Chapter 11

History: The World Wars

The First World War and Remembrance Day, women winning the vote, the Great Depression, and the Second World War.

The First World War

When Germany attacked Belgium and France in 1914 and Britain declared war, Ottawa formed the Canadian Expeditionary Force, later the Canadian Corps. More than 600,000 Canadians served, most of them volunteers, out of a total population of eight million.
The Canadian Corps captured Vimy Ridge in April 1917, with 10,000 killed or wounded, securing the Canadians’ reputation for valour. April 9 is celebrated as Vimy Day.
In 1918, under General Sir Arthur Currie, the Canadian Corps advanced in the last hundred days. The war ended in the Armistice on November 11, 1918. In total 60,000 Canadians were killed and 170,000 wounded.

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Each year on November 11 Canadians remember the sacrifices of veterans and the fallen in all wars up to the present day in which Canadians took part.
Canadians wear the red poppy and observe a moment of silence at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, honouring the many who have served and the 110,000 who have given their lives.
Canadian medical officer Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae composed the poem “In Flanders Fields” in 1915; it is often recited on Remembrance Day.

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At the time of Confederation the vote was limited to property-owning adult white males, as was common in most democratic countries then. The effort by women to change this is known as the women’s suffrage movement, founded in Canada by Dr. Emily Stowe.
In 1916 Manitoba became the first province to grant voting rights to women.
In 1917 the federal government gave women the right to vote in federal elections — first nurses at the battle front, then women related to men in active service. In 1918 most Canadian female citizens aged 21 and over were granted the federal vote.
In 1921 Agnes Macphail, a farmer and teacher, became the first woman MP. Quebec granted women the provincial vote in 1940.

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After the First World War the British Empire evolved into a free association of states known as the British Commonwealth of Nations. Canada remains a leading member of the Commonwealth.
The stock market crash of 1929 led to the Great Depression, or the “Dirty Thirties”. Unemployment reached 27% in 1933, and farmers in Western Canada were hit hardest by low grain prices and drought.
The Bank of Canada, a central bank to manage the money supply and bring stability to the financial system, was created in 1934.

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The Second World War began in 1939 when Adolf Hitler, the Nazi dictator of Germany, invaded Poland. Canada joined its democratic allies in the fight.
More than one million Canadians and Newfoundlanders served, out of a population of 11.5 million — a high proportion — and of these 44,000 were killed.
Canadians suffered losses in the unsuccessful defence of Hong Kong in 1941 and in a failed raid on Dieppe in 1942.
Canada contributed more to the Allied air effort than any other Commonwealth country, with over 130,000 Allied air crew trained in Canada. At the end of the war Canada had the third-largest navy in the world.
In the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, known as D-Day, 15,000 Canadian troops stormed and captured Juno Beach. Approximately one in ten Allied soldiers on D-Day was Canadian. The Canadian Army liberated the Netherlands in 1944–45.
Japan surrendered on August 14, 1945. During the war the federal government forcibly relocated Canadians of Japanese origin and sold their property without compensation; the Government of Canada apologized in 1988 and compensated the victims.

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