Canada in the 1930s was a peaceful nation with limitless potential and great resources of timberlands, prairie wheat fields and bountiful fisheries. After the outbreak of the Second World War, Canada was transformed into a nation at war. Thousands of recruits entered the military to begin their training. The first concern was to buttress the borders of a country with 24,000 miles of coastline to defend. On the home front, industrial production soared with factories converting to munitions and other weapons of war.