 After the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was formed in 1936, Odlum served on its board of governors until the outbreak of World War II.Although Odlum had left the Canadian Army in 1919 and had also resigned his commission in the militia in 1924, with the outbreak of World War II in 1939, he lobbied the government for a position in the expanding Canadian Army.Eventually, through the efforts of his friend Ian Mackenzie, who was in the federal cabinet of William Lyon Mackenzie King, Odlum was promoted over several Permanent Force officers to the rank of Major General and command of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division.