The Apprentice Historian
Issue Analysis
Your Turn: Issue Analysis Activity
The Scenario
A protest has been launched by the Liberal Party of Canada to the Ethics
Commission of Canada about the actions of the Conservative Party of Canada
during the 1917 general election. The Liberal Party is claiming that the actions of
the Conservative Party made the election unfair. The Liberal Party in its formal
submission have identified three specific laws that were passed that in 1917 that
were unethical and therefore have put the results of the general election into disrepute.
The three laws passed by the Conservative government in 1917 were:
Military Service Act
Military Voters Act
Wartime Elections Act
August 29, 1917
September 20, 1917
September 20, 1917
Each act denied the political rights of Canadian citizens. The Military Service
Act forced Canadians to join the military whether they wanted to or not. The Military Voters Act gave the vote to anyone in the military regardless of citizenship,
age or gender. This denied the vote to recent immigrants to Canada and to women living in Canada. This act also allowed the votes of military personnel to be
distributed to any riding in Canada if the voter did not specify a riding. Even the
ballot only said For or Against the government, not the names of specific candidates from different political parties. The Wartime Elections Act gave the vote to
women, but only women who were close female relatives of military personnel.
It also denied the vote to any immigrant to Canada since 1902 who was from a
country on the restricted list.
As a member of the Ethics Commission you will have to make a judgment as
to whether the Conservative Party of Canada acted in an unethical manner. Using
criteria established by the government, the committee will make a ruling on each
of the acts passed by the government. The committee is to use the following cri-
teria in their assessment. The criteria will be explained in more detail later in the
exercise.
Which action produced the most good and did the least harm?
Which action best respected the rights of all who have a stake?
Which action treated people equally or proportionately?
Which action best served the community as a whole?
Which action would lead me to act as the sort of person I want to be?
The committee will determine if each of the acts was unethical. The committee will rank the acts in order from most unethical to least unethical. The
committee will prepare a report that will be presented to Parliament.
Instructions
Stage 1: Sub-Committee Issue Analysis
Working in a sub-committee group of three, prepare a summary of one of
the three acts passed by the Borden government. Use the Issue Analysis template
that follows.
Stage 2: Sub-Committee Debate Preparation
Reform into sub-committees that contain members who have prepared a
summary for each of the acts. This sub-committee will use the government’s five
ethics criteria to complete the Committee Debate Preparation report.
Stage 3: Ethics Commission Decision Making
As a committee of the whole, the Ethics Commission will meet to debate the
ethics of the three acts passed by the Borden government. Using the decision
making template the commission will determine if each of the acts was ethical or
not and will rank the three acts from least ethical to most ethical.
Stage 4: Ethics Commission Press Release
Upon completion of the Ethics Commission decision making, each subcommittee will complete a press release using the template provided. The release will give an analysis of each act using the government criteria.
The Apprentice Historian: Issue Analysis