Boosters and Barkers Financing Canada's Involvement in the First World War

How bond campaigns used coercive, modern marketing techniques to sell Canadians on the First World War.

“Stick it, Canada! Buy more Victory Bonds!” The First World War demanded deep personal sacrifice in the field and at home, even when home was far from the front. It also made unrelenting financial demands on both the governments and populations of Canada and Newfoundland. Boosters and Barkers is a highly original examination of the drive to finance Canadian participation in the conflict: Ottawa’s calls for direct public contributions in the form of war bonds; the intersections with imperial funding, taxation, and conventional revenue; and the substantial fiscal implications of participation in the conflict during and after the war. Canada’s bond-selling campaigns used print, images, and music to sell both the war and public engagement. They received an astounding response, generating revenue that covered almost a third of the country’s total war costs, which were estimated at $6.6 billion— a dramatic charge on a dominion so far from the front. This is a story of inexorable need, shrewd propaganda, resistance, engagement, and long-term consequences.

David Roberts is a retired editor of the Dictionary of Canadian Biography/Dictionnaire biographique du Canada and the author of In the Shadow of Detroit: Gordon M. McGregor, Ford of Canada, and Motoropolis.