The Nations of Canada

Spring 1919.  Months of mounting tension culminates in a general strike in Winnipeg - the outcome of which could re-shape post-war Canada.

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May 1919.  Labour unrest in Winnipeg spills over into the largest strike in Canadian history to that point, threatening the status quo throughout the country.

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1919.  Before Canadians can recover from the trauma of war, a deadly pandemic reaches the nation's shores.

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1919. The Canadian government faces the daunting task of transporting 260,000 soldiers across the Atlantic and re-incorporating them into a rapidly changing domestic society and economy.

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1918-1919.  Determined to tackle the forces of international revolution head on, Canada leads an imperial military expedition to Siberia.

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1919. As the war comes to an end Canada faces a threat just as grave at home - international revolution.

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1919: Indigenous veterans of the Canadian Expeditionary Force return home to find that the freedom and democracy they fought for in Europe is not much in evidence in Canada.

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1918. Explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson returns from five years in the Canadian arctic with a new vision for 20th century geopolitics - with the far north at the centre of it.

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1918.  German attacks on Canadian nurses become the subject of war crime trials after the conflict ends.

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Summer-Fall 1918.  The Canadian Corps completes a three-month-long marathon of battles until Germany finally sues for peace.  The end of the war brings a mixture of joy, relief, and bewilderment. 

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1918.  After months of speculation, the Canadian government begins forcibly enlisting young men in earnest, sparking resistance in expected and unexpected corners of the country.

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December 1917.  Disaster strikes Halifax, one of the busiest ports in the world due to the trans-Atlantic convoy system, as a collision between two ships creates the largest manmade explosion to that point in history.

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December 1917.  Canada holds its most contentious federal election yet, as both sides (Union vs. Laurier Liberals) see the outcome as setting the country down an irrevocable path.

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Summer/Fall 1917.  Arthur Currie takes command of the Canadian Corps, but finds it difficult to replicate the success of Vimy Ridge in the mud of Passchendaele.




























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1917. As Quebec roils with anger over the Military Service Act, French Canadians in Ottawa and Windsor clash with police over French language rights in Ontario's schools and churches.

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1917.  On the prairies, the war reinvigorates the politics of minority rights, as Anglophone majorities restrict the use of other languages in schools, and Francophone and Ukrainian communities organize politically.

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1917.  Prime Minister Robert Borden uses every instrument at his disposal to undermine Liberal party cohesion and form a Union government ahead of Canada's first war-time election.

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1917.  A revolution in China (partially funded by contributions from British Columbia) upends life for Chinese-Canadians.

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1917.  With Black Canadians rejected at recruiting offices in suspiciously high numbers, a campaign emerges to form a distinctly black unit within the Canadian Expeditionary Force. 

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1917. After touring the battlefield at Vimy, Prime Minister Robert Borden determines that conscription is necessary to maintain the Canadian Corps, sparking Canada's most divisive debate since Confederation.

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Spring 1917.  All four divisions of the Canadian Corps work together for the first time, demonstrating a distinctively Canadian approach to the conundrum of trench warfare at Vimy Ridge.

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1916  Faced with war-time budget cuts, the Commissioner of Canada's National Parks system, James Harkin, sees an opportunity in labour provided by interned enemy aliens.

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1916.  The residents of Berlin, Ontario face the challenge of being German-Canadians in a nation mobilized for war against Germany.  

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1916.  After two years (and intense study of battlefield conditions), the Canadian Expeditionary Force begins its evolution from colonial auxiliary to vanguard of the British Imperial Army.

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1916. The Newfoundland Regiment finds itself at the centre of the worst day in the history of the British Army.

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1916.  As the Canadian Expeditionary Force matures, its soldiers, officers, and (eventually) the politicians back in Ottawa come to realize it has outgrown its erratic creator, Militia Minister Sam Hughes. 

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1915. A group of writers, journalists and activists based in Winnipeg, score the first victory for Canada's women's suffrage movement.

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The Canadian economy, still reeling from a post-war recession, struggles to meet the production total war demands.

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Spring 1915.  The Canadian government grapples with the fact that over 100,000 residents in the country are foreign nationals, native to countries Canada is now at war with.

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Spring 1915.  The Canadian Expeditionary Force prepares for its first battle outside the Belgian city of Ypres, where, unbeknownst to the Canadians, the Germans make their own preparations to unleash a terrifying new weapon.  

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Summer 1914.  Canadians prepare for a war far from their shores, that will nevertheless change their lives forever. 

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1867-1914.  How did we get here?  Where are we going next?

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Summer 1914.  Ireland teeters on the brink of civil war, re-opening old sectarian divisions in Canada.

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1914. A Sikh businessman charters a Japanese passenger liner to test Canada's anti-Asian immigration laws, while anxious British officials and Indian nationalists look on. 

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1914. In India, the British government attempts to convince a growing independence movement that Indians enjoy all the benefits of subjecthood, including free movement within the Empire.  A key test of that proposition comes in British Columbia.

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Spring 1914.  A disastrous seal hunt raises questions about the growing social and economic inequalities of an industrializing Newfoundland.

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1913.  Over a decade of consistent economic growth comes to an end, souring relations between Ottawa and the provinces, and forcing the military occupation of the Vancouver Island coal district. 

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1912.  Robert Borden finds that his broad coalition (which was so successful on the campaign trail) makes for an unruly government.  Especially with Britain ever more insistent on contributions to the Royal Navy.

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1912.  New regulations on the use of French in Ontario public schools galvanizes the province's growing francophone population and sets off a fresh round of French Canadian nationalism in Quebec.

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1911.  A panic over black settlers moving into western Canada sparks a heated debate on Canada's immigration laws, and the country's racial politics. 

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