This is part three of a multipart series. You can read Part here, and Part Two .
Prime Minister Robert Borden was elected on Oct. 10, 1911, on a platform of anti-Americanism and pro-Britishness.
The first two years of his administration were relatively quiet. It was anything but quiet in Europe. The British and German Empires were locked in an arms race, particularly around their naval power. But by 1911, the Germans switched gears and started spending their military expenditure focus from the navy to the army, which was in response to Russia rebounding from the Russo-Japanese War and the 1905 Russian Revolution. Every European nation was essentially challenging each other. France, seeing Germany's numbers grow in their army, extended mandatory military service, which led Austria-Hungary, Italy and the Ottoman Empire to raise their respective military expenditure.
The Balkans were also in a constant state of war. Just before the Italo-Turkish War, from 1911 to 1912, there was the Bosnian Crisis (from 1908 to 1809), which resulted in the Austria-Hungary Empire annexing Bosnia and Herzegovina, which happened at the same time Bulgaria declared independence from the Ottoman Empire. This annexation and Bulgaria's newly found independence damaged relations between Austria-Hungary and its neighbours, Serbia, Italy and Russia.
The Bosnian Crisis and Bulgaria's Independence weakened the Ottoman Empire's power, which Italy and Balkan nations noticed. Italy invaded the Empire's territories in Libya and the Aegean Islands, which they managed to win by the end of the war on Oct. 18, 1912. Just days before, the Balkan League (Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria and Montenegro) started the First Balkan War. The Balkan League won the war in 1813.
By the end of the war, the Ottomans had ceded land to the Balkan League, and Albania had become an independent state. However, the Balkan League had fallen apart, with different factions disputing territorial claims, particularly surrounding Macedonia. Greece claimed southern Macedonia, while Serbia wanted the north. Bulgaria claimed it all and prepared for war by mobilizing its forces in the disputed regions. Greece and Serbia made a new alliance jointly against Bulgaria before the Treaty of London (officially recognizing territorial changes from the war) was signed on May 30, 1913, setting the stage for the Second Balkan War.
Bulgaria did end up attacking Greece and Serbia in late June, starting the Second Balkan War. The war lasted little more than a month, resulting in Bulgaria losing after Romania, Montenegro and the Ottoman Empire intervened. Bulgaria ceded land back to the Ottomans, Southern Dobruja to Romania, and parts of Macedonia and Western Thrace to Serbia and Greece.
The situation in the Balkans remained unstable and came to a head on June 28, 1914, when Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were assassinated by Gavrilo Princip and a group of five other Bosnian Serbs. The group were part of a student revolutionary group known as Young Bosnia, which wanted Bosnia and Herzegovina to be free from the Austria-Hungarian Empire. The Black Hand, a Serbian nationalist group, helped the group carry out the assassination. This led to the July Crisis, in which Austria-Hungary wanted to retaliate against Serbia, which they did, setting off the First World War.
On July 31, Borden and his wife were on their way to the Muskoka District Municipality for a vacation. However, he was called back to Ottawa when it was apparent that the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth would be entering the conflict. On Aug. 4, the United Kingdom declared war on Germany after the latter refused to withdraw troops from Belgium. Belgium was a neutral country at the time of Germany's invasion.
The Canadian Parliament passed the War Measures Act on Aug. 22, a statute providing a declaration of war, invasion, or insurrection and the type of emergency measures that could be taken in such an event. Supported by the Conservatives and Liberals, it was a controversial act, especially due to its suspension of civil liberties and personal freedoms. This was highlighted when Canada started interning Ukrainian and Ukrainian Canadians (Ukraine's Galicia and Northern Bukovina were Austro-Hungarian territories). Their wealth was taken, and they were jailed and forced to work on farms, mines, railways, and elsewhere.
There were 24 internment camps in Canada, including six in British Columbia. The closest one to Campbell River was in Nanaimo.
The act further gave the government the power to censor and suppress communications, arrest, detain and deport people without charge or trial, control transportation, trade and manufacturing and seize private property. Borden was also able to govern by order in council.
William Thomas White, Borden's finance minister, didn't want direct taxation on citizens, believing they would cost too much and interfere with the provinces. However, the war made this further impossible. Due to their war efforts, the British could no longer lend Canada money, and Canada had to import materials from the United States to produce ammunition and weapons, leading to a $50 million loan from the Americans in 1915. They further reached more deals in 1916, 1917 and 1918 through Victory Bond campaigns, starting the Americanization of Canada's economy.
However, the government could no longer continue with a lack of taxation, introducing wartime saving bonds and raising import tariffs, a luxury tax on tobacco and alcohol, and taxes on transport, telegrams, money orders, cheques, and patent medicines. By 1917, the income tax was introduced.
Borden also had to contend with the Conscription Crisis of 1917. French and Anglo-Canadians were split on conscription. Henri Bourassa, an MP from Quebec, argued that Canada's interests were not aligned with Britain or France and that the First World War should have nothing to do with Canada. Bourassa was a staunch anti-imperialist and thought only volunteers should fight. His views were not popular with Anglo-Canadians. However, Bourassa found himself an ally in Liberal Leader Wilfred Laurier, who was also opposed to conscription. But Laurier considered Bourassa dangerous, believing Bourassa would lead Quebec to leave the confederation.
The crisis was born in the aftermath of the Battle of the Somme, where more than 24,000 Canadians and 2,000 Newfoundlanders (not in Canada yet) lost their lives or were wounded or missing. Borden's government passed the Military Service Act, 1917, where Canadians aged 20 to 45 eligible to be conscripted. This led Quebec to riots.
All of this featured heavily in the 1917 election, which would be contested in December. Borden introduced the Military Voters Act before the general election was called, allowing Canadian (including Indigenous) soldiers and sailors, and women serving in non-combat roles and nurses, to vote, becoming the first time Indigenous people and women had a say and paving the way for franchisement (however, status First Nations people were not allowed to vote in elections until 1960). However, military ballots did not allow voters to choose a candidate but rather "government" or "opposition."
The election was set for 1916, but due to the war, it was extended by a year. Borden hoped it would lead all parties into a "grand coalition" government. He formed the Unionist Party, but this was refused by Laurier due to the conscription issue, worried it would lead Quebec to favour Bourassa instead of the Liberals.
The Unionist Party and Borden campaigned on introducing equal suffrage for women in addition to conscription. It was a landslide win for the Unionists and Borden, winning 153 seats. The Liberals won 82 seats, dominating Quebec (only three ridings in Quebec had a Unionist MP, all three ridings were English-speaking). Every single riding in British Columbia, including Comox-Alberni, elected a Unionist.
In Comox-Alberni, was a new riding that was created in 1914, created from parts of the Comox-Atlin riding. The riding elected Herbert Sylvester Clements, who was previously elected in 1911.
On May 24, 1918, Borden followed through with his promise of women's suffrage, enabling women 21 and older to vote in federal elections. However, Asian and Indigenous Canadians were not given this right. Borden also passed the Dominion Elections Act in 1920, allowing white women to run for Canada's parliament. Again, this did not include non-white women.
The First World War ended with an Allied victory on Nov. 11, 1918. He did not attend peace talks but did attend the 1919 Paris Peace Conference and demanded a separate seat from the British delegation, which was opposed by the British and Americans but eventually accepted. India, Australia, Newfoundland, New Zealand, and South Africa also received a seat at the table. However, Borden asked for nothing and was given nothing in terms of reparations or territory, but Borden and Canada, were allowed to sign the Treaty of Versailles and receive membership in the League of Nations (the predecessor of the United Nations).
However, due to his health, Borden announced he was retiring from politics on July 10, 1920. Borden picked Arthur Meighen to succeed him. Meighen was the secretary of state and minister of mines from 1913 until Oct. 1917 when he became minister of the interior and superintendent of Indian affairs.
As prime minister, Meighen led Canada into the Depression of 1920-1921 following the post-First World War recession.
One of the most significant things he did before the 1921 election was argue against renewing the United Kingdom's alliance with Japan at the 1921 Imperial Conference, believing that it would alienate the United States. He was successful, and the alliance expired
