In this book, George Raudzens seeks to enhance our understanding of the British military's contribution 'to the shaping of Canada' by providing an administrative history of the Ordnance Department in the context of its particular contribution to Canadian development. The book focuses on the Ordnance's Canadian canal construction program because the canals, which were intended to provide a secure interior military transportation network, were the Ordnance's 'outstanding contribution' to the development of Canada. Other contributions of the Ordnance Department to Canadian development are merely touched on in passing.