World War One era Canadian poster urging the purchase of Victory Bonds.
"Now" Canada?
Yes.
Perhaps we should start there.
The Dominion of Canada, and that is what Canada was in 1914-1918, was somewhat smaller than it is today, as it did not include the Dominion of Newfoundland, which included modern day Newfoundland and Labrador, and the Atlantic coast of what is now Quebec.
Dominion?
Okay, let's take a step back before we move on. It'll be important to the story. . . at least for American readers and maybe for readers who aren't English, Australian or Canadian or New Zealanders (among others).
We're all familiar with the British Empire. What most people are less familiar with, however, is the late stage of the British Empire in which Dominion status was granted to many of the nations in the empire. Indeed, Canada was the first British Dominion.
British Dominions in the late stages of the reign of Queen Victoria.
To be a Dominion meant that the territory remained part of the Imperial British structure but that the Dominion was a largely self governing entity within the British Empire. The concept is very hard for us to grasp today, but in the late stages of the British Empire an imperial concept not unlike the Roman one was heavily advanced on a theoretical basis by its proponents. To be a citizen of the Empire meant that you could freely move about within it and that you were "British". The individual British Dominions governed their own domestic affairs but foreign affairs remained the domain of the mother of parliaments, the British Parliament, exercised on a theoretical basis through the sovereign, the Crown. Canada, consisting of Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, Saskatchewan and the gigantic territories to their north, made up the Canadian Dominion, having been granted that status in 1867.* Labrador and Newfoundland were not included, and that also did not include the Atlantic coast of Quebec, which were retained by the United Kingdom as colonies. In 1907 that territory was granted Dominion status, but it was not incorporated into Canada.** We'll cover both.
Newfoundland had its own army as it was an independent dominion. In this rather simple recruiting poster, it pretty clearly called upon pride in the British Empire.
When the United Kingdom entered the Great War in 1914, it did so as an Empire. That is, the English Parliament declared war for the United Kingdom, it's Empire, and its Dominions. Everyone came along with the British declaration of war. That is, Dominions, such as Australia or Canada, did not vote to join the war, they were simply included in the British declaration. World War One would be the only and only time that this would occur.***
So rather obviously, Canada's relationship to the United Kingdom was obviously quite different than it was today, and by extension, it should likewise be obvious that the relationship of the British to the English was quite a bit different as well.
Canada became an English possession in the first place when the English took it as part of the fruit of the victory in the French and Indian War, which was the North American Expression of the Seven Years War between France and England. France lost, and with it, it lost New France, although it hadn't tried very effectively to retain it. In a weird way, and relevant to our examination here, that set the stage for the American Revolution as the English Colonist in the "thirteen" colonies to the south of New France greatly feared the French and were accordingly baffled when the English Crown, recognizing the difficulty of absorbing a French population, granted concessions to the residents of Quebec which allowed them to retain their language and religion.
As this isn't intended to be a history of Canada, we'll skip largely forward at this point, but what this did was to create a situation in which the English were free to expand to the west of Quebec, which had resisted efforts to woo it by the Americans during the Revolution, as long as it could effectively contest with the United States, which was doing the same. And the English did prove adept at that contest, in no small measure because of the Quebecois assistance in it. This created the odd demographic situation that Canada possessed in 1914 when the UK declared war on its behalf, and indeed it greatly impacts it today.
Because it had already started to colonize it, that region which had been New France and which became Quebec remained largely French and Catholic in population. The English made inroads into settling Quebec with British immigrants however.**** To the west, and east, of Quebec, Canada was settled principally by British, but not exclusively so. Early on the French had penetrated all the way to the Pacific and the Arctic in both what would become the United States and Canada and, reflecting their Catholicity, had intermarried extensively with the native populations, giving rise to a "mixed", i.e., Metis, population in Saskatchewan, Alberta and Montana.
That brings up the third Canadian demographic we haven't explored here at all, which is the native population, or in current Canadian parlance, the "First Nations". As immigration to Canada had never been as extensive as it was to the United States, native populations remained (and remain) much more present everywhere than in the U.S. No Canadian province or territory lacked a native population, which was also true of the small Dominion of Newfoundland. Canadian Indians were subjects of the Crown, but did not step into full citizenship until 1947.
We don't want to overemphasize our point here. While Canada was principally populated by people of British extraction, following the defeat of the French in the French and Indian War, it wasn't exclusively by any means. This poster advertising 160 acres of free land in what I think is a Scandinavian language.
Immigration to Canada, after the defeat of France in the Seven Years War and prior to the end of the Second World War, was overwhelmingly from 1) the British Isles, followed by 2) the United States, followed by, other European places. The border, if not open in reality was open as a fact and therefore the flow of citizens between the United States and Canada was extremely common, as it remains.***** Some well known "Canadians" are in fact Americans by birth and the vice versa is highly true. Native born Canadians, for example, died in as officers of the Seventh Cavalry at Little Big Horn just as the Indian (and Metis) combatants there moved back and forth across the border and would take open or simply available refuge there. John Garand, the famous U.S. government arms designer, was a Canadian by birth. Father Duffy of the Fighting 69th, was as well. In contrast, many an Albertan cowboy or rancher was an American.
But immigration, it cannot be ignored, was dominated by the British before other peoples.
English, Scots and Irish immigrants, all residents of the Empire, could and did move to Canada without restraint. Economics dominated their relocation, but while they did everything imaginable by way of work, it was land that was the giant draw, particularly for the Scots and English.^
Toronto, 1911.
Canada today is second only to the United Kingdom among western nations in the degree to which it is urban. 18.9 % of the Canadian population today is rural. In the 1910s, however, well over half of the Canadian population was rural, although the percentage of the national population that was rural was declining in Canada, just as it was in the United States. Still, Canada was expanding its wheat belt, just as the United States was, and actively recruiting Europeans to immigrate to Canada as farmers. This was as strong inducement to Europeans in general and to the British in particular.
Canada, going into World War One, had a population that was over 50% rural. In much of of that vast territory, its citizens, keeping in mind that Indians were not citizens, were of British extraction and many of them were distinctly English or Scots. In the maritime region, which was dominated by the Dominion of Newfoundland (not part of Canada) fishing was the dominant industry followed by agriculture. In every Canadian province agriculture was the dominant industry, although fishing was a significant industry in British Columbia. Logging (silvacuture) was a significant industry in all the provinces except the prairie provinces (for obvious reasons). The prairie region was already a giant wheat belt by 1914. It was also a major cattle and horse growing region.
Indeed, the fact that Canada was a major wheat producing nation did create some of its early demographic diversity as it had lately been attracting Slavic immigrants from the grain growing regions of Russia. It had likewise attracted some agricultural immigrant groups of German extraction like the United States, some of whom were Anabaptist as in the U.S.
The major demographic split in Canada, however, was to be found in the French dominated or influenced regions, although the way that this would play out in World War One (and World War Two) is different than might be supposed. In Quebec the majority of Canadians were Quebecois, the descendants of the original Norman French colonists. Mixed in with them, in Quebec, were Irish immigrants who were their co-religious and English immigrants who had not been deterred by living in a province in which the street language was French.
Which takes us to the Canadian soldier of World War One.
When the British declared war in August 1914, as already noted, they did so for Canada and Newfoundland as well. This then set those Dominions to the tasks of raising armies. They didn't have much of one to speak of before that.
It isn't true, as is sometimes maintained, that Canada lacked a military structure. Canadians have conveniently forgotten that almost completely. Canada did have one, but since 1776 Canada's only real potential enemy had been the United States. Given that, prior to its Confederation, Canada had sought to defend itself in part with British troops and in part with militia. This gave Canada a rich militia history.
Recruiting poster for the Canadian Navy, circa 1915. The British Navy had long recruited very young men, down to age 13, who could be enlisted by their parents. It's interesting to note that the Canadian Navy was following suit by advertising for boys. Also note the call to Empire patriotism with the finishing phrase of "God save the King".
Indeed, Canadian militia proved superior to American militia in the War of 1812 and outfought the Americans consistently. The War of 1812 has come to be viewed in the United States as a contest between the U.S. and the UK, but in reality American attempts to invade Canada during the War of 1812 not only failed but were handily repulsed. Canadian militia, moreover, advanced down into the United States during the war. The lessons were sufficiently learned by the U.S. that the U.S. didn't attempt to ever invade Canada again, although there was a weird attempt by Irish Fenian's to launch a raid into Canada following the Civil War which was likewise easily repulsed. Following Confederation it became increasingly clear that the U.S. had given up on it prior dream of forcibly incorporating Canada.
Canada had a mounted service heritage that dated back to the Boer War and to an extent to the militarized Royal Canadian Mounted Police. It's notable that one of the great episodes of Canadian service in World War One was the cavalry charge in 1918 at Moreuil Wood.
Which did not mean that the Canadian militia disappeared. Canadian militia fought inside of Canada during Riels' Rebellion, an event which was sufficiently close in time to World War One, like the Indian Wars in the United States, that at least one Canadian officer of the Great War had served in it. Canada, moreover, raised units that were essentially raised militia units, or in one case a private Canadian unit of the English army, to serve in the Boer War, which is fairly analogous to how the United States approached the war with Spain in the same period. Going into World War One, therefore, Canada had a well established volunteer and militia system, as well as a very small standing professional army. It already also had a Navy, although its navy was tiny.
Canadian units tended to make reference to British regional military units. The 173d Overseas Battalion was obviously making reference to Scots units in the British Army.
Relying upon this heritage, the Canadian government set about forming units for World War One, many of which had strong militia and Empire heritage, and others which relied heavily upon the local and private militia unit history of prior Canadian wars. The effort raised raised over 620,000 men for service in World War One of which about 424,000 served overseas. If the effort seems small, it must be kept in mind that 1) Canada's population was small, and 2) this doesn't include the units separately raised in the Dominion of Newfoundland which would add to that figure slightly, with an additional 8,707 joining their forces (and over 3,000 Newfoundlanders joining the Canadian forces).
Another example of the Canadian forces, this time headquartered in Montreal, making reference to British military traditions. This unit would have been recruiting English speaking Canadians for the this Canadian unit. It wasn't the only unit that attempted to draw English speaking men from Quebec into English speaking units. Separate efforts were aimed at French speaking Quebecois
51,748 Canadians died during World War One.
While the number of Canadians joining the Canadian armed forces is impressive, given the size of the county, by 1917 Canada was set to follow the UK's path and enact conscription. This will prove to be significant for our story, which admittedly is developing slowly. Conscription was in fact enacted resulting in massive public outcry.
Conscription protests in Montreal.
Canada ultimately would have conscription, but it would prove largely ineffective. Still, the last Canadian soldier killed in World War One would be a conscripted Canadian.
This poster was specifically aimed at French speaking Quebecois for the 178th French Canadian Regiment, commanded by a French Canadian officer. The effort tried to appeal to a presumed French Canadian sympathy for the French, which was in fact largely absent, by showing Notre Dame de Paris receiving direct shell fire. Nothing analogous to this exists in American wartime recruiting efforts.
Conscription was unpopular everywhere in Canada (and so unpopular of concept in Australia that Australia did not adopt it). While conscription came to be a fact, and while some conscripts, as noted, did go overseas, for the most part Canada relied upon volunteers to supply troops to its effort in aid of the United Kingdom. This makes Canada stand out, in comparison to the United States and to the United Kingdom. Canadian conscripts existed, and served well, but most Canadian soldiers were volunteers.
And they were mostly English speaking volunteers.
French Canadians were not drawn to the cause in anywhere near the percentages that English speaking Canadians were. Indeed, they were singularly unenthusiastic about the war. Efforts were made to call upon patriotism for the old country, but that old country was too far removed for those cries to be taken seriously or with ardor by French Canadians. Most of the volunteers would come, therefore, from English speaking Canada.
And English speaking Canada, at this time, was much more English and much less Canadian than it is today.
That is not to say that Canadians did not have a national identity. They did, but it was not as distinct or pronounced as it is now. English speaking Canadians, moreover, tended to look towards the United Kingdom as their strong cultural home. Quite a few of them were in fact recent immigrants from the UK. The exception would prove to be Irish Canadians, who did serve in large numbers but whose feelings about the war were mixed.
And that English speaking Canadian was very likely rural, although French speaking Canadian solders were quite likely to be rural as well.
So what does this tell us?
Well it tells us that the Canadian army of World War One resembled the American Army in some ways, but not in others. Canadians were a healthy vigorous group of recruits, like the Americans, but they were also surprisingly English in outlook and heritage in most units. The United Kingdom was still admired and respected as the founding country of Canada and a very close Canadian participation in the "British" forces, of which they were part, shows that. The British Expeditionary Force was British, to be sure, but it was also Canadian, New Zealander, Australian and Newfoundlander. Canadian identity would in fact be changed by, and to an extent formed by, World War One.
As a rural people, Canadians were also familiar with outdoor life and outdoor skills to a large degree. They resembled rural Americans strongly in that fashion, except in some instances they came from lands that were wilder than those that Americans did. The U.S., while still quite rural, also had many large cities where as Canada had vast tracks of wilderness, as it still does. Rural Canadians, the majority of the population, made their living on farms and ranches, but also in the forest and wilderness in some instances.
All of this would still be true during World War Two, although to a lesser degree. It does mean, however, that Canadians of that era were indeed considerably different than the average Canadian today in innumerable ways, and indeed to the extent that many Canadians of that era would undoubtedly disapprove of the views of contemporary Canadians.
In that, frankly, something has been lost.
*Prince Edwards Island was not part of the original confederation but joined it in 1873 after flirting with the idea of separate dominion status or even joining the United States.
**The Dominion of Newfoundland has a unique history in that its the only British colony to have been granted Dominion status and then lost it. Newfoundland's economy couldn't endure the Great Depression and early in that horrible event the Dominion's parliament asked the British to resume direct rule of the Dominion, which it did. It ruled the territory in this fashion until after World War Two when it chose to be incorporated into Canada in 1949 as the province of Labrador and Newfoundland.
***By World War Two dominion status had evolved to where the English parliament could not longer do this. The one slight exception was a point of debate, that being whether or not the English could declare war for the Irish Free State, which had obtained dominion status following World War One. The Irish government took the position that it could not and the British did not push the point.
****We are using the term British here intentionally, and not English, as we are including the English, Scots and Irish here, all who had a significant role in this (I suppose I should include the Welsh but I'm not really familiar with a lot of Welsh influence in Canada).
*****It might surprise Americans to learn that one of the things that the Canadian Conservative Party has been criticizing Trudeau for is the large number of illegal aliens crossing into Canada from the United States.
^My immigrant ancestors to Canada do not seem to have been drawn by the same inclination, except in the probably case of the Norman French who came so long ago. My Irish ancestors established themselves first in Quebec as they were "transported" there for the crime of being Catholic and owning a jewelry store (at least reportedly. . . at least a couple of them were involved in the uprising at Vinegar Hill which would have been another matter). The Scots ancestors were jewelers as well who came over for that reason, and is so typical in these stories crossed back and forth across the U.S. border at various times owning stores in Canada or the United States. Other Irish immigrants went immediately to work in the city of Montreal Apparently nobody in that line had the farming instinct.
