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Through the postwar boom years, as the war plants were converted, Howe had to develop new secondary industries around them, and keep them in such balance that the economy would not be upset by overproduction in one field, shortages in another. In Canada's free economy, Howe had no direct power to stop any citizen from launching any legitimate business. But he had the power to grant or withhold priorities, tax write-offs and government loans.
Using these powers, Howe handed out more than $100 million in government aid for business expansion, and transformed Canadian industry from an awkward war-born phenomenon into a peacetime economy as well-balanced as any in the world. Howe also had a strong hand in forming Canada's postwar fiscal policy, conservative to the core. Ignoring the example of the U.S., Canada refused to impose direct controls on prices and wages, putting its faith instead in strong credit controls and increased production. The policy worked. At the start of the Korean war, Canada's cost of living rose faster than the U.S.'s; now it is on the decline, while the U.S.'s is still rising.
Smooth Team. Howe is trusted with his enormous powers partly because of his use of them in the past, partly because of his freedom from political ambition—a characteristic he shares with Canada's newly appointed Governor General, Vincent Massey (see below). He has made it clear that he does not aspire to the prime ministry. When Mackenzie King was ready to retire in 1948, several of Howe's friends tried to talk him into making a bid for the job. Howe turned them down, and from the outset supported Louis St. Laurent for the post. St. Laurent, in turn, made it a condition of his own acceptance that Howe stay on to handle the business side of the government. Today, St. Laurent and Howe work as a smooth team, with St. Laurent in the role of the suave chairman of the board and Howe as the hard-boiled general manager.
Labor and consumers, as well as business, have shared the benefits of Canada's faster industrial tempo. The average industrial work week has been cut from 48 to 41.8 hours; the supply of consumer goods has been increased. Cars are coming off the assembly lines at 2½ times the prewar rate, refrigerators at nine times; production of radios and electrical appliances had been trebled. Today, three out of five Canadian families own a car, five out of seven have telephones, 19 out of 20 have radios. In the cities of Toronto and Hamilton, 30,000 homeowners have already bought TV sets, on the chance of picking up a snow-flaked image from distant U.S. stations, while waiting for Canadian television to begin in August.