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The Homefront
• Daily life was drastically affected because of
the war
• The cost of the war, both financially and
resource-wise, meant that it was vital to
receive support from the homefront
– Factories reorganized
– Cost saving measures implemented
– War Measures Act instituted
– Conscription was imposed
Factories and Industry
• Prior to the war, Canada had been in an
economic recession – war changed this to a
booming economy
• Hundreds of thousands of Canadians were
employed to fill the large orders coming from
Europe
– Needed ammunition, ships and airplanes
• Production and export of Canadian goods
reached a record high
Factories and Industry
• In demand:
– Canadian resources: lumber, nickel, copper and lead
– Canadian wheat and beef
• Caused goods in Canada to become scarce
• Government kept wages down to encourage the
profit made on the sale of goods
• Prices became inflated and many workers felt
underpaid
– Would lead to discontent and would become a focus
after the war
Paying for the War
• Cost-saving measures:
– Food rations (butter, sugar, wheat, beef) and mandatory
waste reduction
• “Meatless Monday” and “Fuelless Sunday”
– Early release for students – harvest
– Daylight savings time – save on energy consumption
– Community fundraisers
• Efforts to pay for the war:
– Victory Bonds – loans to the government by the people
– Income Tax – “temporary” measure
War Measures Act
• Solution – what to do with 500,000 German,
Austrian and Hungarian people living in Canada
– These people were labelled “enemy aliens”
• Fears of sabotage and suspicions of spies in Canada
• Restrictions were placed on these “enemy aliens”
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Arrested, searched or detained without reason
Set to internment camps
Forced to register with the government
Imposed censorship
Halifax Explosion, 1917
• French munitions ship carrying 3,000 tonnes of
explosives crashed with another ship in Halifax’s
harbour
• Blast levelled large sections of Halifax; led to ongoing fires and a tidal wave
– 2000 people killed and thousands injured or left
homeless
• Significance: Brought the bloodshed of Europe to
Canadian soil
Changing Role of Women
• During the war many women volunteered
overseas as nurses or ambulance drivers
– Could not serve in the military
• Back home, role of women evolved:
– Organized committees to send food and letters
overseas
– Volunteered with the Red Cross
– Contributed to the labour force – most significant
contribution
Women in the Workforce
• Pre-WWI : women had been employed at lowskill, low paying jobs in food and clothing
industries and as domestic servants
• During the war, the demand for labour meant
women filled the roles left by men
– Operated fishing boats in Atlantic Canada
– Ran farms on the Prairies
– Worked in munitions factories
• Without women, Canada’s wartime economy
would have collapsed!
Women and the Vote
• Their role in the workforce strengthened the
campaign for women’s suffrage
– Wanted a say in making decisions for the country
• Campaigned tirelessly to get the vote
– By 1916 women had won the vote in most provinces
– 1917 – Wartime Elections Act granted the federal vote
to all mothers, sisters and wives of soldiers
• By the end of the war, all women under 21 had the vote
• aboriginal men or women, Asians and most other minority
groups still not allowed to vote
Propaganda
• Any strategy used to persuade people to
believe in a certain idea
– Used to persuade people to join the forces and to
influence how people felt about the war
• Most common form of propaganda was
posters
– Other forms included films, magazine articles,
radio programs and political speeches
Propaganda
• Each poster had a specific audience, encouraging
people to support the war in some way
– Ex. to join the war or to buy victory bonds
• Was commonly used by both sides (Allies and
Germans)
• Often argued to be “distorted truth”
– used to portray the other side negatively to gather support
for the war
– often, troop losses were minimized and wins were
exaggerated
– remember, the goal was to gather support – people had to
believe that their boys were winning the war
Propaganda & Newspapers
• Newspapers were often heavily controlled by
the government
– Wanted to regulate what information the people
back home were receiving
– Remember: support, support, support
• Newspaper stories and headlines were often
distorted
– For example: newspaper stories about the Battle
of Ypres
• British Newspaper
– “To the north of Ypres our progress has been continued,
especially on our left. We have taken six quick-firers, two
bomb-throwers, and much material; and made several
hundred prisoners, including several officers. The losses of
the enemy were extremely high. At a single point on the
front, in the proximity of the canal we counted more than
six hundred German dead. On the heights of the Meuse, on
the front Les Eparges-St Remy-Calonne trench, we have
continued to gain ground, about one kilometre, and have
inflicted on the enemy very severe losses.”
• German Newspaper
– "In Flanders the British yesterday again attempted to
regain the ground they had lost. In the afternoon they
attacked from both sides but the attack completely broke
down. An evening attack further east failed, with severe
British losses."
• British newspaper headlines:
– “Belgium child’s hands cut off by Germans”
– “Germans crucify Canadian officer”
• German newspaper headlines:
– “French doctors infect German wells with plague
germs”
– “German prisoners blinded by Allied captors”
Overall...
• Propaganda was considered to be an effective
means to gather resources and support for
World War I and it would later be extensively
used for the same purpose in World War II
Conscription Crisis
• Pre-WWI: PM Robert Borden had promised no
conscription (compulsory military service)
• During the Battle of Vimy Ridge, Borden was in
England and he became convinced that the war
needed to end soon
– It had dragged on too long and needed to end, and soon
• Upon his return home, Borden introduced the
Military Service Act
Conscription Crisis
• Made enlistment mandatory for all ablebodied men aged 20-35
• Allowed exemptions for:
– the disabled
– the clergy (men of the church)
– those with essential jobs or special skills
– conscientious objectors (those who did not
believe in war on religious grounds)
Conscription Crisis
Recruitment and enlistment from FrenchCanadians had been low
Felt no tie to France – felt this was not their war
Recruitment was often done in English and led by a
Protestant (most French-Canadians were Catholic)
Many English speaking Canadians saw the
Military Service Act as a way to force the French
Canadians to “do their part” for the war
More Resistance to Conscription
• Farmers – argued that they needed sons and
hired workers to do their farm work
• Industrial Workers – felt they were already
contributing enough to the war effort
• Labour Movement in BC – workers already felt
underpaid and going to war meant they would
earn even less
Conscription and Politics
• 1917 – Borden was forced to call a federal
election
• This election became an election over
conscription
• Borden (Conservative) asked the Liberals led
by Wilfred Laurier if they wanted to create a
coalition
– Laurier said no because the Liberals were deeply
opposed to conscription
• Borden won the election (barely) and
conscription went ahead
Conscription in Practice
In total,
404,000 men across Canada were called up
380,500 applied for exemptions for medical or
other reasons
130,000 were enlisted but only 25,000 enlisted
soldiers reached France before the end of the war
By the end of the war, French and English
speaking Canadians had become extremely
divided