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10. The Great War Soldier as "Nation Builder" in Canada and Australia
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10 The Great War Soldier as "Nation Builder" in Canada and Australia JEFFREY KESHEN In the 1999 Canada Day edition of Maclean's magazine, two of the country's most prominent historians, J.L. Granatstein and Norman Hillmer, selected the Battle of Vimy Ridge as first among 25 events that contributed to the formation of modern Canada. Although lamenting more than 3,000 dead and 7,000wounded and though noting, in contrast to most earlier work, that this victory by the Canadian Corps did not produce a great breakthrough for the Allies, still they wrote of a stupendous triumph thatforged anational spirit that "ma[de]Canada into a nation".1 Writing in the National Post about half a year later, the well-known Canadian literary critic Robert Fulford,in a review of a Britishbook,The Pity of War, by Biall Ferguson, who cast the 1914-18 conflict as the "greatest error of modern history/'carped that "all my life I have been reading that Canada became a nation on the battlefields of France". In light ofthedeep and long-lasting French-English divide over conscription and the loss of so many young and promising lives, Fulford contends the Great War should be reclassifiedas "the unmaking ofCanada as much as the making".2 Responding to Fulford, historians David Bercuson and JonathonVancecorrectlyargue that Canadian historians havenot glossed over the divisiveness caused by the Great War - a plethora of work testifies tothat3 - and that the linkbetween this conflict and theflowering 796 SHAPING NATIONS of Canadian nationalism is undeniable. "What did happen", asserts Bercuson, "was that the sacrifices, and the triumphs, of the Canadian Corps gave Prime Minister Borden the leverage to win constitutional equality for Canada within the Empire",4 a process evident, for example, in Resolution IXdeclared by the Imperial War Cabinet in 1917 classifying Canada and the other self-governing dominions asautonomous members of the Empire with a right to ongoing consultation. This paper does not dispute that link. Canada's mammoth contribution of600,000men and its loss of 60,000 young lives out of a population of 8 million did generate national pride and the determination that Britain respect Canadian concerns and views, and certainly helps explain the rapid growth of Canadian autonomy following the war. However, it is also a link constructed upon glorified accounts of Canada's Great War soldiers, accounts first articulated by wartime propagandists, that still calls forth the use of romanticized high diction and, by ascribing transcendent and often superhuman characteristics to these men, obscures this part of Canada's past. While trade and migration flows between Canada and Australia have always remained weak, this is not the case with respect to national memories of the Great War. A new nation - only 13 years old in 1914 had something toproveboth to the mother country and to itself. This was achieved through Australia's Great War soldiers who, according to the standard story,through stupendous feats ofarms,particularlyatGallipoli, generated the type ofsentiment that transformed the new federation into a true nation. Both Canada and Australia possessed a disposition toward the advancement and acceptance of this pumped up view. A strong imperialist creed prevailed in each country that was very much evident, for example, from their enthusiastic response to assist Britain during the BoerWar.5 ButlinkagestoBritain,besidesbeing builtuponblood, cultural and trade ties and the perceived need for military protection, were also premised upon the notion of demonstrating national qualities, gaining respect and thus rising in status within the Empire. There prevailed in Canada and Australia the belief that their population possessed the stuff to make important contributions to imperial campaigns. Canadian imperialists often emphasized the country's northern qualities, namely how a rough and demanding climateproduced apeople characterizedby "energy, strength, self-reliance, health and purity".6 In Australia, the prototypewas thebushmanor digger (i.e.,miner orprospector),"a person [3.91.19.28] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 11:05 GMT) THE GREAT WAR SOLDIER AS "NATION BUILDER" 197 IN CANADA AND AUSTRALIA whose roots lie in the outback," and was portrayed as "improvising, tough, taciturn [and] who will stick tohis mates through thick and thin".7 Such young men, and many others who were rather less impressive, flocked to recruitingbooths in August 1914 toprove their mettle, seek out adventure, defend the Empire,preserve democracyorsimply obtain ajob. However, to buoy patriotism and the willingness to sacrifice among all people as the scope ofthe conflict and the demands itplaced upon citizens expanded rapidly, each country created an apparatus for information...