The founding of the Civic Theatre Association in Toronto in 1945, and its four-season production history until 1949, provide a microcosm of the embryonic development stage of post-World War II indigenous Canadian theatre. Created through the merger of fourteen Toronto-area amateur companies under the leadership of the film and theatre critic Roly Young (1903-48), the CTA sought to finance adequate theatre facilities and to provide work opportunities and appreciative audiences for Canadian artists and playwrights. Young's opposition to the principle of government arts subsidies to create a Canadian 'national' theatre placed him in direct conflict with the organizational work of John Coulter and Herman Voaden at the Arts and Letters Club and the Canadian Arts Council.