Since its inception and until WWII, the RCN was under pressure from politicians and surprisingly (?) the Army to have its funds reduced or fully taken away. The Naval Reserve is a direct result of those pressures.
I think that the loss of identity with the common uniform struck at the heart of the senior officers and Chiefs institutional core. Many of them were likely subordinates to Officers and Rates who had scars from the post WWI attempts to get rid of the Navy.
To them, unification was just another attempt from the federal bureaucracy to be rid of a line item and they were going to go to wall to keep the RCN alive.
If I’m honest, it took 33 years for the original idea of Integration to become a reality. That we wasted those years trying pound a square plug into a round hole is the real tragedy of Paul Hellyer and Bob Lee ( former Wing Commander who was Hellyer’s Chief of Staff and quelle surprise, later ran PETs election campaign after leaving the CAF as a smoking ruin).
