tural production by 40%. Canadas involvement inboth World Wars was vital to Canadas independence and todays constant effort forworld peace. The Great War (W.W.I) created many problems that have made Canadasinvolvement in the war seem trivial. Conscription2 was introduced when there were notenough volunteers in Canada to replace those killed or wounded. This was aimed mostlyat Quebecers and French Canadians, who shared the common belief that Canadiansshould not be endangered because of connections to Britain. Many English speakingCanadians viewed this opposition to conscription as unpatriotic. In Quebec, conscriptionbecame a symbol for the tyranny of the English-speaking majority. The bitter feelingscaused by conscription created a unity crisis in Canada that is still evident today. The first world war cost Canada 3 billion dollars. This exceeded the federalbudget by six times what was usually spent. The first income tax was introduced to helppay for this debt. World War II was a slightly more expensive ordeal, costing Canada 20billion dollars. Many argue that this money could have been used to make Canada amore prosperous country, and income tax could have been prevented.The largest and most irreplaceable loss from any war is loss of life. Billions ofchildren grew up in the war era without fathers, brothers, and grandfathers. Otherchildren were never given the chance to meet their fathers before they were slaughteredin trench warfare or taken prisoner. Husbands, sons, and other loved ones were takenfrom innocent citizens by the most extreme act of hate and misunderstanding; war. The cliche In every cloud there is a silver lining applies to both world wars.Before W.W.I Canada was a member of the British Empire and had no control overforeign policy. W.W.I proved that Canada was not just made up of pawns to fight forBritain. The unity crisis created by conscription showed that Canada was developing aseparate culture, with different soverei...
