The First World War and the vote for women

Luz is thirty-nine. She came from Colombia and works at a dental office in Mississauga. It's early November. A coworker hands her a small red poppy and says, for Remembrance Day. Luz pins it to her coat. On the bus home she wonders, what does the poppy really mean? And why November eleventh?

So here's the question. What did Canada do in the First World War, and when did women win the vote? Remember, this is a free, independent course. It is not a government course.

The official study guide, Discover Canada, covers this in its chapter called Canada's History. Before the big war, more than seven thousand Canadians volunteered for the South African War, from eighteen ninety-nine to nineteen oh-two. Then came the First World War, from nineteen fourteen to nineteen eighteen. More than six hundred thousand Canadians served, out of a population of only eight million.

In April nineteen seventeen, the Canadians captured Vimy Ridge. About ten thousand were killed or wounded. The guide quotes one man who was there. He said he saw the birth of a nation. April ninth is Vimy Day. In nineteen eighteen, Canadians helped win the Battle of Amiens. Their commander was General Sir Arthur Currie. The guide calls him Canada's greatest soldier.

The war ended with the Armistice, on November eleventh, nineteen eighteen. Sixty thousand Canadians were killed, and one hundred and seventy thousand were wounded. There was also a hard chapter at home. From nineteen fourteen to nineteen twenty, more than eight thousand people were held in labour camps as enemy aliens. Most were Ukrainian men from the old Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Now, Luz's question. Remembrance Day is November eleventh, the day the First World War ended in nineteen eighteen. We remember those who served and died in all of Canada's wars. We wear the red poppy. We keep a moment of silence at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae wrote the poem In Flanders Fields in nineteen fifteen.

These years also changed who could vote. Doctor Emily Stowe, the first woman to practise medicine in Canada, started the movement for women's right to vote. In nineteen sixteen, Manitoba became the first province to give women the vote. In nineteen seventeen, some women got the federal vote. In nineteen eighteen, most women citizens aged twenty-one and over could vote in federal elections.

In nineteen twenty-one, Agnes Macphail, a farmer and teacher, became the first woman elected to Parliament. Quebec gave women the vote in nineteen forty, thanks to Thérèse Casgrain and others. After the war, the British Empire grew into the Commonwealth. The stock market crash of nineteen twenty-nine led to the Great Depression. In nineteen thirty-four, the Bank of Canada was created.

Let's make it stick. Eleven, eleven, eleven. The eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month. Hold up one finger on each hand, side by side. That looks like eleven. Say it three times.

Here's a common confusion. Vimy Day and Remembrance Day are different days. Vimy Day is April ninth, for the battle at Vimy Ridge. Remembrance Day is November eleventh, for everyone who served and died in all our wars. April for Vimy. November for everyone.

The mistake people make is thinking all women got the vote at the same time. It came step by step. Manitoba first, in nineteen sixteen. Most women, for federal elections, in nineteen eighteen. Quebec in nineteen forty.

Here's the one thing to remember. We wear the poppy to remember those who served and died in wars. We pause at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

This week, read the First World War part of the Canada's History chapter. When November eleventh comes, stop for a minute of silence. Next time, the Second World War, and the years after it.