Why Don’t They Come?
Canada during World War I was not given much choice as to whether or not to join the war. Once Britain entered the war, Canada was obligated to because they were still a British dominion, and therefore Canada’s foreign policy decisions were made by British Parliament. The war caused a rift in Canada as British Canadians were much more willing to support the war effort, while French Canadians were less willing to get involved in British affairs. For the first part of the war Canada’s force was voluntary, but people of color and different ethnicities were not allowed to volunteer. They were told “this is a white man’s war.”
Propaganda was therefore focused on shaming or guilting men to sign up and fight the war. There was not a lot of propaganda that focused on fear because few believed that the war would ever reach Canada. Propaganda was also geared toward donations to the Canadian Patriotic Fund which helped support the war effort and the families left behind as their men were fighting.
This propaganda poster worked on a number of levels. It played to the guilt of a man who saw it. How could he sit by and watch hockey while a soldier was in desperate need of help? It also suggested that a man who had not volunteered for the war was not really a man because he wasn’t playing a man’s part. Not only did it speak to the men eligible to fight in the war but for those that were not.
The poster gave the sense that any man who did not volunteer for the war was someone who should be shamed for not being a real man and doing his part. The poster is done in yellow because that color gives a sense of warning or immediacy, men are needed now to volunteer because the poor chap in the photo won’t last very long. Posters like this were also meant to help convince the French Canadians that the war was necessary.