so characteristic of the Canadian gov-
ernment in the pre-World War II period, and Prime Minister Mackenzie King's
cautious, obfuscating leadership prevented Canada from taking any significant
action before war broke out. For example, King repudiated Canada's represen-
tative at the League in 1937 who, uncharacteristically for Canada, had sup-
ported broad League sanctions against Mussolini's Italy for its action in
Ethiopia. Concern for national unity in the face of strong French Canadian
opposition to taking a stand was one reason for aloofness. However,
Mackenzie King always followed the rule that "we should not strive to over-
play our part." He referred to Canada as only 10 million people living in the
north of a continent.

Although Canada's emotional ties to Britain made Canada's entry into World
War II inevitable, the Canadian government, to underscore its autonomy, made
no formal declaration of belligerency until a week after Britain had done so. As
in World War I, Canada made an important contribution to the Allied victory in
World War II, not simply by providing fighting forces but also by supplying
other belligerents, particularly the Soviet Union, and by conducting naval con-
voys in the Atlantic. Early on, Canada provided training for the air force per-
sonnel of its Commonwealth allies. As the distinguished scholar and diplomat
John Holmes has pointed out, the Canadian experience was "less bloody and
frustrating" in World War II than in World War I.

Not surprisingly, Canadians again fought primarily in Europe and more
closely with the British than with the Americans. Once again the Canadian gov-
ernment's demand for an effective voice in the conduct of the war had to be
severely compromised. It had, in fact, no voice at all in the higher direction of
the war. Although over a quarter-million Canadian soldiers fought in Western
Europe, Canada had no part in the Allied command. If General Andrew
McNaughton (who was eased out of command of the Canadian forces in 1943)
was right when he claimed, "The acid test of sovereignty is the control of the
armed forces," Canada in World War II was not yet recognized as a completely
autonomous state. After pressing hard, it did achieve membership on two of the

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