how canadians responded to war at home. financing the war effort at its height, the war effort was...
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How Canadians Responded to War at
Home
Financing the War Effort
At its height, the war effort was costing the government about $1 million a day
To raise money, the government sold Victory Bonds
People who bought these bonds lent that money to the government, to be paid back at the end of fixed term with interest
The first bond drive raised more than $100 million
The government also started business taxes in 1916 and income tax in 1917, which was supposed to end when the war was over…but we still have them today
Propaganda What is propaganda:
A way of spreading ideas or information to achieve a specific goal
The goal of the posters was to: Persuade men to enlist Persuade Canadians to support the war effort by conserving
food and materials, buying Victory Bonds and contributing to other wartime causes
The government paid artists and writers to create propaganda
Persuade men to enlist
Propaganda posters today?
Can you think of any commercials or ads that are trying to persuade you to join something?
Persuade people to conserve food and materials
Propaganda posters today!
Can you think of a business/organization that is trying to get you to conserve?
Persuade people to buy victory bonds
Propaganda posters today!
Can you think of an example where a business is trying to get you to buy something?
Women’s Changing Roles
In 1914, many women worked out side the home but they were restricted to low paying jobs such as teaching, domestic work, and low-skilled factory work
When the men went to War, many more women stepped in and ran families farms and businesses
Employers started to hire women to do skilled work such as making munitions
Women often found themselves doing the same work as men – for a fraction of the pay
Working conditions were dangerous, especially in munitions factories
The Munitions Scandal Sam Hughes, Canada’s minister of militia and defence,
gave his friends lucrative $170 million government contracts to make artillery shells
By 1915, word of this profiteering (making excessive profits) had been going around
The scandal became worse when his friends were only able to deliver $5.5 million worth of shells, and they were late
This scandal ended his career, he was forced to resign.
The War Measures Act In 1914, the Canadian government passed the War
Measures Act which gave the government the power to: Pass laws without approval of Parliament Overrule provincial laws Censor the news media Tell manufacturers and farmers what they must produce Imprison people without trial Label some people enemies of Canada
Enemy Aliens In the years before WWI, Canada had actively tried to get
Europeans to immigrate to Canada
Some people feared that these immigrants might be spies who would sabotage the war effort
The government used the War Measures Act to label and restrict the rights of more than 800,000 people enemy aliens: people who had come from an enemy country
Enemy Aliens cont. More than 8500 people, mostly of Ukrainian and German
background, were placed in internment camps and forced to build roads and railways, work in mines, and clear land
At the time, Canadians of German background were the third largest ethnic group in Canada, but German-language newspapers were banned, and some German Canadians were fired from their jobs
The town of Berlin, Ontario was renamed Kitchener after Britain's war minister
The Right to Vote Prime Minister Robert Borden knew that his conscription law
had been controversial, so he introduced measures to improve his government’s chance of winning re-election in 1918
The Military Voters Act gave all members of the military, male and female, the vote.
The Wartime Elections Act gave the vote to close women relatives of men serving in the Armed Forces. It also barred enemy aliens and conscientious objectors (people
who did not believe in war) from voting
He granted farmers’ sons an exemption from conscription, and then revoked it after the election
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