Defense Watch Watch: Notes from the National Shipbuilding Strategy
One lesson Canada took from the Second World War was that their previous military procurement strategy didn't work. Up until that point, Canada had always relied on buying hardware, like aircraft and ships, from the UK and America. What Canada discovered after following the UK into war in 1939 was that when a major war happens, both those nations are suddenly too busy with their own needs to sell to Canada. This proved a particular issue when defending Canada; for several years, German U-boats could operate in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and off Canada's coast while resources to hunt them were so lacking that America and the UK had to assume aerial anti-submarine patrols until Canada could get its collective shit together. So at the end of the Second World War, Canada followed a strategy of building some defense industry, and some purchasing from its allies, depending on what native industrial strengths it could utilize. One of these places was surface ships for the Royal Canadia...