The khaki election: a new perspective, the Ottawa Valley in 1917
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2005
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Abstract
This thesis centres on voter response to the 1917 election campaign in ten Ottawa Valley ridings, primarily as informed by press rep01ts. By examining the coverage of the campaign, including editorials and advertising, along with personal papers of some of the politicians, this study will illustrate that, despite the accepted notion that Ontario voted for conscription, the Ottawa Valley elections reflected their more diversified electorates. Its contiguous relationship, both physically and culturally, to the province of Quebec, its political traditions, and its multicultural population in an age before multiculturalism, all led voters to express this rite of citizenship in a variety of ways. While some newspapers here sometimes changed established political links, demonstrating the key importance of the press in stating and re-stating the Union Party position, many voters were not persuaded, thus constituting a much larger Liberal vote than is generally acknowledged in the historiography of the election. Most Union victories were by very narrow margins, especially before the addition of the soldiers' votes. Despite the generally accepted idea of the overwhelming support for Unionism and conscription throughout Ontario, this thesis will argue that when examined within the context of the Ottawa Valley, this historical perception does not stand. Many people believed that Unionism was not the only path to patriotism, and supported the Liberal Party, either as a vote against the politics of Robert Borden, or to support the war policies of Wilfrid Laurier. Local Liberals were better organised here than in many other parts of Ontario, allowing them to wage a strong campaign in most Valley ridings.
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Bibliography: p. 137-141
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McSheffrey, M. (2005). The khaki election: a new perspective, the Ottawa Valley in 1917 (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/2508