How did Canadians at Home Respond to the War?

1. How did Canadians at Home Respond to the War?

2. FINANCING THE WAR EFFORT • At its height, the war was costing the Canadian government $1 million a day. • Money was needed to train, transport, feed, equip, and pay soldiers, and to build ships, armoured vehicles, airplanes, and weapons.

3. How was Money Raised? • The government sold VICTORY BONDS. • Victory bonds were like a loan to the government. • People would purchase the bonds and were promised that at the end of a fixed term, for example, after 5 years, they would get their money back with interest. • The purchase of bonds was voluntary, so advertising campaigns were launched. The first bond drive made more than $100 million.

5. How was Money Raised? • The government also introduced business taxes in 1916 and INCOME TAX in 1917. • The income tax was supposed to end when the war ended – it didn’t.

6. The Changing Roles of Women • Prior to the war, women were restricted to working at jobs that paid very little, such as teaching, domestic work, and low-skilled factory work. • When the men signed up to fight in the war, women ran families, farms, and businesses. • Factories also started to hire women to do skilled work – such as making munitions

8. The Changing Roles of Women • Conditions were not easy for the women in the factories: • Initially, labour unions resisted protecting them because they wanted to protect the jobs for men; • Most often, women did the same jobs as men but for way less pay. • Employers also did little to help them – sometimes there weren’t even separate washrooms for them!

11. The Changing Roles of Women • Women’s new jobs were often considered temporary. • When the men turned from fighting, they would get their jobs back.

12. The Changing Roles of Women • Of course, many women also contributed at the front. • They were mostly nurses, but some were drivers, or even passed themselves off as men to fight in the trenches!

13. The Munitions Scandal • Profiteering – the ability of someone to make a lot of money during a time when certain items are in high demand – was a problem during WW1. • Sam Hughes, Canada’s minister of militia and defence, made sure that his friends benefited from the war. • Hughes was associated with the Shell Committee, whose members used their influence to get and profit from $170 million in government contracts to make artillery shells. • Hughes had already been criticized for supplying Canadian soldiers with shoddy equipment (leaky boots and the Ross rifle). • The Shell Committee was only able to deliver $5.5 million worth of shells late. • Hughes’ link to the Shell Committee resulted in the end of his political career, forcing him to resign.

14. The Halifax Explosion • During WW1, Halifax Harbour was a very busy port. • On the morning of Dec. 6, 1917, two ships, the Mont-Blanc and the Imo, collided in the harbour. • The Mont-Blanc was loaded with 2400 tonnes of explosives. Just before 9:05am it exploded. • The explosion flattened most of Halifax and was heard up to 300km away. • 2000 people died; 9000 were injured; thousands more were left homeless. • Until the bombs were dropped to end WW2 in the Pacific, this was the largest man-made explosion. • This event demonstrated to Canadians what war was really like.

17. After Before

18. Politics and wwi

19. The War Measures Act • In 1914, the Canadian government passed the War Measures Act. It gave the federal government sweeping powers to deal with the emergency World War I situation, such as: • The power to pass laws without the approval of Parliament; • Overrule provincial laws; • Censor the news media; • Tell manufacturers and farmers what they had to produce; • Imprison people without trial; • Label some people enemies of Canada.

20. Enemy Aliens – Who Were They? • Before WWI, the Canadian government had aggressively campaigned to attract immigrants from Europe. • Many immigrants were from the German and Austro-Hungarian empires. • Some people feared that these immigrants could become spies who might sabotage the war effort, so the government used the power of the War Measures Act to label more than 800000 people ENEMY ALIENS – people who were from an enemy country – and restricted their rights.

23. Enemy Aliens – Rights Restricted • Many so-called enemy had their rights seriously restricted: • They were forced to carry identification cards; • They were forced to regularly report to the authorities; • They were not allowed to publish or read anything in a language other than French or English; • They could not leave the country without permission.

25. Enemy Aliens – Internment Of • Intern – to detain somebody in confinement as being a security threat • During WWI, the Canadian government placed more than 8500 people, mostly of Ukrainian and German heritage, in INTERNMENT CAMPS. • They were forced to build roads and railways, work in mines, and clear land.

29. Enemy Aliens • At the time of WWI, 400000 Canadians of German heritage were the 3rd largest ethnic group in Canada, behind English and French; • With the implementation of the War Measures Act, schools and universities were not allowed to teach the German language; • German language newspapers were banned; • Some German-Canadians were fired from their jobs. • Even a town in Ontario was renamed – Berlin, Ontario became Kitchener, Ontario, after the British war minister.

30. STOP, THINK, DISCUSS • Is being at war an appropriate reason to suspend a citizen’s rights?

31. Conscription • At the beginning of WWI, the Canadian government had no problem convincing Canadians to enlist in the military, but by 1917, enlistments had dropped considerably. • People had learned about the conditions along the Western Front from newspapers and wounded veterans who had returned home. • Families had lost loved ones – the human cost of the war was clear. • It didn’t help that many Canadians had gotten high-paying jobs in the war industries.

32. Conscription – the Government’s Response • In July 1917, Prime Minister Borden passed the Military Service Act. • This act introduced CONSCRIPTION – forced military service. • The government was able to do this because of the War Measures Act.

33. Conscription – for and against • Conscription divided the country. • Many Canadians with family members serving overseas supported it; • Quebec and the Liberal leader Wilfrid Laurier opposed it. • Farmers also opposed it because they believed it would mean they would have to leave their farms. • It soon became a heated issue between anglophone and francophone Canadians

35. Prime Minister Borden’s Politics • PM Borden knew that conscription was a major issue for Canadians, and in 1917, a general election was coming, so he decided to do what he could to improve his chances of winning re-election.

36. Step One: Give More People the Right to Vote • Borden’s government passed the MILITARY VOTER’S ACT. • This act gave all members of the military, both male and female, the vote. • It also allowed the government to assign the vote of soldiers who did not specify a riding to any constituency the government wanted.

37. Step One: Give More People the Right to Vote • He passed the WARTIME ELECTIONS ACT. • This gave female relatives of the soldiers fighting overseas the right to vote. • It also took away the right to vote from: • Enemy aliens • Conscientious objectors (people who did not believe in war).

38. Step Two: Make Promises to get more votes • Borden also • Promised to extend the right to vote to more women; • Granted farmers’ sons an exemption from conscription (but he revoked this after the election)

39. The Election of 1917 • Borden was successful in the 1917 election. • Conscription was introduced, but with minimal success or impact – by the end of the war, only 24000 of those who fought overseas were conscripts. • In 1918, women who were older than 21, not enemy aliens or Aboriginal, and who met provincial property ownership requirements, were granted the right to vote in federal elections.