The Canadian Home Front
During WWI
Mobilizing a Nation for War
Gearing Up for War
• When war broke out in 1914, support was
generally widespread
• Canada was flooded with government
propaganda posters that glorified the
“Great War”
• Every Canadian felt an obligation to do their
part to support the war effort – this
included church groups, women’s
organizations and charities
A Canadian Patriotic Fund was established to collect money
for soldiers’ families who struggled to survive on a private’s
pay of $1.10 a day. Co-operative stores were also set up so
that these families could buy food and fuel at a cheaper price.
As the war dragged on, these items became increasingly
scarce.
Racism in the Canadian Military
• Even though many Canadians were eager to
contribute to the war effort, not all contributors
were welcomed
• Visible minorities, such as Black, Asian, and
Aboriginal Canadians faced harsh discrimination
and racism
• Aboriginals were denied admission to the army at
the onset of war, where as Black and Asian
Canadians were rejected for other reasons
• These men were often told that this was a “White
man’s war” and that their efforts were inadequate
• However, as the war dragged on and enlistment
plummeted, the reluctance to admit non-Whites
lessened
Aboriginal Canadians were finally allowed to enlist in the army in 1915.
Chinese and Japanese Canadians were reluctantly admitted to several battalions by
the summer of 1916.
• Blacks who were admitted into the army were
restricted to Black-only, non-combat battalions
• The No. 2 Construction Battalion was an entirely
Black Canadian battalion of volunteers from across
Canada
• by 1916, 575 Black Canadians had joined the No. 2
Construction Battalion
• When they reached France, their duties consisted of
digging trenches, building bridges and defusing land
mines
• Eventually, a few members were transferred to the
front-lines
• Despites all their efforts and experiences in war,
these men received little recognition
• What does this say about racial tolerance in Canada
during the first few decades of the twentieth
century?
Opponents of Canada’s War Efforts
•
•
•
•
•
•
Not all Canadians were enthusiastic about
going to war
Some opposed war because of religious
reasons, while others were sympathetic
towards Germans, Italians and AustrianHungarians
Pacifists were Canadians who opposed war
on moral grounds – these were social
reformers and some farmers
Pacifist religious groups included
Doukhobors, Mennonites and Hutterites;
they were treated with suspicion and
hostility
Many believed that Pacifists posed a serious
threat in Canada and were just as
dangerous as their enemies in Europe
Religious freedoms and rights of pacifists
were restricted during the war – they were
no longer allowed to vote
• As for Canadians of German decent (or ancestry of any “enemy”
country), these groups were reluctant to support the war effort
because of their cultural and ancestral ties to their homeland
• This was seen as a betrayal of Canada and the British Empire
• Many pressured the government to fire immigrants of German
and Austrian decent from government jobs, to stop the teaching
of the German language in schools and even to ban orchestras
from playing German symphonies
• Some would even go as far as organizing anti-German gatherings
in communities that were largely populated by German
immigrants
• Harsher discrimination was displayed towards those immigrants who
had not yet gained Canadian citizenship and who was a former citizen
of a country that was at war with Canada (i.e. Ukrainians)
• These immigrants were labeled “Enemy Aliens”
• Many developed “xenophobia” – the fear of other cultures or people
from other countries
• By April 1915, the federal government passed the War Measures Act
and ordered 9,000 people (most of whom were Ukrainian) to be
rounded up and placed in internment camps in remote areas
• Internees were forced to do difficult physical labour and were
threatened with death if they tried to escape
• All of their properties and valuables were seized and never returned
Women During the War Years
• Contributions made by women during the First World War was
tremendous
• Women played a key role in Canada’s industrial achievements
• By late 1915, around 30,000 women stepped in to take up jobs in
machine shops, metal factories, munitions plants, aircraft factories and
shipyards across Canada
• They also worked on streetcars and buses, in the police forces and in
civil services, in banks and on farms
• Also, 2,400 Canadian women served overseas as nurses
• Transitioning from the home to the work force was not easy; many
women faced discrimination, received lower pay than that of men and
were subjected to dangerous and unhealthy working conditions in
factories
• Child care was not provided and there was not even separate toilets for
female workers
• The message from employers was clear: once men returned home,
women were expected to return to their traditional roles as wives and
mothers
• Despite opposition, women were taking
on a stronger role in public
• They were opening doors in “maledominated” fields, such as medicine
and law and they were working hard on
political and social reforms
• However, women were still denied the
right to vote
• Many Canadian suffragists campaigned
hard for women’s right to vote in
provincial and federal elections
• The first major breakthrough was when
Manitoba women were granted to right
to vote in 1916 in provincial elections,
followed by Saskatchewan and Alberta
• By 1917, women in B.C. and Ontario
could also vote and by 1925 women of
New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and P.E.I.
gained their provincial rights to vote
• Quebec stubbornly resisted until 1940
• Desperate for votes in a reelection, in 1917 Prime
Minister Robert Borden
passed the Wartime
Elections Act (also known
as the Military Voters Act)
• This gave the vote in
federal elections to women
serving as nurses with the
armed forces, as well as
those of British descent
who had relatives fighting
overseas
• In 1918, all women over
the age of 21 were granted
to right to vote in federal
elections
French-English Conflict and the
Conscription Crisis
• At the onset of war, thousands of men, French and English alike,
were eager to volunteer overseas and fight on behalf of Canada
• However, after discovering the devastation of trench warfare,
enlistment drastically declined
• Many believed that Quebec was not pulling their weight in the
war effort, as enlistment was the lowest there (as well as the
Maritimes)
• Quebec lagged in enlistment for several reasons: the majority of
men were farmers and were needed at home, they were young,
but most importantly French-Canadian men felt as though they
were being treated like second-class citizens in the Canadian
military
• They felt this way because their language was not considered –
commands, instructions and manuals were in English
• Why should they fight when their country does not care enough
to represent their needs?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Yet, for English Canadians, not committing yourself to the war was completely unthinkable and
unacceptable
They thought that if you were an able-bodied man, you should be forced to go to war
PM Borden knew that forced military enlistment would set off resentment in Quebec but more
Canadian soldiers were needed overseas
In May of 1918, Borden announced his policy of conscription by saying, “All citizens are liable for
the defense of their country.”
The Military Service Act was passed, which made military service compulsory for all ablebodied men between the ages of 20 and 45
Opposers of this bill included farmers, labour leaders and of course French Canadians
Henri Bourassa spoke out opposing conscription and was supported by Laurier
Borden formed a new Union government that consisted of Conservatives and Liberals outside of
Quebec
The 1917 election was the most bitter election campaign in Canadian history
The new Union government won, however, Borden was now the leader of a deeply divided nation
The Halifax Explosion of 1917
• While political unrest stretched across Canada, 1917 was also
the year of devastation in Halifax, Nova Scotia
• During the war, Halifax became the leading Canadian port of the
British Royal Navy
• Vital war supplies, such as munitions, were shipped to Europe
and guarded from German submarines by convoys
• As a major wartime port, Halifax also hosted ships from many
countries carrying a wide range of cargoes
• On December 6, 1917, the Mont Blanc (a cargo steamer from
France carrying high explosives) and the Imo (a cargo ship from
Norway) collided in Halifax Harbour
• The explosion destroyed a large part of Halifax and left 2,000
people dead, 9,000 injured and thousands more homeless
• The Halifax Explosion made the horrors of war real for the first
time to Canadians on the home front
Paying for War
• By 1918, the cost of Canada’s involvement in WWI cost
$1 million a day
• The Canadian government needed to find a way to raise
money and pay for the war
• Borden’s government reluctantly introduced two new
taxes that were only suppose to be temporary – the
business tax (1916) and the personal income tax (1917)
• Another means of paying for war was by buying
government bonds, known as “Victory Bonds”
• Victory Bonds were sold at a 5% interest rate
• The Canadian government hoped that by borrowing
money from its citizens, it could help pay off the costs of
war
• By 1917, $500 million worth of bonds were sold
A Changed Nation
• The Canadian home front would be forever changed by
war:
• What will be the fate of visual minorities and immigrants?
• What will women do with their emerging political and
social rights?
• What will become of the tensions between English and
French Canadians?
• How will devastated parts of Canada ever recover?
(physically, politically and economically)
• What has Canada gained from going to war?