Jack Granatstein

The once-ragtag Canadian Corps’s capture of Vimy Ridge, led by British Lt.-Gen. Sir Julian Byng, was a signal achievement (Universal History Archive/UIG/Getty)
History

How Canada earned the world’s respect

The Canadian Army was created from almost nothing. Training, leadership and grit made it indispensable to the effort to win the First World War.

Picture released on April 12, 1945 of Dutch civilians waving to the Canadian soldiers driving through a village of Netherlands, during the Second World War. (AFP/Getty Images)
History

When Canada liberated a nation from tyranny

J.L. Granatstein: ‘The Dutch remember. They teach their children about the war in their schools. On Christmas Eve every year the children of Holten go to the Canadian cemetery to light a candle on each grave to make the point that freedom had—and still has—a price.’

Tomatoes at Covent Garden 10th June 1942.
Health

Canada’s wartime example

Restrictions imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19 pale in comparison to those imposed on Canadians during WWII

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How Mackenzie King convinced Canada to go to war in 1939

Canada made an independent decision to fight the Nazis, one taken with scarcely a voice raised against it in Parliament

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Why Canada’s casualties were so high in Normandy

The Normandy campaign, from D-Day until late August 1944, saw almost 5,000 Canadian soldiers perish. But that offensive, launched 75 years ago, jumpstarted the liberation of Western Europe.

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What kept Canadian soldiers committed during the First World War?

Seven in ten were killed, injured or captured. And yet, they fought on.

King George V (left), with Victoria-born Canadian Corps commander Lt.-Gen. Sir Arthur Currie (centre) and Gen. Henry Horne, surveys Vimy Ridge (The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)
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He led Canada to victory in the Great War. Why did the troops dislike him?

Arthur Currie is widely considered one of Canada’s greatest military leaders. But soldiers felt differently.

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‘If we hadn’t had our rum, we would have lost the war’

Here’s a look at what Canadian soldiers ate and drank to sustain their bodies—and First World War efforts. Many looked forward eagerly to their daily rum ration.

Canada

The First World War brought the end of cavalry and the advent of the tank

The British invented the tank: an armoured vehicle that could roll over both wire and trenches. The problems, however, were many.

Canada

Conscription divided Canada. It also helped win the First World War.

Canada’s military couldn’t have carried on without the controversial policy

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How Canada fought its last battle in the First World War

Canada’s war finally ended in Mons, Belgium, the scene of the first skirmishes between British and German troops in 1914.