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