1. Canada Goes to War
August 4, 1914

2. Big Questions: Why did Canada get involved in the Great War?
How did our military forces meet the challenge of war?
How did Canadians at home respond to the war?

3. You need to understand:
The political, social and military conditions that existed in Canada in 1914.

4. Canada in 1914
Robert Borden replaced Laurier in 1911 Population is just Over provinces and 2 territories Ontario is the first Province to introduce worker’s compensation laws
1911 election issue is reciprocity – Sifton against and imperial squabbles, Boer War Naval Bill etc.
Workers' compensation in Canada had its beginnings in the province of Ontario. In 1910, Mr. Justice William Meredith was appointed to a Royal Commission to study workers' compensation. His final report, known as the Meredith Report was produced in 1913.
On May 23, 1914 a ship called the Komagata Maru—normally used for transporting coal—arrived at Vancouver and anchored in Burrard Inlet. She carried 376 Indians: 12 Hindus, 24 Muslims and 340 Sikhs, British subjects all, and people who had come to make a new life in Canada.
May 29 - Ocean liner RMS Empress of Ireland sinks in Gulf of St. Lawrence; 1,024 lives lost.
June 19 - A coal mine explosion in Hillcrest, Alberta kills 189 of 235, the worst mining disaster in Canadian history

5. The Canadian Military
The army had about 3300 men and the navy about 300 The navy had two obsolete cruisers acquired From Britain: the Niobe (right) and the Rainbow *remember your data chart- What was our Military presence in 1914?
In 1904, Ottawa, moved to ‘Canadianize’ the militia, replacing the British General Officer Commanding with a Canadian appointee. The army became more self-reliant with the addition of medical, signals, ordnance, service, and engineer elements. Canada formally standardized its military training and most equipment along British lines, although weapons remained few and often obsolete. With growing tensions in Europe, defence spending rose, militia training accelerated, and the authorized strength of the Permanent Force increased to 4000.

6. War Declared
When Britain declared war on August 4, 1914, the Empire was presumed to be at war as well
Borden’s cabinet immediately offered assistance to Great Britain which was readily accepted

7. Raising an Army Sir Sam Hughes, Borden’s Minister of
Militia, was charged with the task of
raising an army
Hughes recruited and oversaw the
training of the first Canadian Contingent
during August-September 1914
*he will become a controversial figure, as later historians will interpret much of his behaviour

8. Valcartier Horrible conditions: lack of sanitation no housing
no shelter for horses
dry canteens

10. The First Canadian Contingent
30000 volunteered in the first six weeks
The feeling among the soldiers was one of adventure seeking and that they war would be “over by Christmas”
Canadian soldiers were to spend 4 more months training on Salisbury plain in England before seeing action in Belgium in April 1915

11. Canada in 1914 - Economic Depression
- Two year long drought occurring on the Prairies
- 50,000 people had lost their jobs on the railways due to the lack of wheat crop
million people- 6.4 million were born in Britain, Canada or another British colony
- Volunteer soldier’s pay= $1.10 a day
- October ,000 troops, from Canada and Newfoundland, plus 100 nurses set for England
- Aboriginal, Black, Asian or Eastern European heritage Canadians were not allowed to enlist (1916 Aboriginals and Blacks were allowed)

12. When Canadians learned they were at war, huge flag-waving crowds expressing loyalty to the British Empire drowned out voices of caution or dissent. The war would be a moral crusade against militarism, tyranny, injustice, and barbarism. “There are no longer French Canadians and English Canadians,” claimed the Montreal newspaper, La Patrie, “Only one race now exists, united…in a common cause.”
Even Henri Bourassa, politician, journalist, anti-imperialist, and guiding spirit of French-Canadian nationalism, at first cautiously supported the war effort.