Contemporary Accounts

During the First World War, news reached Canadian newspapers through wire services. This bulletin contained British and French official reports, and information gleaned from German sources.

An Edmonton radio station compiled this almanac of events of the Second World War, beginning with British leaders attending talks in Rome on 11 January 1939 and ending with changes to the butter ration on 14 December 1946.

British nurse Sarah Arnold kept a diary while she worked at Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading during the First World War but instead of writing in it herself, she asked her patients (including some wounded Canadian soldiers) to write of their experiences. After the war, Arnold married John Bridgman of Aberdeen, Saskatchewan, one of the soldiers she had nursed.

This masthead of this First World War magazine told readers everything they needed to know about its editorial position: "Patriotism - Union - Victory ; Written and Edited Without Remuneration ; Devoted Entirely to Propaganda for the War."

The first contingent of the Canadian Expeditionary Force came together at Valcartier, Quebec, in September 1914 - and enterprising entrepreneurs were quick to produce souvenirs to sell to a willing public.

Journalist Fernand Rinfret, later a member of parliament and mayor of Montreal, took part in a press junket to Britain and France in 1918, and wrote about his impressions of the war zones in an Ottawa newspaper, "Le Canada."

A year after the 1917 election, Newton Rowell, president of the Privy Council in the Union Government, surveyed its achievements, including the institution of conscription, and applauded the Liberals (like himself) who went over to the Union side.

In this booklet published during the 1917 election campaign, Boyd called for Canadian voters to reject the Union Government and "shatter the trenches of deception, special privilege, political autocracy and narrow-minded fanaticism."

Although the war was only a few months old, Canadians already had access to a selection of diplomatic communiques and government papers relating to the declaration of war and Canada's contribution to the imperial war effort.

After Minister of Militia and Defence Sam Hughes was ousted from the government of Sir Robert Borden in 1916, the federal Liberal Party published a series of letters that attempted to discredit the government's conduct in the episode.