The War at Home

The War on the Home Front  What the war looked like in Canada  Sacrifice  Halifax Explosion  Enemy Aliens  Role of Government  The Economy  Conscription  New Roles of Women  Propaganda

Sacrifice  To finance the war, Canada introduced many cost-cutting measures.  Canadians were faced with food rations and mandatory waste reduction  Daylight savings time was introduced to reduce energy use  Communities had fundraisers to help send money and materials to the troops

Sacrifice

Halifax Explosion, 1917  The Halifax Explosion brought the bloodshed of Europe to Canada  A French munitions ship carrying explosives crashed into another ship in the Halifax harbour

Halifax Explosion, 1917  Flattened large area of Halifax  Fires went through the city  Huge tidal wave tossed ships onto the land  Killed over 2,000 people

Halifax Explosion, 1917  Over $30 million dollars was donated from around the world to help Halifax rebuild the city.

Enemy Aliens  Residents of Canada who were born in the countries that Canada was at war with were known as enemy aliens  500,000 enemy aliens were living in Canada  Fears of sabotage and spying

Enemy Aliens  Canada used the War Measures Act to place restrictions on enemy aliens.  Enemy aliens could be arrested or searched at any time.  Were sent to remote internment camps

Enemy Aliens – Internment Camps

Enemy Aliens  Under the War Measures Act the government introduced censorship  Banned the publication of books and magazines in enemy languages.

Enemy Aliens – Internment Camps

Censorship  Censorship was introduced because the government did not want the people to know what it was really like in the war.  They needed people to join  The government started to publish newspapers  Letters sent by soldiers were censored (examined) before being delivered to make sure they were not complaining about the war life

Role of the Government  During the war, food and fuel became limited and prices soared  Winter of 1918 schools and factories closed because they had no heating.

Role of the Government  Honour Rationing was introduced  Citizens limited themselves to a certain amount of food.  Ex. Two pounds of sugar a month  Prohibition – the ban on the sale of alcohol

Role of the Government  The war cost the government over $1 million dollars a day  Government encouraged Canadians to buy victory bonds.  People bought bonds, which was lending the government money to be used to help the war.  After the war the bonds could be cashed for a profit.

Victory Bonds

Role of the Government  1917 income tax was introduced to help pay for the war.  Was intended to be a temporary tax.  But still paid today

The Economy  During the war, Canadian debt increased dramatically to finance the war.  After war was declared, factories started to produce much more to supply the war.  Farmers were encouraged to produce as much as they could to help the war effort  As a result Canada’s economy boomed until the end of the war.

Conscription  By 1917 volunteer enlistments were not keeping up with the number of men being killed or wounded  Conscription was proposed  Conscription is compulsory military service

Conscription  Canadians were divided on the topic of conscription  English speakers felt the French speakers were not helping out enough

Conscription

French Canadien View of Conscription  French speakers did not feel like they had to help Britain in the war  Canada’s French population felt no connection to France  French felt like second class citizens in Canada because their language was no longer taught in many provinces

French Canadian View of Conscription  Were also angered by the Minister of Militia, Sam Hughes, having the training programs all completed in English in Valcartier, Quebec.

Military Service Bill  Prime Minister Borden introduced the Military Service Bill in 1917  Made conscription compulsory for males between 20 and 35  Only men who were sick or conscientous objectors/pacifists were not forced to join

Conscientous objectors/pacifists  Those people that believed fighting was against their religious beliefs

Conscription  Many people believed it was a moral duty  People were very angry at pacifists (against the war due to religion) who did not participate in the war

Conscription  Affected Canadian politics  Prime Minister Borden (conservatives) wanted Wilfred Laurier (liberals) to form a Union Government (a joint government) to show Canada’s commitment to the war  Laurier refused to join the conservatives since they opposed conscription

Conscription  1917 election was fought mostly on the issue of conscription  French-Canadien nationalist Henri Bourassa led a campaign against conscription  Union Government (Conservatives with a few English speaking Liberals) won the most seats

Conscription  Conscription made the relations between French Canadiens and English Canadians even worse then it already was

New Roles for Women  During WW1 hundreds of women volunteered overseas as nurses and ambulance drivers  At home the number of women employed in industry, banks, and police forces greatly increased.  These jobs were considered unsuitable for women before 1914

New Roles for Women

 Since women were helping out with the war they started to demand the right to vote  Members of this movement were called suffragettes

New Roles for Women  1916 women granted the right to vote in most provinces.  1917 the Wartime Elections Act granted the federal right to vote to the mothers, sisters, and wives of soldiers  By the end of the war almost all women over the age of 21 had the right to vote federally

Voting  Still did not have the right to vote federally  Aboriginal women  Most aboriginal men  Asians  Other minority groups

Propaganda  Propaganda is any strategy used to persuade people to believe in a certain idea  During WW1 propaganda was used to persuade people to join the Armed Forces and to influence how people felt about the war

Propaganda  Enlistment posters encouraged people to vote for a union government in 1917 election  TV was not invented yet, and radios were rare. Newspapers and posters were the best way of communication

Propaganda  Government did not want people to find out how terrible the war was  so the government controlled what was printed.  Prevented the Canadian population from reading about the truth

Propaganda

Total War  All of the resources of a nation are organized for one purpose - to win the war.  War Front - where armies fought  Home Front - production, enlisting troops, financing, and organizing

Total War  Most countries introduced conscription  Why?  War bonds were introduced and sold to the public  Income tax introduced  Women took non-traditional jobs  Children were even used to collect materials  Industries were changed to mass produce war materials