Canada in the Great Power Game 1914-2014 by Gwynne Dyer Read Free Book Online Page B

of the Grand
, vol. 2
    In Montreal on 1 and 3 August, when it was already clear that France, at least, was going to be fighting Germany, huge crowds paraded in the streets waving British and French flags and singing “La Marsellaise” and “Rule Britannia.” When Britain formally declared war on Germany on 4 August (automatically taking Canada with it), thousands of people came out to cheer in Winnipeg, Regina, Edmonton, Vancouver and Victoria. In the other Paris, in France, the newspaper
Le Temps
saw something deeply poetic in the fact that English Canadian blood would now be shed for France, while French Canadians bled for England.
    Two weeks later in the House of Commons in Ottawa, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the former prime minister, stood up and declared: “We are British subjects, and today we are face to face with the consequences which are involved in that proud fact.” By then the Conservative government of Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden had already offered to send one division (22,500 men) to Europe. It had secretly bought two submarines that had just been built for the Chilean navy, and had placed Canada’s two decrepit training cruisers at the disposal of Britain’s Royal Navy. Maybe Borden’s government could have responded a little less eagerly, but it could not really have stayed out of the war unless it had decided to declare Canada independent then and there. Nobody had that in mind, not even the most ardent of Quebec Nationalists.
    Canada, an Anglo-French nation, tied to England and France by a thousand ethnic, social, intellectual and economic threads, hasa vital interest in the maintenance of the prestige, power and world action of France and England.
    Henri Bourassa,
Le Devoir
, September 8, 1914
    Canada was a very different country a century ago: the great majority of its eight million people were actually of British or French descent, and few English Canadian families had been in the country for more than two or three generations. Nevertheless, sentimental ties are not the same as “vital interests,” and there were no practical reasons why Canada’s long-term interests depended on the maintenance of British power and prestige (except for the old but fading concern about American expansionism). However, plenty of short-term interests were in play—many Canadian and British business interests were linked, for example—and in any case Canada was not a fully independent nation in 1914. Henri Bourassa, whose newspaper was the strongest public voice of French Canadian nationalism, would probably have preferred to copy the policy of the United States and declare Canada neutral in the war, but he understood that emotional, commercial and legal factors meant that Canada had to support the Entente powers (Britain, France and Russia). However, he stressed that it should do so “to the measure of its strength, and by appropriate means”—which did not, in his opinion, include sending Canadian troops to Europe.
    The Canadian territory is nowhere exposed to the attacks of the belligerent nations. As an independent nation, Canada would today enjoy perfect security.… It is then the duty of England to defend Canada and not that of Canada to defend England.
    Henri Bourassa,
Le Devoir
, September 8, 1914
    But it was no use arguing. The national mood, at least in English Canada, would not have stood for anything less than full Canadian military commitment to the war. There was probably not a single person in Canada in August 1914 (indeed, there were not even very many inEurope) who genuinely understood how the war had come about, but that didn’t make any difference.

    Q. Do you remember why you joined up?
    Spirit of adventure, mostly, I think, at that time. Because I don’t think one knew, had any idea what was ahead, you know. And I think that was the only thing that interested me then, was to see the world.
    Nursing Sister Mabel Rutherford, Toronto
    Q. Did you feel at the time that there was any