Canadian Pacific Railway constructed 788 Valentine tanks in its Angus shop in Montreal its engine was built by General Motors.General Motors developed a frame for another snowmobile, of which 300 were built. The Bombardier company of Valcourt, Quebec, built more than 150 military snowmobiles.This meant that the Canadian Army "in the field" had a ratio of one vehicle for every three soldiers, making it the most mechanized field force in the war. The remainder of the vehicles went to the other Allies. Thirty-eight percent of the total Canadian production went to the British. Of the 800,000 military vehicles of all types built in Canada, 168,000 were issued to Canadian Forces.Canadian industry produced more than 800,000 military transport vehicles, 50,000 tanks, 40,000 field, naval, and anti-aircraft guns, and 1,700,000 small arms.Canada not only replaced these losses, it did much more. Virtually defenceless on the ground, Britain turned to Canada - and particularly the Canadian auto industry - to replace what had been lost. Britain had entered the war with 80,000 military vehicles of all types however, 75,000 of these British vehicles were left behind in the evacuation at Dunkirk in 1940.Canadian industry and the workforce of our country stepped up with an amazing response to this situation and helped contribute to the Allied victory in the war.
With the onset of the war, Canada was faced with the challenge of creating - practically from scratch - a strong industrial base to produce weapons and war materials for the war effort.
The Second World War was a highly mechanized war, with a great deal of mass-production of weapons, ammunition, vehicles, and other war material necessary to defeat the enemies who had great industrial powers of their own. The brave Canadians engaged in combatting the enemy needed a great deal of support from many areas of Canadian society to be successful in their vital struggle. The great national effort put forth by Canadians during the Second World War took many different forms.