04-02 Canada Joins War

It is not often that a young child remembers a world-shaking event, but I remember the beginnings of WWII, with frightening clarity.
"Quiet, quiet", my father shouted as he ran from the bathroom into the living room to catch the morning news report on the radio. He was only in his underwear shorts and held a razor in his hand with half of his face shaved. I remember bits of cream dripping from his face onto the floor. It was September 4, 1939, and the report announced that Britain was at war with Germany.
I remember father saying that this means Canada will be at war. At the time, being only six years old, this excitement really did not mean much. But mother standing there holding Ian as a two-year-old child, and dad standing about half-naked, it all seemed so important and scary.
And just as dad suggested, within a week Canada officially declared war on Germany. It was years later talking to my father, that he explained that he had been planning for the possibility of Canada going to war for over two years. He opened his clothing business in 1938 and arranged with Schiffer-Hillman to manufacture his suits.
When I asked him why he chose Schiffer-Hillman, he said because they were already in the uniform business and had all the patterns. He took me down to see Ben Hillman at their factory at Spadina and Adelaide in Toronto. Their building was called the Balfour Building, and it is now a heritage site.
The big news for my father was a decision by the government of Canada to provide a $200 credit slip to each officer to purchase their uniforms wherever they wanted. This made dad’s business viable because he could not get any form of operating loan from the bank to finance his business.
And then dad started his weekly trips to the camps around Ontario with me in tow, taking measurements and picking up the tax credits which he gave to the bank. They were as good as cash.
While driving towards London, Ontario that Fall, I remember dad saying to me, "John, I am not making much money providing a full uniform and great coat for $200, but if these brave men survive the war, they will be my customers for life. And they were.
How joyful it is today to have my nephew Andrew Bulloch discover a small role of labels that were sown inside the uniforms made first by Schiffer-Hillman and later in his own factory. There are a lot of old Bulloch uniforms being stored in attic trunks across Canada that will proudly carry this label.