Canadian troops head to the rear after the Battle of Vimy Ridge, April 1917. (George Metcalf Archival Collection/Canadian War Museum) George Metcalf Archival Collecti

Vimy Ridge Myth #4: Canada became a nation at Vimy

The Battle of Vimy Ridge is commonly known as a fight that brought Canadians together. But did it?

By J.L. Granatstein

April 7, 2017

Add as preferred on Google(opens in a new tab)

MORE: Did Canadians really scale a cliff at Vimy?

That issue tore Canada apart, pitting French against English, labour against capital, farmers against city dwellers. Borden offered a coalition to Liberal leader Sir Wilfrid Laurier, but this idea failed. There were riots against compulsory service in Montreal from May to September, a sign of the worsening political climate. Borden soon gerrymandered the electorate, giving women relatives of soldiers the vote and taking it away from enemy alien immigrants. Soon farmers’ sons were promised exemption from the draft. In the election in December 1917, the most racist in Canadian history, coalition propagandists deliberately painted francophones as cowards unwilling to defend Canada. Borden won re-election with a big majority, and soon the army called up 100,000 men, though almost every one of them sought exemption. When the great German attacks of late March 1918 almost broke the British lines, Ottawa cancelled the farmers’ exemptions and chased down all who refused to serve. There were riots and deaths in Quebec City, soldiers shooting civilians on the street. The divide was enormous. So, was Canada born a nation at Vimy? English-speaking Canadians were largely in favour of the war and conscription, farmers and labour notwithstanding, and the Canadian Corps overseas was disproportionately anglophone. Perhaps the victory helped form an anglo-Canadian nationality. But French Canada was in a rage, little interested in what it saw as a British imperialist war of no real concern to Canada. Relatively few francophones had enlisted—only one battalion in the Canadian Corps, the 22nd Battalion, was French-speaking, and the imposition of conscription had created fury at the actions of the anglo majority. A Québécois nation in formation? Perhaps. So was Canada a nation formed at Vimy? Far from it: Canada was instead deux nations divided by the Great War and conscription. J.L. Granatstein is a historian and former Director and CEO of the Canadian War Museum.