THE WORLD WAR AND AFTER On the outbreak of the World War Canadian opinion was at once clear. To the measure of her strength Canada was ready, in an hour of deadly peril, to fight side by side with Britain. Before Parliament met, on Aug. 18, mobilization had begun. One of the first acts of Parliament was to make a gift of I,000,000 bags of flour to Great Britain, a gift which re quired 200 trains, each of 3o cars, to take to the ports. By October, a volunteer Canadian army of 30,00o men had reached England and a second contingent of more than 20,000 was drill ing. The war minister, Sir Sam Hughes (q.v.), said that 150,000 were then eager to go. In all, Canada enlisted during the War
men; of these about 52,000 were killed in action and about io,000 died from other causes.
The events of the War are too complex to find here more than mention. In the end the four divisions of the Canadian army corps were placed under the command of Lieut.-Gen. Sir Arthur Currie (q.v.). The Canadians fought in some of the hardest battles on the western front; in April 1915, at the second battle of Ypres, and later in the further severe fighting in that region; in 1916, at St. Eloi, Sanctuary Wood and other points, and in the prolonged battle of the Somme; in 1917, at the taking of Vimy Ridge and in the desperate struggle in mud and slime which ended in the taking by the Canadians of Passchendaele, on the Ypres salient; in 1918, in driving back the Germans after their success near Amiens in March, cutting through a part of the sup posedly impregnable Hindenburg line in September, and finally, of ter the great battle of Arras, taking Cambrai on Oct. 9. When the Armistice came on Nov. II the Canadians were at Mons, whence the British had begun their great retreat in 1914.
By the end of 1916 a lull had come in voluntary enlistment and Sir Robert Borden urged that the pledge of support to the men facing death at the front required the drastic method of raising ioo,000 new troops by compulsion. This developed an issue which has since played a large part in Canadian politics. The expectation that, with France and Britain allied, the French Canadian would feel doubly called to share in the War was not realized. Many French Canadi ans, led by Mr. Bourassa, felt that Europe must be left to settle its own disputes and they fought conscription with intense re sentment. None the less, French Canadian volunteer regiments served in the War with the spirit of that military France from which their ancestors came.
By May 1917, the government of Sir Robert Borden had adopted conscription. Laurier's position was difficult. He was in ardent sympathy with the aims of the Allies. If, however, he should support conscription he would endanger his position among his own people of the Province of Quebec. In Jan. 1917 he is sued an appeal to all Canadians to forget party differences in pur suit of victory in the War. He urged that, on so vital an issue as conscription, the example of Australia should be followed and a plebiscite taken. This attitude lost him many Liberal sup porters outside of Quebec, and his resolution in favour of a plebiscite was defeated in the House of Commons by 118 to 55, with the minority almost wholly from Quebec. When, finally, after announcing conscription, Sir Robert Borden asked Laurier to join in a coalition, with half the Cabinet Liberals, he declined. He could not face Quebec as a supporter of compulsory service.
In Oct. 1917, a coali tion government was formed under Sir Robert Borden, with seven Liberal members. Dissolution followed and Laurier fought his last campaign with but few of his former followers supporting him, except in Quebec. The coalition won by 137 to 93, and 62 of the minority were from Quebec. The election of 1917 was noteworthy, in that for the first time women voted in a Federal election. A War Franchise Bill passed in 1916 gave votes to women who had relatives serving in the War, the qualifying clause being removed in 1918, when women who had reached the age of 21 received the franchise. The provinces, which control their own franchise, also, Quebec excepted, gave votes to women. During the War knighthoods and other honours were freely dis tributed by British ministers in the name of the King, especially in connection with services relating to the War. In England, the principle is deeply rooted in social life, but to many it seemed alien to the life of Canada, and, in the end, sharp protest cul minated in an undertaking by the Canadian prime minister to request the King not only to cease conferring hereditary titles on citizens of Canada, but to ask also that other honours should only be given on the advice of his Canadian ministers. Since that time, the giving of such titles has ceased in Canada.
The period of the War brought with it great. social changes. The agitation of many years in the cause of pro hibition was reinforced by the sense of waste which the liquor traffic caused during the War. A wave of opinion in favour of prohibition swept over both the United States and Canada. In Canada, jurisdiction over the liquor traffic is divided, under the British North America Act, between the federal and the pro vincial authorities. The federal authority has control over manu facture and export, the provincial authority over sale. The federal government would not prohibit manufacture and export, but left to the provinces the right to control importation, and their right to regulate sale was never challenged. Each province has its own type of restriction. In Ontario liquor could at first be secured only at government stores on a physician's certificate of illness. The law proved too severe; a sharp reaction followed, and in 1927 the system was changed to one of strict control by government and sale to persons holding a permit to be renewed annually, but with no sale in hotels or clubs or by the glass in drinking places. In parts of Ontario the grape is easily grown and the law provides that the wine of the province may be sold by the manufacturer in bulk direct to the consumer for his own use. Quebec, in contrast with Ontario, while closing the bars and restricting the traffic, did not adopt prohibition. The laws in the other provinces vary and there is a strong tendency to ease restrictions. Monopoly of sale by government is making the traffic a source of revenue in all the provinces. A province may at any time remove or increase restrictions by an act of its legis lature. In contrast, therefore, with what is possible in the United States, where prohibition is embodied in an amendment to the federal constitution, prohibition might disappear in Canada with in a few months. The issue is still acute in political life.
During the War, railway affairs reached a crisis. The boundless optimism related to the peopling of the West had led to the construction at heavy cost of two rail ways, the Canadian Northern and the Grand Trunk Pacific, to make, with the Canadian Pacific, three lines across the continent. The war closed resources for capital and checked development, and, in the end, both lines were taken over by the government. The War unsettled the two old political parties and led to the organization of dissatisfied elements into new groups. Of these the most powerful was that of the farmers, who took the name of Progressives and were especially strong in the West. They favoured freer, if not free, trade and, indeed, proposed free trade with Great Britain. The Labour party and the Socialist party have never been strong in Canada, but in the spring of 1919 Labour agitation brought on a general strike in Winnipeg. All public services were put out of commission, and during five weeks Winnipeg was the scene of a struggle unprecedented in Canada. The scenes of violence and intimidation which accom panied the closing down of the street car system and the blocking of the means of distributing supplies aroused sharp antagonism and caused the strikers to lose public sympathy. Citizens volun teered to carry on these services with so firm a resolution that the movement was defeated and Winnipeg returned to its normal activities.
A provincial election in Ontario in 1919 showed the strength of the farmers and brought a surprising defeat of what seemed a strongly entrenched Conservative government. Of 110 seats it held only 24; the Liberals had 3o; and the Farmers' party and Labour combined secured 56, thus giving them a small majority. With the Hon. E. C. Drury as prime minister, a new adminis tration was formed, dominated by the Farmers' party. In two other provinces, Alberta and Manitoba, the unsettlement of the other parties led to the coming into office of Farmers' govern ments which, at the end of 1927, still endured and seemed to command confidence.
Sir Wilfrid Laurier died in Feb. 1919. The cleavage in the Liberal party on the issues of the War left him a rather lonely figure during his last two years, and the problem of a suc cessor was not easy. Quebec was the chief Liberal stronghold and it resented the action of those Liberals who had broken with Sir Wilfrid Laurier. The choice went to Mr. William Lyon Mac kenzie King (q.v.), minister of Labour under Sir Wilfrid Laurier, and a sharer of his attitude on conscription.
Membership of the imperial war cabinet and of the peace-con ference at Versailles, added to duties as prime minister, had worn down the strength of Sir Robert Borden. In 1920 he resigned and was succeeded as prime minister by Mr. Arthur Meighen (q.v.), a member of his cabinet. Mr. Meighen had a difficult task. The coalition was in process of disintegration, chiefly on the issue of the tariff, and one by one the Liberal members were retiring. The Liberals were returning to their former allegiance or joining with some Conservatives in the farmers' movement. In the election of Dec. 1921 Mr. Meighen stood stiffly for pro tection and suffered overwhelming defeat. The Conservatives carried 51 seats and the Liberals 117, among them the entire representation of Quebec, and there was the new and advanced group of 65 Progressives. Labour remained weak, returning only two members. Over the two other parties Mr. King had a ma jority of one. He took office but his path was difficult. Though he reached a working arrangement with the Progressive party, this support was always conditional.
The census of 1921 showed what is always desired in scantily peopled countries, a satisfactory increase of population. The principle of representation in proportion to numbers is applied to the Canadian House of Commons. Quebec has always 65 mem bers, and those from the other provinces are in proportion to the number from Quebec. A redistribution follows each census and that of 5925 showed marked increase in population in the west. The members from Nova Scotia and Ontario were reduced by two and one respectively. New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Yukon remained unchanged, while the increases in the West were Manitoba two, Saskatchewan five, Alberta four, and British Columbia one. Such changes indicate that policy must be ad justed to the needs of the relatively larger agricultural popula tion of the West.
The Liberal government, which carried its budget in 1923 by a majority of only one, had to confront an adverse majority in the Senate, to which only Conservatives had been appointed dur ing the Conservative regime. This situation is always a feature of Canadian political life when a government long in power quits office. In 1923 the Senate showed great activity upon railway policy. Sir Henry Thornton, the head of the vast government railway system, with more than 2o,000m. of lines, proposed to build 26 small branch lines, chiefly in the west, as feeders of the trunk lines. The House of Commons endorsed the building of the lines at an estimated cost of $29,000,000, but the Senate objected that, while a few of the lines might be needed, it was unwise to in crease an already crushing burden of debt at a time when trade was depressed. The cost, it was also urged, would go far beyond the estimate. When the Senate rejected the proposal, its action caused sharp criticism of a body not directly responsible to the people. Since that time, the Liberal party has been committed to the reform of the Senate, a familiar cry of the party in a minority in that body. There is, however, no serious prospect of a change in the constitution.
The loss of purchasing power in Europe after the War so lowered the price of wheat as to make the market price cover little more, and often less, than the cost of production. This brought severe depression in western Canada. The cattle industry found some relief when, in 1922, after a prolonged discussion, the British government removed the embargo on the importa tion of live cattle from Canada. It had endured for 3o years, though the cause disease in Canadian cattle—had long since disappeared. Canadian cattle can now be sent across the ocean to be fattened in England for slaughter. The relief in this di rection was timely, for the farmers of the United States were com plaining of Canadian competition. In 1922, on the plea that both land and labour were cheaper in Canada, Congress empowered the President to proclaim a tariff against Canadian grain and cattle which should represent this difference. At first the duty on wheat was 3o cents a bushel, and on oats 15 cents, but in 1924 the President increased the duty on wheat to 42 cents, with pro portionate duties on other produce and on sheep and cattle. The duty on wheat affected but slightly the Canadian producer, since the price is determined in the world market.
The Progressive or Farmers' move ment, which meant a three-party system like that in England, was essentially a class movement, and soon showed signs of dis integration. One element, persistently friendly to the Liberal party, was opposed by a so-called "ginger group," which decried party government and favoured the making of specific changes and reforms by using their members to support Liberals or Con servatives as occasion might offer. The discontent with the old parties, so urgent during and after the War, spent itself rapidly, as experience showed that conditions did not favour class govern ment. In 1923, the Farmers' government in Ontario was badly beaten at the polls and a stable conservative government took office with Mr. G. Howard Ferguson as prime minister. In the agricultural West the Farmers' party has proved more enduring, but there, too, the drift back to the two-party system has been marked. In 1925, Mr. Mackenzie King, weary of the uncertain support from the Progressives, dissolved parliament a year before the end of its term, and appealed to the country for a decisive Liberal majority. The long strain of war and of unsettle ment after war had increased the public debt to an amount which represented about $30o for each inhabitant of Canada. The cost of government had risen to about $1,000,000,000 yearly, when federal, provincial, and municipal taxes were included, and there was a large deficit on the two great railway lines united to form the Canadian national railways. Burdens so heavy necessarily hampered commerce. While the farmer, competing in an unpro tected world market, complained of the high prices paid to the protected manufacturer, he, in turn, complained that the tariff was so low as to enable the mass production of the United States to close Canadian factories, and that Canadians, unable to secure employment at home, were going in considerable numbers across the frontier. The reduction of one-third of the tariff in favour of British imports, it was claimed, was ruining especially the tex tile industry.
This cleavage on the tariff fortified sectional cleavage. The maritime provinces resented the more rapid development of the provinces farther West. In the previous election Quebec had sent only Liberals to Parliament, and this unanimity was rather on racial than on political grounds, in antagonism to English speaking Ontario. The agricultural West thought it was being exploited by the industrial East. During the election in October all these grievances found expression. The result showed a weak ening of the hold of both the Liberals and the Progressives. The Conservatives, with 117, were the strongest party. The Liberals had 102 and the Progressives 23, and there were two or three In dependents. No party had a majority. Union between the pro tectionist Conservatives with low-tariff Progressives to turn out Liberals who denounce protection would involve a paradox. Mr. King consequently did not resign, but faced the new parliament, hoping that on any question of confidence he would have the support of Progressives. On June 28, 1926, this support again proved unstable and, following the refusal of the governor-gen eral to dissolve parliament, Mr. King resigned, and his place was taken by the Conservative leader, Mr. Arthur Meighen.
The Governor-General, Lord Byng, had refused Mr. King a dissolution on the ground that it would be disturbing to have a second election within a year and that, as Mr. Meighen was the leader of the most numerous party in the House of Commons and thought that he could command a majority, it was fair to call him to office. Mr. King challenged the constitutional right of the Governor-General to refuse the advice of the prime minister to dissolve, and a complex situation arose when, within a few days after taking office, Mr. Meighen was defeated in the House and an instant dissolution followed with, of course, Lord Byng's consent. His course became a lead ing issue in the election and, since Mr. King was returned to office, the constitutional principle seemed to be established that the Crown cannot refuse a dissolution asked for by a prime min ister. The tariff was another issue, and the Conservatives laid stress on charges against Mr. King's government of lax adminis tration of the customs service. With a frontier running for some 3,000m. with that of the United States, to prevent smuggling is difficult. At some points, the customs officials had been corrupted and the revenues of Canada were being robbed to the extent of many millions of dollars a year. The election showed the further disintegration of the Progressives; and the result was that in October 1926, Mr. King had a small majority, made up of Liberal gains from the two major opposing parties and a section of pro fessed Progressives following Mr. Forke, who joined the cabinet.
The year of 1930 brought the Conservatives to power with Mr. R. B. Bennett at their head. Launching upon a policy of economic nationalism, the new government immediately raised the tariff rates on about 130 items. In 1932, after the Ottawa Conference, it made some moderate gestures in the direction of imperial pref erence, though without effecting any great immediate change in the flow of trade. As the economic depression deepened, the minis try belied its nominal conservatism by adopting a number of drastic measures for relief and reform, somewhat after the man ner of Mr. Roosevelt's "New Deal" in the United States. But the electorate was not satisfied and accordingly on October 15, 1935 swept the party from office and returned the Liberals under King with a decided majority.
and Doughty, ed. Canada and its Provinces Bibliography.-Shortt and Doughty, ed. Canada and its Provinces (Toronto, 191o, bibl.) covers history and resources. The general history of Canada is told in a popular series: The Chronicles of Canada (To ronto, 1912, bibl.). The series, The Makers of Canada (new ed. 1926) covers the chief figures in Canadian history. On the French period, Francis Parkman, Works (many editions) is valuable. G. M. Wrong, The Rise and Fall of New France (1928, bibl.) covers the whole French period. There is no recent general work on the English period except the several series mentioned above ; O. D. Skelton, Life and Letters of Sir Wilfrid Laurier (1921) touches the chief problems of Canadian history since 187o. The Canadian Annual Review of Public Affairs (Toronto, annually) gives full accounts of politics and finance, and The Canada Year Book (Ottawa, annually, statistical) is useful. The Canadian Historical Review (Toronto, quarterly) is a guide to litera ture relating to Canada. See also the bibliography contained in the last volume of the Cambridge Modern History. (G. M. W.)
