Boosters and Barkers

Many others promoted the campaigns to support the Allied war effort, but it took White’s financial wizardry to maintain the momentum despite detractors. Henri Bourassa, editor of the respected Montreal daily Le Devoir, was a steady critic who expressed concerns that White was not dealing effectively with war profiteers. Other Quebecers were concerned with Borden’s conscription measures and order-in-council restrictions on people’s lives, especially the War Measures Act. Some members of the labour movement were also critical, as were socialists like Co-operative Commonwealth Federation founder J.S. Woodsworth and other participants in the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike.

As the quest to secure funds continued, more players entered the arena. They included film stars like “America’s Sweetheart” Mary Pickford (a Canadian) and writers like Robert W. Service, of “The Cremation of Sam McGee” fame, and John McCrae, whose unforgettable wartime poem “In Flanders Fields” appeared repeatedly in loan propaganda. History was invoked in various manners, including Group of Seven artist Frederick H. Varley’s poster painting of Laura Secord, the heroine of the War of 1812. Then there were the many newspaper cartoons, plays, films, vaudeville performances, and songs pushing Canadians to save their money and to buy bonds as a patriotic duty.

Before retirement, Roberts worked for the respected Dictionary of Canadian Biography. So he was well-positioned to fact check White’s reports to Parliament as well as the financial minutiae that had to be painstakingly reviewed to guide readers through behind-the-scenes aspects of the loans saga. Combing through thousands of official reports, diaries, and news stories, he exposed how Canada paid for the war — a task most historians have avoided.

The six war loans he examined raised $2.5 billion and paid for a third of the cost of Canada’s contribution to the war. Added to the total donations are those from the Canadian Patriotic Fund, the Red Cross, the YMCA-YWCA, church fundraising programs, and the controversial advent of income tax. The loans were a tremendous feat that would carry into the Second World War and that later became Canada Savings Bonds.

The one question that might still nag at readers after reading this exhaustive account is, who got rich? It seems that the spoils of the Great War went mostly to the wealthy.