The closing thought experiment asks Canada to buy two destroyers and four sloops with successive British orders throughout the 1930s, reaching 18 destroyers and about 36 sloops before adding a Leander-class light cruiser as flagship. Such a fleet would have provided much greater immediate capability when war began. The institutional question is whether Canada would also have created a naval ministry, officer education, supply systems, and civilian oversight able to support it. The scenario connects force structure with the administrative preparation required to use ships effectively in a crisis.
Notable Point · 48:13-50:04
A counterfactual Canadian fleet for 1939
The closing thought experiment asks how 18 destroyers, 36 sloops, and a Leander-class cruiser might have changed Canada's naval institutions and wartime response.