Howe was born in Massachusetts, United States and attended MIT where he received an engineering degree. He emigrated to Canada in 1903 to teach at Dalhousie University. Howe was successful as a professor, but found it dreary and left to design grain elevators on the Canadian prairies. In 1916 he formed his own firm that specialized in elevator design. His business prospered and he was soon very wealthy. The Great Depression hit his business hard, however, and it folded in 1935.
Howe decided to move to politics, and was elected as one of Mackenzie King's Liberals in that same year. In 1936 he entered the cabinet, becoming minister of tranport. Howe maintained close relations with Canadian business leaders and guaranteed their support of the Liberals, despite their conservative tendencies. During the Second World War Howe played a pivotal role becoming minister of munitions and supply.
After the war Howe came to symbolize the Liberal government of Louis St. Laurent first as minister of reconstruction and then as minister of trade and commerce. Howe ran much of the government and was the second most powerful man in the country. he became well known for arrogance, however. He described question period in the House of Commons as "children's hour" and for dismissing a million dollars as being an important sum of money. This culminated in the debate on the Trans-Canada Pipeline where Howe tried to force the public-private partnership through parliament.
In part because of the pipeline and Howe behaviour two decades of Liberal rule came to an end in a surprise defeat to John Diefenbaker's Progressive Conservatives in 1957. The entire nation was shocked when Howe himself lost his western Ontario seat.
Despite these failures Howe is still today viewed as man who made Canada into a modern industrial power. Howe played an important role in setting up many of the pillars of the Canadian economy such as Air Canada, the St. Lawrence Seaway, CN Rail, The C.D. Howe Building, the home of Industry Canada in Ottawa, is named after him. The C.D. Howe Institute an economic policy think tank is also named after him.