1. Canada Declares War!! (Actually, Britain declares war and Canada just does what it’s told)

2. Canada Mobilizes for War When Britain declared war on Aug. 4, 1914, Canada was automatically committed to fight on her side. As part of the British Empire, Canada could not conduct its own foreign policy The only decision that Canada could make, was how far they would go in supporting the war effort.

3. Prime Minister Robert Borden promised Britain that Canada would provide all the help she could. Initial plans called for 25,000 troops – over 30,000 volunteers signed up in the first two months. In the beginning, support for the war was high throughout Canada Both English and French Canadians were largely in favour of joining the fight

4. Sir Sam Hughes Sir Sam Hughes was the Canadian Minister of Militia A stalwart supporter of Borden, he was put in charge of Canada’s war effort. Hughes was a controversial figure and his management of Canada’s armed forces was plagued by controversy and divisiveness

5. Sir Sam Hughes

6. Sir Sam’s Successes / Failures Reorganized the military to fight in battalions Built Valcartier training camp Had the first 32,000 troops ready to depart in 6 weeks Supported Canadian manufacturers *Demanded that Canadians be allowed to fight in their own units Alienated French- Canadians (made bigoted remarks, insisted they train in English) Supplied shoddy trench equipment Corruption scandals The Ross Rifle affair

7. Camp Valcartier Built in less than a month Was enormous Held an entire tent city, including rail line, chlorinated water supply and rifle range The camp’s rifle range was the largest in the world The camp was not winterized (poor planning), so recruits had to move out when winter arrived.

8. Camp Valcartier

9. The Ross Rifle Hughes had supported the development of the Ross Rifle prior to WWI It was a good rifle for marksmanship but tended to jam and/or backfire when it was fired repeatedly or was exposed to mud. WWI required soldiers to fire a lot, quickly from the cover of muddy trenches – the result is obvious The Ross Rifle was unreliable and despised by Canadian soldiers

10. Hughes ignored or rebuked any claims that the rifle wasn’t an exemplary weapon. When the political pressure required an investigation into the matter, he put the rifle’s inventor in charge of it. The inventor blamed “a batch of bad ammunition” for the troubles Finally, in 1916, the Ross Rifle was retired and Canadian troops received the much superior British-made Lee Enfield Rifle

12. Scandal! Hughes insisted on using only Canadian-made products to outfit troops A patriotic sentiment, unfortunately much of the equipment was sub-standard Hughes gave war contracts to friends and business associates, often not taking quality or practicality into account Boots had cardboard soles, vehicles lacked spare parts and trenching equipment (shovel/shield) was useless

13. The MacAdam shovel (promoted by Hughes) was entirely useless and had to be scrapped Hughes also alienated French-Canadians by insisting that they train in English and made sure all army documents were also in English Hughes also often publicly insulted and demeaned Quebec and French-Canadians

14. McAdam Shovel – heavy, unwieldy and totally non-bulletproof

15. Hughes also exceeded his authority when he created a council (in England) to oversee the Canadian military. This was the purview of the Cabinet PM Borden reprimanded Hughes and Hughes responded by publicly disagreeing with Borden Borden forced Hughes’ resignation in November, 1916.