Wartime Elections Act (original) (raw)
The Canadian Wartime Elections Act was a bill passed on September 20, 1917 by the Conservative government of Robert Borden during the Conscription Crisis of 1917 and was instrumental in pushing Liberals to join the Conservatives in the formation of the Canadian Unionist government. While the bill was an explicit attempt to get more votes for the government, it was also the first act giving women the vote in federal elections. After the war, the Act was repealed. Most women (notably not Aboriginal women or those without property) were enfranchised as of 24 May 1918.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| dbo:abstract | The Canadian Wartime Elections Act was a bill passed on September 20, 1917 by the Conservative government of Robert Borden during the Conscription Crisis of 1917 and was instrumental in pushing Liberals to join the Conservatives in the formation of the Canadian Unionist government. While the bill was an explicit attempt to get more votes for the government, it was also the first act giving women the vote in federal elections. The Act gave the vote to the wives, widows, mothers, and sisters of soldiers serving overseas. They were the first women ever to be able to vote in Canadian federal elections and were also a group that was strongly in favour of conscription. The act also disenfranchised "enemy-alien" citizens naturalized after March 31, 1902 (unless they had relatives serving in the armed forces); this meaning primarily German, Ukrainian, and Polish Canadians (former subjects of the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires). Doukhobors, only in British Columbia, were partially disenfranchised for 37 years — 1919 to 1956 — first in provincial and then in 1934 in federal elections, but not in municipal or school board elections, because politicians feared their leader could dictate them to vote en block to influence an election. At the time the act was passed, it was justified through the patriotic fever surrounding World War I. While it was opposed by those who were disenfranchised and other opponents of the government, it was widely supported by the majority of Canadians. The act was coupled with the Military Voters Act that further skewed the vote in favour of the Unionists. The two laws were effective in helping the government be re-elected in the 1917 election, but the Unionists were elected by a large enough margin that they would have won anyway. In the long run, however, the laws so alienated French-Canadians and recent immigrants that they would vote Liberal for decades, greatly hurting the Conservative Party. After the war, the Act was repealed. Most women (notably not Aboriginal women or those without property) were enfranchised as of 24 May 1918. (en) |
| dbo:wikiPageID | 940725 (xsd:integer) |
| dbo:wikiPageLength | 3891 (xsd:nonNegativeInteger) |
| dbo:wikiPageRevisionID | 1119138221 (xsd:integer) |
| dbo:wikiPageWikiLink | dbr:Canada dbr:Robert_Borden dbr:Ukrainian_Canadian dbr:Unionist_Party_(Canada) dbc:1917_in_women's_history dbr:Polish_Canadian dbr:1917_Canadian_federal_election dbr:German_Empire dbr:Conscription_Crisis_of_1917 dbr:Military_Voters_Act dbc:Political_history_of_Canada dbc:Election_legislation dbc:World_War_I_legislation dbr:Austro-Hungarian dbc:1917_in_Canadian_law dbc:Politics_of_World_War_I dbc:German_Canadian dbc:Polish_diaspora_in_Canada dbr:History_of_immigration_to_Canada dbc:Canadian_federal_legislation dbr:Doukhobors dbr:Enemy-alien dbc:Canadian_election_legislation dbc:Ukrainian_diaspora_in_Canada dbc:Women's_suffrage_in_Canada dbr:French-Canadians dbr:German_Canadian dbr:Disenfranchised dbr:Naturalized |
| dbp:wikiPageUsesTemplate | dbt:Citation_needed dbt:Italictitle dbt:Reflist |
| dcterms:subject | dbc:1917_in_women's_history dbc:Political_history_of_Canada dbc:Election_legislation dbc:World_War_I_legislation dbc:1917_in_Canadian_law dbc:Politics_of_World_War_I dbc:German_Canadian dbc:Polish_diaspora_in_Canada dbc:Canadian_federal_legislation dbc:Canadian_election_legislation dbc:Ukrainian_diaspora_in_Canada dbc:Women's_suffrage_in_Canada |
| gold:hypernym | dbr:Bill |
| rdf:type | dbo:Person |
| rdfs:comment | The Canadian Wartime Elections Act was a bill passed on September 20, 1917 by the Conservative government of Robert Borden during the Conscription Crisis of 1917 and was instrumental in pushing Liberals to join the Conservatives in the formation of the Canadian Unionist government. While the bill was an explicit attempt to get more votes for the government, it was also the first act giving women the vote in federal elections. After the war, the Act was repealed. Most women (notably not Aboriginal women or those without property) were enfranchised as of 24 May 1918. (en) |
| rdfs:label | Wartime Elections Act (en) |
| owl:sameAs | freebase:Wartime Elections Act wikidata:Wartime Elections Act https://global.dbpedia.org/id/f9Lc |
| prov:wasDerivedFrom | wikipedia-en:Wartime_Elections_Act?oldid=1119138221&ns=0 |
| foaf:isPrimaryTopicOf | wikipedia-en:Wartime_Elections_Act |
| is dbo:wikiPageRedirects of | dbr:Wartime_Elections_act |
| is dbo:wikiPageWikiLink of | dbr:Canadian_women_in_the_World_Wars dbr:Electoral_fraud dbr:1917_in_Canada dbr:Berlin_to_Kitchener_name_change dbr:Julia_Wilmotte_Henshaw dbr:Robert_Borden dbr:1917_Canadian_federal_election dbr:Women's_suffrage dbr:Conscription_Crisis_of_1917 dbr:Military_Voters_Act dbr:Thérèse_Casgrain dbr:War_Measures_Act dbr:Wartime_Elections_act dbr:List_of_Acts_of_Parliament_of_Canada dbr:Dominion_Elections_Act dbr:Women's_suffrage_in_Canada dbr:Suffrage dbr:Russian_Germans_in_North_America dbr:September_1917 dbr:Women's_Franchise_Act |
| is dbp:relatedLegislation of | dbr:Military_Voters_Act |
| is foaf:primaryTopic of | wikipedia-en:Wartime_Elections_Act |