B. Canada, 1914–1929 · Canada, 1914–1929Canada in 1914: Thinking Like a Historian
B1.1 A1.1 A1.2 A1.4 A1.5 A2.1About 70 minutes
Learning goals- I can describe what Canada was like on the eve of the First World War in 1914.
- I can analyse historical statistics to identify trends, such as urbanization and immigration.
- I can use the four historical thinking concepts to ask strong inquiry questions.
- I can tell primary sources from secondary sources and explain why both matter, including oral traditions.
Words to know
historical inquiry
An investigation into the past that starts with a question and ends with a conclusion supported by evidence.
primary source
A source made at the time being studied, such as a letter, diary, photo, census record, newspaper or oral testimony from someone who was there.
secondary source
A source made later that interprets the past, such as a textbook, documentary or historian's article.
oral tradition
Knowledge, history and teachings passed down by speaking, from one generation to the next, as many First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities do.
census
An official count of a country's people. Canada held a national census every ten years in this period (today it is every five years).
trend
A general direction of change over time, shown by data from several dates.
urbanization
The growth in the share of people living in towns and cities rather than in the countryside.
Dominion
Canada's status in 1914: a self-governing country inside the British Empire, but with Britain still in charge of its foreign policy.
A country on the edge of a storm
Imagine it is summer 1914. You are fifteen. Your family might farm wheat in Saskatchewan, work in a Hamilton steel mill, fish off Nova Scotia, or trap and hunt on your Nation's lands in northern Ontario. Most people you know have never seen a car up close, and almost nobody has a radio (regular radio broadcasting has not started yet). In August, news arrives by telegraph and newspaper: Britain is at war, so Canada is at war.
In the next fifteen years, the country you live in will change more than in almost any other period. This unit follows that story from 1914 to 1929: the First World War, the hard years after it, and the "Roaring Twenties". Before we start, we need two things: a picture of Canada in 1914, and the tools historians use.
Remember from Grade 8
In Grade 8 History you studied Canada, 1890–1914: Laurier and French-English debates, Regulation 17, Sifton's settlement of the West, the Komagata Maru, the Indian Act and residential schools, industrialization, and the women's suffrage and reform movements. In Grade 7 you met primary and secondary sources and the four historical thinking concepts. This course uses the same tools, but at Grade 10 you are expected to build an argument with evidence, not just describe.
Canada in 1914: a snapshot
- Population: about 7.2 million at the 1911 census (Canada today has more than five times as many people).
- Nine provinces: Alberta and Saskatchewan had joined in 1905. Newfoundland was a separate British dominion and did not join Canada until 1949.
- Status: Canada was a Dominion of the British Empire. It ran its own affairs at home, but Britain decided foreign policy, including war and peace.
- Government: Prime Minister Robert Borden (Conservative) had defeated Wilfrid Laurier in 1911.
- Who could vote: in federal elections, mostly men over 21 who were British subjects. Women could not vote federally. Many Asian Canadians were kept off voters' lists by provincial laws, and Status First Nations people generally could not vote unless they gave up their status.
- Economy: farming (especially Prairie wheat), forestry, fishing, mining and a growing factory sector in Ontario and Quebec.
- Peoples: First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities across the land; French Canadians, mostly in Quebec but also in Ontario, New Brunswick and the West; people of British origin; and a wave of newcomers from continental Europe, the United States and, despite barriers, Asia. Black communities had deep roots in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Ontario, and newer ones on the Prairies.
Reading historical statistics
Curriculum expectation B1.1 asks you to analyse historical statistics to find trends. A single number tells you little. A trend appears when you compare numbers from several dates.
Look at the chart below. It uses census results. Ask: What is going up? What is going down? How fast? Why might that be?
Immigration: a trend that broke
The years before the war were the biggest immigration boom in Canadian history. In 1913, 400 870 immigrants arrived, the highest yearly total ever recorded up to that time. In 1915, during the war, only 36 665 arrived. Immigration recovered in the 1920s but never returned to the 1913 peak in this period (you will see the full data in the immigration lesson).
Numbers like these lead to good inquiry questions: Why did immigration collapse during the war? Who still came? Where did newcomers settle, and how were they treated?
The historian's toolkit
1. Ask a good question. Historians use different types of questions:
- Factual: What was the Military Service Act?
- Comparative: How did the war affect women in Quebec compared with women in Ontario?
- Causal: Why did the government introduce conscription in 1917?
- Evaluative: How significant was the Battle of Vimy Ridge for Canadian identity?
Evaluative and causal questions are the strongest for an inquiry, because they need evidence and judgement.
2. Gather evidence from primary and secondary sources. For 1914–1929 you can use letters home from soldiers, war posters, census tables, newspapers, photographs, government reports, recorded interviews, and oral traditional knowledge shared by First Nations, Métis and Inuit Knowledge Keepers. Oral history is evidence too: many Indigenous communities have kept their histories accurately by careful telling, and historians increasingly treat these accounts with the same respect as written records.
3. Ask whose voices are missing. Governments and newspapers left many records. Workers, women, racialized communities and Indigenous peoples often left fewer written records, or their records were not kept. A careful historian goes looking for them.
4. Build a conclusion and communicate it in an essay, presentation, infographic or other format, citing your sources.
| Source | Primary or secondary? | What it can tell you | What to watch for |
|---|
| A 1916 recruiting poster | Primary | How the government tried to persuade men to enlist | Propaganda: designed to persuade, not to inform |
| A soldier's letter home, 1917 | Primary | One person's experience and feelings | One view; may hide hard details to protect family |
| 1921 census table | Primary | Population, birthplace, language, jobs | Who was counted, and how categories were chosen |
| An Elder's account passed down in her family | Primary (oral tradition) | A community's experience, often missing from government records | Listen respectfully; compare with other accounts as with any source |
| A 2017 documentary about Vimy | Secondary | An overview and an interpretation | Whose interpretation? What sources did it use? |
Worked exampleModelled example: Turning statistics into a trend statement
Use the rural percentages 55% (1911), 51% (1921) and 46% (1931) to write a trend statement with a possible cause and an inquiry question.
- Describe the direction: the rural share went down in every census.
- Describe the size: it fell 4 points from 1911 to 1921 and 5 points from 1921 to 1931, so the change was steady and slightly faster in the 1920s.
- Notice a turning point: below 50% means most people were now urban. That happened between 1921 and 1931.
- Suggest a cause (as a hypothesis, not a fact): factory jobs during the war and the growth of manufacturing in the 1920s may have drawn people to cities; farm machinery meant farms needed fewer workers.
- Write an inquiry question: Why did Canada become a mainly urban country between 1921 and 1931, and how did this change daily life?
Trend statement: "Between 1911 and 1931, the share of Canadians living in rural areas fell steadily, from 55% to 46%. By 1931 most Canadians lived in towns and cities." A trend statement gives direction, size and time; the cause is a hypothesis to test with more evidence.
Inquiry tip: statistics need context
A number is a primary source too, and it can mislead. The census defined "urban" in a particular way. Some groups (for example, people living on the land in remote areas) were harder to count accurately. Always ask: Who collected this, how, and why?
Just for funHistorians and detectives have the same favourite question: "How do you know?" The difference is that a historian's witnesses have been gone for a hundred years, so they cannot change their story.
Hands-on activityYour family's 1914 snapshot
You need: paper, a pencil, and a grown-up or older relative to talk to (a phone call works).
- Ask: Where were our family members, or the people of our community, around 1914? (Some families will know; many will not, and that is fine.)
- Write down any evidence you have: a story, a photo, a document, an object, a place name. Label each one primary or secondary.
- If you do not know, choose your town or neighbourhood instead and ask: Who lived here in 1914? Whose land is this? Look up the First Nations whose traditional territory you live on.
- Write two inquiry questions about your family or place between 1914 and 1929: one causal (why) and one evaluative (how significant / how much).
Look for: at least two pieces of evidence labelled correctly, and questions that cannot be answered with just yes or no.
Your turn
1About how many people lived in Canada at the 1911 census?
2Why could Canada not decide on its own to stay out of the war in 1914?
Canada was a Dominion of the British Empire. Britain controlled its foreign policy, so when Britain declared war on 4 August 1914, Canada was legally at war too. (Canada could decide how much to contribute.)
3Who was Prime Minister of Canada in 1914?
Sir Robert Borden (Conservative), Prime Minister from 1911 to 1920.
4Is a 1921 census table a primary or secondary source? Explain.
Primary. It was created at the time, by the government, from information people gave in 1921.
5What trend do the rural percentages 55%, 51%, 46% (1911, 1921, 1931) show?
A steady decline in the rural share: Canada was urbanizing. By 1931 most people lived in towns and cities.
6Name the four historical thinking concepts.
Historical significance, cause and consequence, continuity and change, historical perspective.
7Why should historians treat oral traditional knowledge as evidence?
Many First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities have passed down accurate histories by careful oral telling. These accounts often record experiences that government documents left out. Like any source, they are compared with other evidence, and they deserve respect.
8Write one evaluative inquiry question about Canada between 1914 and 1929.
Example: How significant was the First World War in changing the role of women in Canada? Evaluative questions ask how significant, how much, or to what extent.
More practice: warm-up
1In what year did Alberta and Saskatchewan become provinces?
2Was Newfoundland part of Canada in 1914?
No. It was a separate dominion and joined Canada in 1949.
A general direction of change over time, shown by comparing data from several dates.
4How many immigrants arrived in Canada in 1913?
400 870, the highest yearly total recorded up to that time.
5Is a recent documentary about the First World War a primary or secondary source?
Secondary: it was made long after the events and interprets them.
More practice: on your own
1Immigration was 400 870 in 1913 and 36 665 in 1915. Describe the change and suggest a cause.
Immigration fell by more than 90% (36 665 is about 9% of 400 870). A likely cause: the war made ocean travel dangerous, many people in Europe were called to fight, and Canada restricted people from enemy countries.
2Turn this factual question into a causal question: "When did most Canadians become city dwellers?"
Example: Why did most Canadians become city dwellers between 1921 and 1931? A causal question asks why something happened.
3A recruiting poster from 1915 says every brave man is joining up. Why should you be careful using it as evidence of how most men felt?
It is propaganda, made by the government or its supporters to persuade, not to describe reality. It shows what the government wanted men to feel, not what they actually felt. You would need letters, diaries or enlistment numbers to check.
4Give one reason the voices of factory workers or Indigenous communities may be harder to find in archives from 1914.
These groups had less power, so their records were often not collected or kept by governments and archives; some communities kept their histories orally rather than in written documents that archives stored.
5Explain how the same event could be significant in different ways for two groups. Use urbanization as your example.
For a young person moving to a city factory job, urbanization meant new wages and opportunities. For a farming community, it meant losing young workers and population. Significance depends on who you ask; historians look at several groups.
Challenge
1Canada's population grew from 7.2 million (1911) to 10.4 million (1931). Calculate the percentage increase and explain one thing this number does NOT tell you.
Increase = 10.4 − 7.2 = 3.2 million. 3.2 ÷ 7.2 ≈ 0.44, so about 44%. It does not tell you why (births vs. immigration), where people lived, or who grew or declined. For example, it hides the very different experiences of different communities.
2A classmate says: "Government records are more reliable than oral history because they are written down." Evaluate this claim.
Partly wrong. Written records can be biased (they reflect the government's goals) and incomplete (they often leave out Indigenous peoples, women, workers). Oral histories can be very accurate and record what officials ignored. Both kinds of source must be checked for perspective and compared with other evidence; neither is automatically more reliable.
3Write a strong inquiry question for this unit, and explain which historical thinking concept it uses and what two kinds of sources you would use.
Example: To what extent did the First World War change Canada's relationship with Britain? It uses continuity and change (and significance). Sources: primary documents such as the Treaty of Versailles signatures and speeches by Borden; secondary sources such as a historian's article on Canadian autonomy. Any well-formed answer with a concept and two source types is fine.
Quiz
1. In 1914, which body decided whether Canada was at war?
2. Which is a primary source about the First World War?
3. The rural share of Canada's population was 55% (1911), 51% (1921) and 46% (1931). What trend does this show?
4. Which question is evaluative?
5. Which historical thinking concept asks, "How did people at the time see this event?"
6. Why do historians value oral traditional knowledge from First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities?
What this lesson does: it sets the scene for the unit Canada, 1914–1929 and introduces Strand A (Historical Inquiry). In this course students are expected to ask questions, gather and judge evidence, and write conclusions, not just memorize facts.
How to help: Ask your teen to explain the four historical thinking concepts in their own words. Share any family stories, photos or documents from around 1914–1929; they make excellent primary sources. If your family is not from Canada, the same questions work for your family's country of origin and are equally valuable.
Common difficulties:
- Calling any old-looking document "primary": the test is when and by whom it was made, not how old it looks.
- Writing trend statements without dates and direction.
- Treating a statistic as a fact that needs no questioning.
Curriculum note: Ontario revised Canadian History since World War I (CHC2D) for 2026–27. The specific expectation codes in this unit follow the published B1.1–B3.4 structure; where the 2026 wording could not be checked, the 2018 wording was used.