Editing History of Canada (section)

===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>