Editing History of Canada (section)

== World Wars and Interwar Years (1914–1945)==
{{Main|Canada in the World Wars and Interwar Years}}

===First World War===
{{main|Military history of Canada during World War I}}
[[File:Crowds as soldiers leave Union Station 1914.jpg|thumb|A train filled with soldiers departs from Toronto's Union Station shortly after [[World War I]] began in 1914]]
The [[Canadian Forces]] and [[Canadians|civilian]] participation in the First World War helped to foster a sense of [[Canada – United Kingdom relations|British-Canadian nationhood]]. The highpoints of [[Military history of Canada during the First World War|Canadian military achievement during the First World War]] came during the [[Battle of the Somme|Somme]], [[Battle of Vimy Ridge|Vimy]], [[Second Battle of Passchendaele|Passchendaele]] battles and what later became known as "[[Canada's Hundred Days]]".<ref name="cook">{{Cite journal |last1=Cook |first1=Tim |title='A Proper Slaughter': The March 1917 Gas Raid at Vimy |journal=Canadian Military History |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=7–24 |year=1999 |url=http://www.wlu.ca/lcmsds/cmh/back%20issues/CMH/volume%208/Issue%202/Cook%20-%20A%20Proper%20Slaughter%20-%20The%20March%201917%20Gas%20Attack%20at%20Vimy%20Ridge.pdf |access-date=April 10, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090327164336/http://www.wlu.ca/lcmsds/cmh/back%20issues/CMH/volume%208/Issue%202/Cook%20-%20A%20Proper%20Slaughter%20-%20The%20March%201917%20Gas%20Attack%20at%20Vimy%20Ridge.pdf |archive-date=March 27, 2009 }}</ref> The reputation Canadian troops earned, along with the success of Canadian flying aces including [[William George Barker]] and [[Billy Bishop]], helped to give the [[Canadian identity|nation a new sense of identity]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bashow |first1=David |url=http://www.journal.dnd.ca/vo3/no3/doc/55-60-eng.pdf |title=The Incomparable Billy Bishop: The Man and the Myths |journal=Canadian Military Journal |volume=3 |issue=3 |date=Autumn 2002 |pages=55–60 |access-date=September 1, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160202043503/http://www.journal.dnd.ca/vo3/no3/doc/55-60-eng.pdf |archive-date=February 2, 2016 }}</ref> The [[War Office]] in 1922 reported approximately 67,000 killed and 173,000 wounded during the war.<ref name="The War Office 1922 237"/> This excludes civilian deaths in war-time incidents like the [[Halifax Explosion]].<ref name="The War Office 1922 237">{{cite book |title=Statistics of the Military Effort of the British Empire During the Great War 1914–1920 |last=The War Office |author-link=War Office |year=1922 |publisher=Reprinted by Naval & Military Press |isbn=978-1-84734-681-0 |page=237}}</ref>

Support for Great Britain during the First World War caused a major [[Conscription Crisis of 1917|political crisis over conscription]], with [[Francophones]], mainly from Quebec, [[Military Service Act (Canada)|rejecting national policies]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.histori.ca/peace/page.do?pageID=278 |title=The Conscription Crisis of 1917 |publisher=[[Historica Canada]] |access-date=August 10, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080122023740/http://www.histori.ca/peace/page.do?pageID=278 |archive-date=January 22, 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref> During the crisis, large numbers of enemy aliens (especially Ukrainians and Germans) were put under government controls.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lermuseum.org/ler/mh/wwi/homefront1917.html |title=Military History: First World War: Homefront, 1917 |publisher=Lermuseum.org |access-date=August 10, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100610150442/http://www.lermuseum.org/ler/mh/wwi/homefront1917.html |archive-date=June 10, 2010 }}</ref> The [[Liberal Party of Canada|Liberal party]] was deeply split, with most of its [[English Canadian|Anglophone]] leaders joining the [[Unionist Party (Canada)|unionist government]] headed by Prime Minister Borden, the leader of the [[Conservative Party of Canada (1867–1942)|Conservative party]].<ref name="Bothwell1998">{{cite book |first1=Robert |last1=Bothwell |title=Canada and Quebec: one country, two histories |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IftRWNt_0bcC&pg=PA57 |year=1998 |publisher=University of British Columbia Press |isbn=978-0-7748-0653-4 |page=57}}</ref> The Liberals regained their influence after the war under the leadership of [[William Lyon Mackenzie King]], who served as prime minister with three separate terms between 1921 and 1949.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Robert Craig |last1=Brown |first2=Ramsay |last2=Cook |title=Canada, 1896–1921 A Nation Transformed |publisher=McClelland & Stewart |year=1974 |page=ch 13 |isbn=978-0-7710-2268-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/canada18961921na0000brow }}</ref>

===Women's suffrage===
{{further|History of Canadian women#Feminism and woman suffrage}}
{{See also|Canadian women during the world wars}}
When Canada was founded, women could not vote in federal elections. Women did have a local vote in some provinces, as in [[Canada West]] from 1850, where women owning land could vote for school trustees. By 1900 other provinces adopted similar provisions, and in 1916 Manitoba took the lead in extending full [[women's suffrage]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first1=Susan |last1=Jackel |first2=Dominique |last2=Millette |date=March 4, 2015 |url=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/en/article/womens-suffrage/ |title=Women's Suffrage |encyclopedia=[[The Canadian Encyclopedia]] |publisher=[[Historica Canada]] |edition=online |access-date=January 17, 2016 |archive-date=February 25, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150225094612/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/en/article/womens-suffrage/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> Simultaneously suffragists gave strong support to the prohibition movement, especially in Ontario and the Western provinces.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=John H. |last1=Thompson |title='The Beginning of Our Regeneration': The Great War and Western Canadian Reform Movements |journal=Historical Papers |date=1972 |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=231 <!--|pp=227–245--> |doi=10.7202/030750ar |url=https://www.erudit.org/revue/hp/1972/v7/n1/030750ar.pdf|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first1=Paul |last1=Voisey |title=The "Votes For Women" Movement |journal=Alberta History |date=Summer 1975 |volume=23 |issue=3 |pages=10–23 |url=http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/bibliography/9021.23.3/12.html}}</ref>
[[File:Canadian nurses voting 1917.jpg|thumb|Nursing sisters at the [[Canadian women during the World Wars|Canadian hospital in France during the First World War]] casting their votes for the 1917 general election]]
The ''[[Military Voters Act]]'' of 1917 gave the vote to British women who were war widows or had sons or husbands serving overseas. Unionist Prime Minister Borden pledged himself during the 1917 campaign to equal suffrage for women. After his landslide victory, he introduced a bill in 1918 for extending the franchise to women. This passed without division but did not apply to Quebec provincial and municipal elections. The women of Quebec gained full suffrage in 1940. The first woman elected to Parliament was [[Agnes Macphail]] of Ontario in 1921.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Catherine L. |last1=Cleverdon |title=The Woman Suffrage Movement in Canada: The Start of Liberation, 1900–20 |url=https://archive.org/details/womansuffragemov00clev |url-access=registration |edition=2nd |date=1974 |publisher=University of Toronto |isbn=978-0-8020-6218-5}}</ref>

===1920s===
====On the world stage====
[[File:William Orpen – The Signing of Peace in the Hall of Mirrors, Versailles 1919, Ausschnitt.jpg|thumb|The German delegate is portrayed signing the peace treaties at the [[Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920)|Paris Peace Conference]], surrounded by [[Allies of World War I|Allied]] delegates. The Canadian delegate, [[George Eulas Foster|George Foster]] is visible in the back row (fourth from the left)]]

Convinced that Canada had proven itself on the battlefields of Europe, Prime Minister Borden demanded that it have a separate seat at the [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Paris Peace Conference]] in 1919. This was initially opposed not only by Britain but also by the United States, which saw such a delegation as an extra British vote. Borden responded by pointing out that since Canada had lost nearly 60,000 men, a far larger proportion of its men, its right to equal status as a nation had been consecrated on the battlefield. British Prime Minister [[David Lloyd George]] eventually relented, and convinced the reluctant Americans to accept the presence of delegations from Canada, [[British Raj|India]], Australia, [[Dominion of Newfoundland|Newfoundland]], New Zealand, and South Africa. These also received their own seats in the League of Nations.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=L.F. |last1=Fitzhardinge |title=Hughes, Borden, and Dominion Representation at the Paris Peace Conference |journal=Canadian Historical Review |date=June 1968 |volume=49 |issue=2 |pages=160 <!--|pp=160–169--> |doi=10.3138/CHR-049-02-03 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Canada asked for neither reparations nor mandates. It played only a modest role in Paris, but just having a seat was a matter of pride. It was cautiously optimistic about the new League of Nations, in which it played an active and independent role.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Margaret |last1=McMillan |chapter=Canada and the Peace Settlements |editor-first=David |editor-last=Mackenzie |title=Canada and the First World War |date=2005 |pages=379–408 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iqtjsLl292oC&pg=PA379 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-0-8020-8445-3}}</ref>

In 1922 British Prime Minister David Lloyd George appealed repeatedly for Canadian support in the [[Chanak crisis]], in which a war threatened between Britain and Turkey. Canada refused, leading to the fall of Lloyd George.<ref name="Dawson1959">{{cite book|first1=Robert |last1=MacGregor Dawson|title=William Lyon Mackenzie King: 1874–1923|year=1959|publisher=University of Toronto Press|pages=401–22}}</ref> The [[Department of External Affairs (Canada)|Department of External Affairs]], which had been founded in 1909, was expanded and promoted Canadian autonomy as Canada reduced its reliance on British diplomats and used its own foreign service.<ref name="HillikerCanada1990">{{cite book|first1=John |last1=Hilliker|author2=Institute of Public Administration of Canada|title=Canada's Department of External Affairs: The early years, 1909–1946|url=https://archive.org/details/canadasdepartmen0002hill|url-access=registration|year=1990|publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |isbn=978-0-7735-0751-7|page=[https://archive.org/details/canadasdepartmen0002hill/page/n9 3]}}</ref> Thus began the careers of such important diplomats as [[Norman Robertson]] and [[Hume Wrong]], and future prime minister [[Lester Pearson]].<ref name="English1989">{{cite book|last1=English|first1=John|title=Shadow of Heaven: the Life of Lester Pearson|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uxEVAAAAYAAJ|volume=One: 1897–1948|year=1989|publisher=Lester & Orpen Dennys|isbn=978-0-88619-165-8}}</ref>

In the 1920s, Canada set up a successful wheat marketing "pool" to keep prices high. Canada negotiated with the United States, Australia, and the Soviet Union to expand the pool, but the effort failed when the Great Depression caused distrust and low prices.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Jason |last1=McCollom |title='We Love You People Better than We Like Ourselves': Canada, the United States, Australia, the Soviet Union, and the International Wheat Pool Movement of the 1920s |journal=Agricultural History |year=2018 |volume=92 |issue=92.3 (2018) |pages=404–428 |doi=10.3098/ah.2018.092.3.404 |jstor=10.3098/ah.2018.092.3.404 }}</ref>

[[File:I'm Alone Canadian Ship.jpg|thumb|left|''[[I'm Alone]]'', a Canadian ship used to [[Rum-running|smuggle alcohol]] across the border during the alcohol prohibition era in the United States]] 
With prohibition underway in the United States, smugglers bought large quantities of Canadian liquor. Both the Canadian distillers and the U.S. State Department put heavy pressure on the Customs and Excise Department to loosen or tighten border controls. Liquor interests paid off corrupt Canadian border officials until the U.S. finally ended prohibition in 1933.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=John |last1=Willis |title=Tango along the Canadian–American Border in the 1920s |journal=American Review of Canadian Studies |issue=48.2 (2018) |pages=163–190}}</ref>

====Domestic affairs====
In 1921 to 1926, William Lyon Mackenzie King's Liberal government pursued a conservative domestic policy with the object of lowering wartime taxes and, especially, cooling wartime ethnic tensions, as well as defusing postwar labour conflicts. The Progressives refused to join the government but did help the Liberals defeat non-confidence motions. King faced a delicate balancing act of reducing tariffs enough to please the Prairie-based Progressives, but not too much to alienate his vital support in industrial Ontario and Quebec, which needed tariffs to compete with American imports. King and Conservative leader [[Arthur Meighen]] sparred constantly and bitterly in Commons debates.<ref>Dawson (1958) ch 14, 15</ref> The Progressives gradually weakened. Their effective and passionate leader, [[Thomas Crerar]], resigned to return to his grain business, and was replaced by the more placid [[Robert Forke]]. The socialist reformer [[J.&nbsp;S. Woodsworth]] gradually gained influence and power among the Progressives, and he reached an accommodation with King on policy matters.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Bruce |last1=Hutchison |title=The Incredible Canadian |year=1952 |pages=76–78}}</ref>
[[File:KingImperialConference.jpg|thumb|Prime Minister [[William Lyon Mackenzie King]] (left) at the [[1926 Imperial Conference]]. King sought to redefine the role of governor general at the conference, as a result of the [[King-Byng affair]] earlier that year.]]
In 1926 Prime Minister Mackenzie King advised the [[Governor General of Canada|Governor General]], [[Julian H.G. Byng, Viscount Byng of Vimy|Lord Byng]], to dissolve Parliament and call another election, but Byng refused, the only time that the Governor General has exercised such a power. Instead, Byng called upon Meighen, the Conservative Party leader, to form a government.<ref name="RussellSossin2009">{{cite book |first1=Peter H. |last1=Russell |first2=Lorne |last2=Sossin|title=Parliamentary Democracy in Crisis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f9uIZ12yh-UC&pg=PT232|year=2009|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=978-1-4426-9337-1|page=232}}</ref> Meighen attempted to do so but was unable to obtain a majority in the Commons and he, too, advised dissolution, which this time was accepted. The episode, the [[King–Byng affair]], marks a constitutional crisis that was resolved by a new tradition of complete non-interference in Canadian political affairs on the part of the British government.<ref name="GillisR1986">{{cite book|first1=R. Peter |last1=Gillis |last2=Roach |first2=Thomas R. |title=Lost Initiatives: Canada's Forest Industries, Forest Policy, and Forest Conservation|url=https://archive.org/details/lostinitiativesc0000gill|url-access=registration|year=1986|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-313-25415-4|page=[https://archive.org/details/lostinitiativesc0000gill/page/219 219]}}</ref>

===Great Depression===
{{main|Great Depression in Canada}}
[[File:ReliefWorkHighway.jpg|thumb|Road construction between [[Kimberley, British Columbia|Kimberley]] and [[Wasa, British Columbia]] by Relief Project workers, 1934]]
Canada was hit hard by the worldwide [[Great Depression]] that began in 1929. Between 1929 and 1933, the gross national product dropped 40 per cent (compared to 37 per cent in the US). Unemployment reached 27 per cent at the depth of the Depression in 1933.<ref name=f1/> Many businesses closed, as corporate profits of {{CAD|396&nbsp;million}} in 1929 turned into losses of {{CAD|98&nbsp;million}} in 1933. Canadian exports shrank by 50% from 1929 to 1933. Construction all but stopped (down 82 per cent, 1929–33), and wholesale prices dropped 30%. Wheat prices plunged from 78c per bushel (1928 crop) to 29c in 1932.<ref name=f1>{{cite book |editor-first=M.C. |editor-last=Urquhart |title=Historical Statistics of Canada |year=1965 |issue=series F1-F13}}</ref>

[[File:YongeStreetMission.jpg|thumb|A crowd gathers for free food at the Yonge Street Mission in Toronto during the [[Great Depression]]]]

Urban unemployment nationwide was 19 per cent; Toronto's rate was 17 per cent, according to the census of 1931. Farmers who stayed on their farms were not considered unemployed.<ref>Canada, Bureau of the Census, ''Unemployment'' Vol. VI (Ottawa 1931), pp. 1, 267</ref> By 1933, 30 per cent of the labour force was out of work, and one-fifth of the population became dependent on government assistance. Wages fell as did prices. The worst hit were areas dependent on primary industries such as farming, [[Mining in Canada|mining]] and logging, as prices fell and there were few alternative jobs. Most families had moderate losses and little hardship, though they too became pessimistic and their debts became heavier as prices fell. Some families saw most or all of their assets disappear and suffered severely.<ref name="Berton2012">{{cite book|first1=Pierre |last1=Berton|title=The Great Depression: 1929–1939|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vuVOyizWolgC&pg=PP1|year=2012|publisher=Doubleday Canada|isbn=978-0-307-37486-8|pages=2–613}}</ref><ref name="Neatby2003">{{cite book|author-link1=H. Blair Neatby|first1=H. |last1=Blair Neatby|title=The Politics of Chaos : Canada in the Thirties|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MpmjZNrPqgoC&pg=PP1|year=2003|publisher=Dundurn|isbn=978-1-894908-01-6|pages=1–162}}</ref>

In 1930, in the first stage of the long depression, Prime Minister Mackenzie King believed that the crisis was a temporary swing of the business cycle and that the economy would soon recover without government intervention. He refused to provide unemployment relief or federal aid to the provinces, saying that if Conservative provincial governments demanded federal dollars, he would not give them "a five-cent piece."<ref>Neatby, ''William Lyon Mackenzie King'', 2:312, 318</ref> The main issue was the rapid deterioration in the economy and whether the prime minister was out of touch with the hardships of ordinary people.<ref name="Berton2012b">{{cite book|first1=Pierre |last1=Berton|title=The Great Depression: 1929–1939|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vuVOyizWolgC&pg=PP54|year=2012|publisher=Doubleday Canada|isbn=978-0-307-37486-8|page=54}}</ref><ref name="Morton1999">{{cite book |first1=Desmond |last1=Morton|title=Working People: An Illustrated History of the Canadian Labour Movement|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E_-19s_1NOYC&pg=PP139|year=1999|publisher=McGill-Queen's Press – MQUP|isbn=978-0-7735-7554-7|page=139}}</ref> The winner of the 1930 election was [[Richard Bedford Bennett]] and the Conservatives. Bennett had promised high tariffs and large-scale spending, but as deficits increased, he became wary and cut back severely on Federal spending. With falling support and the depression getting only worse, Bennett attempted to introduce policies based on the [[New Deal]] of President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] (FDR) in the United States, but he got little passed. Bennett's government became a focus of popular discontent. For example, auto owners saved on gasoline by using horses to pull their cars, dubbing them [[Bennett Buggy|Bennett Buggies]]. The Conservative failure to restore prosperity led to the return of Mackenzie King's Liberals in the [[1935 Canadian federal election|1935 election]].<ref>{{cite book|first1=J. R. H. |last1=Wilbur|title=The Bennett New Deal: Fraud or Portent?|year=1968|publisher=Copp Clark |pages=78–112, 147–90}}</ref>

In 1935, the Liberals used the slogan "King or Chaos" to win a landslide in the 1935 election.<ref>H. Blair Neatby, ''William Lyon Mackenzie King: 1932–1939'' (1976) pp 143–48.</ref> Promising a much-desired trade treaty with the U.S., the Mackenzie King government passed the 1935 Reciprocal Trade Agreement. It marked the turning point in Canadian-American economic relations, reversing the disastrous trade war of 1930–31, lowering tariffs and yielding a dramatic increase in trade.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Boucher | first1 = Marc T. | year = 1985–1986 | title = The Politics of Economic Depression: Canadian-American Relations in the Mid-1930s | journal = International Journal | volume = 41 | issue = 1| pages = 3–36 | doi=10.2307/40202349| jstor = 40202349 }}</ref>

The worst of the Depression had passed by 1935, as the Government of Canada launched relief programs such as the ''National Housing Act'' and the National Employment Commission. The [[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation]] became a [[crown corporation]] in 1936. Trans-Canada Airlines (the precursor to [[Air Canada]]) was formed in 1937, as was the [[National Film Board of Canada]] in 1939. In 1938, Parliament transformed the [[Bank of Canada]] from a private entity to a crown corporation.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bankofcanada.ca/about/who-we-are/ |title=Who we are |work=Bank of Canada |access-date=June 9, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110611204829/http://www.bankofcanada.ca/about/who-we-are/ |archive-date=June 11, 2011 }}</ref>

One political response was a highly restrictive immigration policy and a rise in [[Nativism (politics)|nativism]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/quebechistory/readings/CanadaandJewishRefugeesinthe1930s.html|title=Quebec History|first=Claude|last=Bélanger|website=faculty.marianopolis.edu}}</ref>

[[File:Kamloops on to Ottawa.jpg|thumb|left|Strikers from unemployment relief camps on a train in [[Kamloops]], en route to Eastern Canada, 1935]]

Times were especially hard in western Canada, where a full recovery did not occur until the Second World War began in 1939. One response was the creation of new political parties such as the [[Canadian social credit movement|Social Credit movement]] and the [[Cooperative Commonwealth Federation]], as well as popular protest in the form of the [[On-to-Ottawa Trek]].<ref>{{cite web|title=The On-to-Ottawa Trek|url=https://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/calgary/onottawa.html|publisher=The University of Calgary (The Applied History Research Group)|year=1997|access-date=April 12, 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090923010231/http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/calgary/onottawa.html|archive-date=September 23, 2009}}</ref>

===Statute of Westminster ===
{{main|Statute of Westminster, 1931}}
Following the [[Balfour Declaration of 1926]], the British Parliament passed the [[Statute of Westminster 1931|Statute of Westminster]] in 1931 which acknowledged Canada as coequal with the United Kingdom and the other [[Commonwealth realms]]. It was a crucial step in the development of Canada as a separate state in that it provided for nearly complete legislative autonomy from the Parliament of the United Kingdom.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/quebechistory/federal/1931.htm|title=The Statute of Westminster|publisher=Marianopolis College|first1=Claude |last1=Bélanger|year=2001|access-date = April 10, 2010}}</ref><ref>[https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1931/4/pdfs/ukpga_19310004_en.pdf ''Statute of Westminster, 1931''], 22 Geo. V, c. 4 (UK).</ref> Although the United Kingdom retained formal authority over certain Canadian constitutional changes, it relinquished this authority with the passing of the [[Canada Act 1982]] which was the final step in achieving full sovereignty.

===Second World War===
{{Main|Canada in World War II}}
[[File:QF 2 pounder HMCS Assiniboine a104057-v6.jpg|thumb|A [[HX convoys|convoy from Halifax]] en route to the UK, taken from {{HMCS|Assiniboine|I18|6}} in 1940]]

[[Military history of Canada during the Second World War|Canada's involvement in the Second World War]] began when Canada declared war on [[Nazi Germany]] on September 10, 1939, delaying it one week after Britain acted to symbolically demonstrate independence. Canada played a major role in supplying food, raw materials, munitions and money to the hard-pressed British economy, training airmen for the Commonwealth, guarding the western half of the [[North Atlantic Ocean]] against German [[U-boat]]s, and providing combat troops for the invasions of Italy, France and Germany in 1943–45.

Of a population of approximately 11.5&nbsp;million, 1.1&nbsp;million Canadians served in the armed forces in the Second World War.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=David |last1=Littlewood |title=Conscription in Britain, New Zealand, Australia and Canada during the Second World War |journal=History Compass |year=2020 |volume=18 |issue=18#4 (2020) |doi=10.1111/hic3.12611 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Many thousands more served with the [[Canadian Merchant Navy]].<ref name="Johnston2008">{{cite book |first1=Mac |last1=Johnston|title=Corvettes Canada: Convoy Veterans of WWII Tell Their True Stories|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ig-A36yZ4rMC&pg=PT24|year=2008|publisher=John Wiley and Sons|isbn=978-0-470-15698-8|page=24}}</ref> In all, more than {{formatnum:45000}} died, and another {{formatnum:55000}} were wounded.<ref name=Sandler>{{cite book|first1=Stanley |last1=Sandler|title=Ground Warfare: H-Q|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L_xxOM85bD8C&pg=PA159|year=2002|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-57607-344-5|page=159}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Office of the Premier |url=http://www2.news.gov.bc.ca/archive/2001-2005/2003OTP0034-000464.htm |title=PROVINCE DONATES $1&nbsp;Million TO HONOUR WW II VETERANS |publisher=.news.gov.bc.ca |year=2003 |access-date=August 8, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120528020035/http://www2.news.gov.bc.ca/archive/2001-2005/2003OTP0034-000464.htm |archive-date=May 28, 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Building up the [[Royal Canadian Air Force]] was a high priority; it was kept separate from Britain's [[Royal Air Force]]. The [[British Commonwealth Air Training Plan]] Agreement, signed in December 1939, bound Canada, Britain, New Zealand, and Australia to a program that eventually trained half the airmen from those four nations in the Second World War.<ref>C. P. Stacey, ''Arms, Men and Governments: The War Policies of Canada, 1939–1945'' (1970) pp 17–31</ref>

The [[Battle of the Atlantic]] began immediately, and from 1943 to 1945 was led by [[Leonard W. Murray]], from Nova Scotia. German U-boats operated in Canadian and Newfoundland waters throughout the war, sinking many naval and merchant vessels.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://naval.review.cfps.dal.ca/archive/1131599-7568616/vol1num1art5.pdf|title=The Battle of the Atlantic|publisher=Canadian Naval Review|year=2005|access-date=August 24, 2010 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091229133644/http://naval.review.cfps.dal.ca/archive/1131599-7568616/vol1num1art5.pdf|archive-date=December 29, 2009}}</ref> The [[History of the Canadian Army|Canadian army]] was involved in the failed [[Battle of Hong Kong|defence of Hong Kong]], the unsuccessful [[Dieppe Raid]] in August 1942, the [[Allied invasion of Italy]], and the highly successful [[Invasion of Normandy|invasion of France and the Netherlands]] in 1944–45.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Brereton |last1=Greenhous |first2=W. A. B. |last2=Douglas|title=Out of the Shadows: Canada in the Second World War|url=https://archive.org/details/outofshadowscana0000doug_u2z6|url-access=registration |year=1996|publisher=Dundurn Press Ltd.|isbn=9781554882601}} chapters 4, 6–9</ref>

[[File:William Lyon Mackenzie King voting on the introduction of conscription for overseas military service - 1942 - MIKAN 3193315.jpg|thumb|Canadian prime minister, [[William Lyon Mackenzie King|Mackenzie King]] voting on a plebiscite to introduce conscription for overseas service in 1942]]

On the political side, Mackenzie King rejected any notion of a government of national unity.<ref>{{cite book|first1=J. L. |last1=Granatstein|title=Canada's war: the politics of the Mackenzie King government, 1939–1945|url=https://archive.org/details/canadaswarpoliti0000gran|url-access=registration|year=1975|publisher=Oxford University Press|pages=[https://archive.org/details/canadaswarpoliti0000gran/page/206 206–7]|isbn=978-0-19-540228-5}}</ref> The [[1940 Canadian federal election|1940 federal election]] was held as normally scheduled, producing another majority for the Liberals. The [[Conscription Crisis of 1944]] greatly affected unity between French and English-speaking Canadians, though was not as politically intrusive as that of the First World War.<ref name="FrancisFrancis2009c">{{cite book|first1=R. D. |last1=Francis |first2=Richard |last2=Jones |first3=Donald B. |last3=Smith|title=Journeys: A History of Canada|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GbbZRIOKclsC&pg=PA428|year=2009|publisher=Cengage Learning|isbn=978-0-17-644244-6|page=428}}</ref> 

During the war, Canada became more closely linked to the U.S. The Americans took virtual control of Yukon in order to build the [[Alaska Highway]], and were a major presence in the British colony of Newfoundland with major airbases.<ref>{{cite book |first=Galen Roger |last=Perras |title=Franklin Roosevelt and the Origins of the Canadian-American Security Alliance, 1933–1945: Necessary, but Not Necessary Enough (online edition) |year=1998 |url=https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=27381179}}</ref> After the start of the war with Japan in December 1941, the government, in cooperation with the U.S., began the [[Japanese-Canadian internment]], which sent {{formatnum:22000}} British Columbia residents of Japanese descent to relocation camps far from the coast. The reason was intense public demand for removal and fears of espionage or sabotage.<ref name="Barman2007">{{cite book|first1=Jean |last1=Barman|title="The" West Beyond the West: A History of British Columbia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JbYe6fCOSTAC&pg=PA266|access-date=May 21, 2013|year=2007|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=978-0-8020-9309-7|pages=346–}}</ref> The government ignored reports from the RCMP and Canadian military that most of the Japanese were law-abiding and not a threat.<ref>Major General Ken Stuart told Ottawa, "I cannot see that the Japanese Canadians constitute the slightest menace to national security." quoted in Ann Gomer Sunahara, ''The Politics of Racism: The Uprooting of Japanese Canadians During the Second World War,'' (1981) pg. 23.</ref>