Effects of War on Everyday Life

• Canadians at home supported the troops overseas in many ways.

• Posters, and government campaigns suggested that no sacrifice should be spared to ensure the victory of Europe.

• People planted victory gardens (to produce as

much food as possible).

• Canadians were sending large amounts of food to fighting forces overseas.

• At home people were trying to waste nothing and reduce own food consumption.

• Students were often dismissed from school early to help farm workers with the harvest.

• Groups of woman meet to organize fundraisers and roll bandages for the troops.

• Each community held card games, dances and variety shows.

• Profits were used to send soap, writing paper, pencils and candy to the troops.

The Economics of War

• 1918, war was costing Canada over one million dollars a day.

• Victory bonds were also used to help pay for the cost of war.

• After the war the bonds could be cashed for a profit.

• Private and commercial investors loaned over one billion to the government

• Children bought stamps at 25 cents

• Canadian government introduced income tax during the world war I to help finance the war.

• Industrial production went to dramatic new heights.

• Women worked in ammunition factories and in other war industries while the men were away at war.

• This meant that the number of women working rose very high.

• There were very few men left so women on farms brought in the harvests and they also got help from city women.

• Since women were doing so much for the war effort, they wanted a share in making decisions about the country.

• One of Canada’s great social reformers and Suffragists was Nellie McClung.

• Suffragists campaigned enthusiastically for women’s suffrage (the right to vote).

• Women were given the right to vote in the Province of Manitoba in 1916

• Within a few months, Saskatchewan , Alberta, British

Columbia, and Ontario had granted Women’s Suffrage.

• In the election of December 1917, the Wartime Elections Act granted the vote to the mothers, sisters etc. of men who were fighting overseas.

• By the time the war ended, the right to vote had been extended to almost all women in Canada over the age of 21.

• The Dominion Elections Act gave women the right to run for election in parliament in 1920.

• Native women and most native men were not allowed to vote.

Conscription Issue and the Election of 1917

• At the beginning of the war, people were very patriotic and wanted to help in any way that they could. As a result, Canada was flooded with volunteers willing to enlist in the army.

• As the war progressed, people became less enthusiastic about helping, and the number of volunteers decreased.

Conscription Issue and the Election of 1917

• At the beginning of the war, people were very patriotic and wanted to help in any way that they could. As a result, Canada was flooded with volunteers willing to enlist in the army.

• As the war progressed, people became less enthusiastic about helping, and the number of volunteers decreased.

• In 1917, Prime Minister Robert Borden visited Canadian soldiers at the front and was shocked by what he heard.

• Canadian Volunteer enlistments were not keeping up with the number of men killed or wounded in battle.

• Military officials desperately needed more soldiers and they asked Borden to send more Canadian troops to Europe.

• With an election coming in December 1917, the government passed two bills:

• The Military Voters Act( Vote to soldiers and nurses overseas) and the Wartime Elections Act.

• The Military Voters Act allowed soldiers overseas to vote in elections at home in Canada.

• The Wartime Elections Act gave females living in Canada who were relatives of soldiers fighting in Europe the right to vote.

• A Union Government was formed by Conservatives and Liberals that believed in Conscription.

• Laurier had virtually no chance of winning• Laurier and his followers were accused of

letting down the soldiers at the front.

• Borden and the Union Government won the election, although they got only three seats in Quebec out of 65.

• The split that had been feared for so long seemed to have happened – riots occurred in Montreal and Quebec City; the French and English Canadians were entirely torn apart.

• In November, 1918, at the end of the war, Canada was a divided nation.

Treaty of Versailles

• The Treaty demanded that Germany:Accept total blame for the warGive up its weapons and ships Reduce size of militaryGive back all the land it conqueredMake reparations ( pay for damages )Give up part of its country.