Spreading Revolution

Lenin was not the only one calling for peace in 1917, and Russia wasn’t the only country where revolution was possible. The French Army had mutinied, and German sailors did the same. Strikes by workers in Britain were increasing, and socialists spoke out against the war. President Wilson in America called for peace and published fourteen points that he hoped would lead to a just peace and no more war.

The war had never been popular in Quebec, where many saw it as a European war with little to do with them. Conscription was hated in Quebec, but it was not popular in English-speaking Canada either. Of the more than 400,000 called up for military service under the Conscription Act, 380,510 appealed. Hundreds refused to go and went into hiding to avoid being called up.

One of them, a union activist named Albert “Ginger” Goodwin from the coal mines of Vancouver Island, hid with other men in the hills. The government hunted the men down, and on a hot July day in 1918, Goodwin was shot and killed. The circumstances were suspicious, and Goodwin became a hero to socialists and pacifists across Western Canada.

Even in Canada, there was unrest. By 1917, there were no more volunteers, and the Canadian army in France, despite its victory at Vimy, was being worn down.

Conscription, which meant that every fit man was liable to be called up and sent to fight, was introduced and made law after Prime Minister Borden won the election in December.

An anti-conscription parade in Montreal, 1917