Pierre Trudeau

 “If Canada is to survive, it can only survive in mutual respect and in love with one another “ (Pierre Trudeau 1976).  This quote shows how much Trudeau wanted Canadians to be treated as equals.  Trudeau had a vision for Canada, where all people were treated equally.  Throughout his stay in Parliament he had made huge steps for women's rights, decriminalized homosexuality, attempted to help aboriginal's and made multiculturalism and bilingualism government policies.  Pierre showed through his actions that he valued the equality of all people.  Shown by this quote he feels that Canada will only survive and prosper if all people could be accepted and given equal rights.

Women's Wartime Role

During World War two women were no longer just expected to run the house they were now asked to join the workforce working in the factories to take over the positions of the men who left for war.  The government campaigned to recruit women into paid workforce, they began targeting unmarried women but by 1943 had began to recruit all women.  Women would work in factories producing ammunition for the war.  The decision to bring women into the work force had made the first step in creating the Royal Commission on the Status of Women, this government sponsored group began fighting for women and men to have equal rights.  

   Once the war began winding to an end women were laid off and were supposed to go back to their regular duties tending to the house and family.  This left some women devastated but others said they they were happy to return to regular life but regardless they all made the best of it.  Without the women taking on these roles and responsibilities we wouldn't have been as successful in the war as we were, and who knows what would of happened to women''s rights today if they never took part in the war efforts.

King and Conscription

Before Canadian troops were sent overseas to fight in World War Two Mackenzie King had made a promise that there would be no conscription, but what they hadn't anticipated was the number of men that died each day could not be replaced.  Fewer men were willing to sign up to fight and the French Canadians refused to fight in an Imperial war they would stay and defend the Canadian land.  As numbers got dangerously low King was faced with a problem, with the issue of not enough men willing to go and fight he began to fear that he would have to go back on his word that there would be no conscription.  As he toyed with the idea he soon discovered that there would be a divide between English and French Canadians, English Canadians agreed with King in the idea of having a conscription but the French refused King was now caught at a crossroad on what to do.  With the number of men on the front lines decreasing more and more everyday he had to make up his mind and soon.  King finally made up his mind and finalized conscription but to cater to the French Canadians it was a no overseas conscription.  Finally he had come to a decision.  I feel that King was a loyal man not wanting to create the divide knowing how the French felt about going overseas but he also knew he had to do what was best for Canada by agreeing to conscription.  

The cause of the great depression

In 1929 the Wall street stock market crashed causing millions of dollars to be lost.  This started the Great Depression and the decade called the 'Dirty thirties'.  Due to the crash investors started to sell their stocks for very cheap, prices had fallen 50%.  Thousands of people had invested money into the stock market and when it crashed it left these people with next to no money with no food and families to feed.  People became so desperate they began stealing food just to be able to feed their families, many people turned to family members, churches and private charities for any help they could get.  People were hit so hard because they didn't see it coming the decline of the market was so immediate and so fast it was such a surprise to many leaving people poor and no where to turn.  Many men had left their families to go to government funded work camps to do hard manual labour to next to no money but it was better than nothing. Once World War Two began the economy started to increase, jobs in factories to support the war were created and enlisting to the war paid good money.  It took people years to start to regain their money and possessions they lost as well as recover from the devastation of  World War Two.

Prisoners of war

During the War in the Pacific Japan launched a surprise attack on the US military at Pearl Harbour Hawaii, which caused the Second World War to grow into another huge world wide conflict.  In September 1941 Winston Churchill the Prime Minister of Britain asked Canada if they would send troops to Hong Kong which was another colony of Britain.  Canada agreed and sent 2000 troops over to help defend Hong Kong during the war.  A few hours after the attack on Pearl Harbour Japanese troops invaded Hong Kong but the allies were out numbered 50,000 to 15,000 after 17 days of fighting the British Commander surrendered on Christmas day.  Although the battle had ended another battle for the soldiers that survived and civilians began many were tortured, raped and killed 1685 Canadian soldiers were imprisoned and faced harsh treatments they struggled to stay alive on starvation diets and being tortured and were forced into labour.  A total of 567 Canadian soldiers died 300 in battle but 267 as prisoners of war.

https://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1366&bih=677&q=prisoners+of+war&oq=pr
isoners+of+war&gs_l=img.3..0l10.1263.6728.0.7751.18.14.2.2.3.0.597.2009.12j5-2.14.0...0.0...1ac.1.8.img.6gEph5fKJbk#hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=prisoners+
of+war+ww2&oq=prisoners+of+war+ww2&gs_l=img
.3..0j0i5l8j0i24.11764.13162.0.13674.4.4.0.0.0.0.
105.321.3j1.4.0...0.0...1c.1.8.img.B5eSJfZAD8k&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&bvm=bv.44990110,d.dmQ&fp=7b48a8e1881777ca&bi
w=1366&bih=677&imgrc=7vvixlGWXO0ARM%3A%3BJpnzTyKBOuzMuM%3Bhttp%253A
%252F%252Fwww.japanfocus.org%252Fdata%252F1_POWs_at_Aso_Yoshikuma.JPG%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Famparomiguez.ifunnyblog.com%252Faustrali
anprisonersofww2%252F%3B699%3B425

St. Louis

In the 1930's in Nazi Germany 937 Jews boarded the St. Louis ship on its way to Cuba in hopes to escape the risk of being captured by the Nazi's. Once they arrived in Cuba they realized that not all could be accommodated, the ship then started to make it's way to Canada in hopes that they would find refuge there.  When they arrived they were turned away due to the discrimination of the Jews that was going on in Canada.  This reveals that Canada's identity during this time period was cowardly.  Canada's identity was cowardly because when the Jews arrived and desperately needed a safe place to stay Canada said no. But once they realized the severity of their situation they then begged the government to let them come to Canada, King stayed silent because of the fear that he would lose future votes. With no where to turn the St. Louis went back to Europe.  England, Belgium and the Netherlands agreed to take in the Jews.  This shows that when Canada was needed the most they turned their backs because they were to scared of what would happen to them and the thoughts of other countries.  If Canada had taken in the passengers of the St. Louis hundreds of lives could have been saved.   

Canadian identity

The Maple Tree represents the Canadian identity because all though we have grown as country and a society we all have one thing in common and that is our roots.  Like the branches on the tree they grow and go their separate ways but stay connected by the roots of the tree.















https://www.google.ca/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=W_ugS9ZkHOMwNM&tbnid=_ejFPghmwgzzvM:&ved=0CAQQjB0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmorningcoffeewithterra.blogspot.com%2F2012%2F09%2Fthe-little-maple-tree.html&ei=r7sbUfCtF6qp0AGxjoCYBw&bvm=bv.42261806,d.dmQ&psig=AFQjCNGMJ3CUbBHVs6j1qa0x5M7xEftz6Q&ust=1360858413878293