In our modern era of hyper-partisan, divisive political affairs, Canadians might be forgiven for believing that politics in this country have been on a slow descent over the last generation. It is hard to remember that things were far worse one hundred years ago, as Canadians marched to the polls during the great wartime election of Dec. 17, 1917.

The election took place in the worst year of the First World War. The campaign took place at a time that is impossible to imagine today.

More than 10,000 Canadians had already died that year at Vimy Ridge, Hill 70 and Passchendaele alone. The Bolshevik Revolution was unfolding in Russia and everyone knew the war was about to get much worse. It was beginning to look like the war to end all wars would never end at all. Then, two weeks before the election, Halifax was almost completely destroyed in a massive explosion.

All across the country English and French Canadians angrily debated the issue of conscription with the English demanding full participation in what they were calling “Canada’s War.” French Canadians responded that Canada’s army could do its job with volunteers. For them, the war had little to do with Canada and that English Canada had no right to ask for more sacrifice while language rights were being suppressed in Ontario schools. Riots broke out across Quebec all through the summer of 1917.

To win, Conservative Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden descended to political tactics that seem almost impossible to imagine – let alone tolerate – today. He asked Sir Wilfrid Laurier to join a “Unionist” government in order to avoid an election. Laurier turned down the offer of a coalition, so Borden chose another path to victory.

In September 1917, the Conservative government passed two laws which effectively rearranged who could vote in the upcoming election.

First, the Military Voters Act enfranchised all British subjects in the Canadian military regardless of their age, as well as any non-Canadian serving in the armed forces. Second, the Wartime Elections Act gave the vote to Canadian women, but only to those who had a close relative in the military. Most French-Canadian women were thus not allowed to vote. Immigrants who had come from countries now at war with Canada since 1902 were also disenfranchised. With these two laws, Borden engineered an election victory.

Normally it is the people choosing the government; in 1917 it was the government who chose the people.

Borden got his wish and a Union Government was formed with Liberals from provinces across the country except Quebec. The effect was divisive. In Quebec, the Liberals appeared to dominate hearts and headlines. Conversely, Borden and the Unionists barely campaigned in Quebec and instead campaigned against Quebec – the “foul blot on Canada.” All across the country Canadians were told that a victory for Laurier and the Liberals would be a victory for the Kaiser.

The campaign was fought on the issue of conscription but it was decided on the basis of identity. Eighty-six per cent of eligible voters marched to the polling stations. It was a rate never seen before or again equaled in the history of this nation, driven by voting women in English Canada. Borden had his victory – but the country was split right down the middle.

Quebec’s sense of isolation within Canada was complete. Three weeks later, a member of the Quebec Legislative Assembly stated that Quebec “would be disposed to accept the breaking of the Confederation Pact of 1867 if, in the other provinces, it is believed that she is an obstacle to the union, progress and development of Canada.” It was the first time Quebec separation was debated in the legislature. The symbolism of the motion is still with us a hundred years later.

The 1917 election was the last victory for the idea of a “British Canada.” Borden and his supporters were determined to win at any cost even if he had to rally all British Canadians — both men and women — against French Canadians, “foreigners,” slackers, and anyone else not fully supporting conscription.

The “Union Government” won the election, and, emboldened by a sweeping victory delivered by the majority ethnic group of English Canadians, pushed through conscription over the opposition of the “non-British” population.

The “Union” proved artificial. Canada never endured a moment so marked by rancour and violence and never before or after did the country come so close to the brink of destruction.

The 1917 election dissolved the two-party domination of Canadian politics. In its time, it was interpreted as both the justified victory of a bipartisan effort to transcend politics and to unite the country. Since then it has been recast as an object lesson that, in politics, the ends do not always justify the means.

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That Canada survived was a political miracle. It is a testament to the strong bonds that had been created over the previous 50 years: links of economics, culture, and civil society that were able to withstand a divisive vote on the very legitimacy of the country.

Patrice Dutil is Professor of Politics and Public Administration and David MacKenzie is Professor of History at Ryerson University. They recently published “Embattled Nation: Canada’s Wartime Election of 1917.”