The Canadian Home Front

Shifting Ties Why did Canada’s closest

relationship shift from Britain to the US?Ogdensburg Agreement, 1940 Established the PJBD

War Time Production Increased production

required infrastructure developments and gave people jobs

Production and exports soared, bringing Canada out of the Great Depression

WLMK gave government strict control over the wartime economy, why?Ensured that industrialists

didn’t fix prices to increase profits

C. D. Howe Minister of Munitions and

SupplyBuilt and maintained Canada’s

wartime economy Auto-industry produced jeeps

and trucksRailcar manufacturers

produced tanksEnsured government had

control over industryResulted in civil service

expansion: ○ 46 000 in 1939 to 116 000 in

1945

Victory Bonds Canadian government needed to

raise money to finance infrastructure expansion

Bonds acted as a loan to the federal government from the populace

11 million people raised $8.8 billion

Wartime Prices and Trade Board Controlled prices,

prevented inflation, distributed resources

People had to use ration cardsLimited amount of

goods people could buy

Meat, tea, sugar, gasoline, major appliances

Conscription? WLMK said conscription

wouldn’t be imposed for OVERSEAS SERVICE

National Resources Mobilization Act, 1940Required men to register

for military service IN CANADA, not overseas

By 1941, Nazi advances in Europe and War in Pacific renewed calls for conscription

Conscription? Plebiscite, April 1942

“not necessarily conscription but conscription if necessary”

Canadians voted to release WLMK from his earlier promise○ 79% Anglophones voted

YES○ 72% Francophones voted

NO

Conscription? Order-in-Council, 1944

Conscription announced WLMK wished to send 16

000 troops overseasProtests in QuebecBut, only 2463 reached

front lines and 79 died by end of WWII

Conscription in WWII was much less divisive than in WWI

Role of Women Shortage of workers, so in 1941

young women were recruited Urban: factory work, welders,

machinists Rural: ran farms By 1943 all women were recruited

Role of Women Gave them new

social positioning Challenged

gender stereotypesWomen no longer

at home, but working in public spaces more

Gendered jobs less appealing (nursing, textiles, teaching)

Role of Women At the end of WWII,

most women gave jobs back to returning soldiers

Some resisted, causing growth in women’s rights movement

“Canada’s Own Rosie” - CBC

Japanese Internment Racist attitudes flared

up against Canadians of Japanese heritageReports of atrocities

from POW campsFears of Japanese

attack (Pearl Harbour)

BC Premier ordered all Japanese males between 18-45 to work camps in 1941 and relocated entire families

Japanese Internment WLMK invokes War

Measures Act in 1942, ordering all people of Japanese decent to camps21 000 people relocated

Human Rights Violation

Discrimination and racism Public apology in 1988

$21 000 to each evacuee still living