1. Canada’s home front
World War Two

2. Decision to Join: September 10, 1939
PM King promises there will be NO conscription in return for support from Quebec
Canada declared war on its own behalf = AUTONOMY

3. Issues to be Addressed Armed forces small, unfit for combat
Air force and Navy outdated and small
Canadians not as excited about this war… still remember how awful the last one was!

4. People Volunteered Because…
Strong ties to Britain = sense of duty
National Pride for Canada
Steady Income for Soldiers

5. Experience on the Home Front: British Commonwealth Air Training Program (BCATP)
King wanted to contribute supplies and training rather than troops
Major contribution to war effort
Ex: trained air crew
Results:
Still had to send troops
Canada pays 70% of the high cost to run

6. How to get around the issue of Conscription…
Hold a Plebiscite: “A vote on a particular issue”
Voters (outside Quebec) say YES to conscription

7. Experience on the Home Front: Total War
“Mobilization of entire resources of a nation for war”
C.D. Howe in charge
Three ways:
Industries told what to produce and how to produce it
Convinced industries to produce goods they had not made before
Created “Crown Corporations” to produce what the private sector couldn’t

8. Total War: NRMA National Resources Mobilization Act
Gave the government special emergency powers to take over the nation’s resources
Canadians demanded a greater contribution for war effort against Nazis

9. How the War Was Funded: Victory bonds Increased income tax
Wartime Prices and Trade Board freezes wages and prices
Reduces inflation
Food Rationing

10. Problems on the Home Front: Canadian Unity
Took 2 years for Conscription to be Applied (vote in 1942, applied in 1944)
Only 2463 soldiers actually saw battle
Was it worth the cost to Canadian Unity?

11. Anti-Semitism Prejudice or hostility towards Jewish people In Canada:
Hiring restrictions in businesses, civil service, etc.
Jews forbidden to purchase property in some provinces
Regular outbreaks of violence against Jewish Canadians
1939- St. Louis full of Jewish refugees turned away from Canadian port
Only 4000 refugees accepted by war’s end (compared with 85,000 in US and 240,000 in Britain)

12. Problems on the Home Front: Anti-Japanese Sentiment
Anti-Japanese sentiment grows after Pearl Harbour
War Measures Act ‘invites’ Japanese-Canadians to move inland to ‘relocation centres’
Eventually force all to move
Send to Internment Camps till end of war
Sometimes families separated
Confiscated property
3946 deported, 2000 of which were Canadian citizens

13. Japanese-Canadians finally receive degrees