Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden speaks to troops while on a visit to Seaford Camp on 11 August 1918. Borden believed that the sacrifice of the Canadian forces in the field would require Britain to renegotiate with Canada after the war on full sovereignty. But the extreme war effort Borden encouraged in pursuit of victory led to conscription, one of the most traumatic events in Canadian history. Canada would achieve post-war autonomy, as Borden had hoped, but it came at great human cost and after the war had created deep social and political divisions in many parts of the country.
George Metcalf Archival Collection
CWM 19940003-060
Canada and the First World War
