Boosters and Barkers: Financing Canada’s Involvement in the First World War
David Roberts
Nov 2023 · UBC Press
Ebook
408
Pages
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About this ebook
“Stick it, Canada! Buy more Victory Bonds.” The First World War demanded deep personal sacrifice on the battlefield and on the home front – and it also made unrelenting financial demands. Boosters and Barkers is a highly original examination of the drive to finance Canadian participation in the conflict. David Roberts examines Ottawa’s calls for direct public contributions in the form of war bonds; the intersections with imperial funding, taxation, and conventional revenue; and the substantial fiscal implications of participation in the conflict during and after the war. Canada’s bond campaigns used print, images, and music to sell both the war and public engagement. They received an astounding response, generating revenue to cover almost a third of the country’s total war costs, which were estimated at $6.6 billion – a dramatic charge on a dominion so far from the front. This story is one of inexorable need, shrewd propaganda, resistance, engagement, and long-term consequences.
About the author
David Roberts is a retired editor of the Dictionary of Canadian Biography/Dictionnaire biographique du Canada. In addition to writing many entries for the DCB, he is also the author of In the Shadow of Detroit: Gordon M. McGregor, Ford of Canada, and Motoropolis. He lives in Don Mills, Ontario.
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