The Allies endured a most dreadful year. England suffered one drubbing after another. Amidst the most woeful term of the duration, Canada found solace in her cherished Corps. The country held her “ever-victorious Corps” in immeasurable esteem. Currie penned to Ontario’s premier, a Mr. Hearst, The year 1917 has been a glorious year for the Canadian Corps. We have taken every objective from the enemy we started for and have not had a single reverse… I know that no other Corps has had the same unbroken series of successes. Canada boasted the top fortified region of the front. Her intention was to preserve Vimy and locale.
Officers were allotted leaves they had not foreseen in order to nurture Union government. The army was un-cheery about waging one battle to attend to another. High-ranking veteran soldiers were given furlough for as much as a month to visit England. Numerous family men obtained permission to return to loved ones. Others were granted passes to care for ill relatives. Many of the men on leave would not don their uniform afresh.
Across the dominion, striation of Liberals and Conservatives all but disappeared. The country had been reduced to Protestant Good Britishers fighting for a colony to achieve autonomy against Roman Catholic Canadiens defending the most abused province of the Empire. Letters to the front, circulars to government, and cries at political rallies voiced the loss of innocence, betrayal of the most sordid election, and abandonment of heritage Canada would know in its history.
I refuse to be like those dastardly English, who would do well to remember that ladies do not lower themselves to such a thing as voting… French Officers do not receive the same amount of dignity and respect as their English counterparts do. Sixty eight Commanding Officers make up the Corps. Solely one is Francophone… English Canada forgot about us far before the effort… Radicals are trying take over French Canada… will stand against conscription “to the death”… The new law is a plebiscite… England is again controlling Ontario, as though the province has reverted back to being Upper Canada… We would prefer to have a civil war than to wage war for His Majesty… In our beloved Quebec, our women are being shamed. They do not want the vote and have too much honour for such a notion; church and government will unite to protect them… Revolution will come first and conscription secondly… Les Canadiens have pulled more than their weight for this wretched war and were dragged into it unfairly… The other side’s politicians can’t be trusted… should stand in solidarity with their people, not against them… evil… Our families have dealt with too much bloodshed, and the other side can’t be made to see reason… Crusade… yellow-backs… They would do well to remember their heritage… Defeat cannot be accepted… What they’re doing is treason… Those Roman Catholic priests are surely to blame for leading their people astray… Union government needs to stay in power at all costs… Those slacker Canadiens should do their duty or be told to get out of the country… British Canada will fight to the end… French, foreigner, and shirker are surely synonyms of one another now… German victory is close on our heels… Our dear boys… The King cannot be insulted by his glorious colony refusing conscription… Those with cushy appointments staying behind… Bourassa, Laurier, and Quebec cannot control our Canada… Fighting for the splendid ones overseas will never stop… The old rag cannot be dishonored; conscription needs to come to pass.
The exhausted soldiers, almost all of whom had bronchitis, wrote back letters during the most frigid France in living memory, Lynching ought to be done to the French!… Conscription is the only issue that counts until the effort ends… Women should obtain the vote, at least the ones serving. They can stand surgery as well as any man and have proven their weight in gold… AND TO THE CANADIANS WHO DO NOT VOTE! THEY’RE WORSE THAN THE FRENCH! COWARDS OF THE EMPIRE! TRAITORS TO OUR DEMOCRACY! A BOLDFACED INSULT TO THE WOMEN AND COLOURED MEN WHO ARE DENIED THE VOTE BUT WHO TAKE THOSE GUTLESS, YELLOW, BASTARDS’ PLACES ON THE FRONT LINES! AND AN IRREVOCABLE OFFENSE AGAINST THE GALLANT MEN WHO ARE BUTCHERED IN THE GAS-LADEN, MAGGOTY, AND RAT-INFESTED FIELDS OF EUROPE!
Soldiers cast their ballots in informal groups, outside on piles of logs. Officers told their men whom to vote for. Officers also informed troops at large what ridings needed more Union support, after which soldiers allocated their votes to any region they chose to help win ridings. Thousands of soldiers who were not yet legally adults voted. Coloured servicemen, including Indigenous men, were authorized as well. Military votes were sent to England to tally as irreparable damage would be done should the ships convoying the ballots be torpedoed.
December 17th dawned unclouded and crisp from nearly coast-to-coast.
Automobiles became nuisances in cities, and sleighs were used in farming communities amidst the snow.
The Montreal Star, Montreal Gazette, and La Patrie offices were boarded up and policemen stood at the ready, but little unrest was found.
Five hundred thousand women, registered or not, cast their initial federal ballot. At the polls, females asked for the name of their party leader or who was championing conscription. Some voted how their fallen husbands always had, regardless of who was pro-conscription. Others voted for Borden’s party, even if their husband had not previously done so. Daughters were chaperoned by fathers to deter discordance. Nearly nine in ten eligible Canadians and Canadiens, an unheard figure the country had never seen nor would see again, cast their ballot against cowardice.
As the infamy, scandal, betrayal, and endless, fruitless slaughter drew to a close, The Khaki Election crowned what was the worst year history would write for Canada. The Tuesday morning saw the country dash to read the headlines.