AS WAR CONTINUED, LIFE IN

CANADA CONTINUED TO CHANGE

Money

The First Victory Loan was

offered in 1915 was quickly
oversubscribed and collected
$398 million

Many companies were making

significant profits while many
workers wages stayed (all
while the cost of goods rose)

The government introduced

income and corporate taxes

SUFFRAGE

January 1916 women in

Manitoba got the vote
Alberta and Saskatchewan
1916
Ontario and BC (1917)

CONSCRIPTION CRISIS 1917

CONTEXT

More than 300,000 Canadians signed up during the 1914

1915 (a huge number for a country of only eight million
people)

Canada did not have enough recruits to reinforce the

CEF
By

1916 there was less appetite for glory once the realities of war
became known and volunteering nearly dried up
Canada had seen action at the second battle of Ypres and the Somme
(among others) and thousands had lost their lives

Borden tried to raise recruitment through a National

Registration of all able-bodied men and created a
Canadian Defence Force but neither effort worked

CONSCRIPTION CRISIS 1917

CONTEXT

Borden announced his intention to implement

conscription in May 1917 and realized that
calling an election would give a clear mandate
for conscription (if they were successful)
Parliament

was dissolved in October

Borden invited Laurier to join together in a

coalition government; Laurier refused but
some pro-conscription members of the Liberal
Party decide to join in the Union Government

MILITARY SERVICE ACT - 1917

All male citizens aged 20 - 45 were subject

to being called up for service

Exceptions included disabled people, the

clergy, those with essential jobs or skills and
conscientious objectors who refuse on
religious grounds
Originally,

farmers were to be exempted but this

promise was later broken

CONSCRIPTION 1917:
HOW DO YOU ENSURE YOU WIN?
Take the vote away

Give the vote

Every man and

woman in the CEF
was given the vote
(Military

Voters Act)

Every mother, wife

and sister of a soldier
was given the vote
Wartime

Elections Act

Conscientious
objectors and every
citizen from an
enemy country who
had been in Canada
for less than 15
years
Wartime

Elections Act

CONSCRIPTION IN A NUTSHELL
It would have been more direct and at the
same time more honest if the bill simply
stated that all who did not pledge themselves
to vote Conservative would be
disenfranchised

Dr. Margaret Gordon, president of the Canadian Suffrage

Association

MONTREAL TOWN HALL

MEETING

Our three candidates

will prepare a few key
talking points to sway
the electorate

You need to be able to

demonstrate why PM
Borden wants
conscription and what
you think conscription
will do to our country

The attendees will be

able to question the
candidates

Prepare a few
questions (or
challenging
statements) to support
the candidate of your
choice or discredit the
candidates you despise
Your questions and
comments must
connect to who you
are in 1917

AT THE END OF THE DAY

More than 400 000 recruits went as

volunteers

Only 24 132 conscripted men made it to

the Western Front

The ramifications of the crisis lasted for

decades