VOTE: Military Voters Act

The Military Voters Act would allow men and women fighting in the war overseas to vote in the upcoming federal election.

FOR

When men and women fight overseas they give up a great deal to protect their country. The Military Voters Act is important for many reasons, including:

1.      Those serving in the army are still a part of Canada. Even if they are overseas, their opinions are still valid. Without these votes, elections would not be truly accurate to the opinions of Canadians.

2.      Since conscription needs to happen, those who are forced to fight in the war should at least have a say in who is the leader of their country.

3.      The Military Voters Act gives women who are serving overseas the right to vote for the first time. This will be a huge leap for the women’s suffrage movement.

These reasons give readers ample information as to why the Military Voters Act is a wise decision and we argue that voters should use rational thinking and vote FOR the Military Voters Act.

AGAINST

      The reasons we are against the military vote act, why are we against?

1.       The people fighting overseas may not know the economic situation in Canada.

2.       The process of sending their votes from overseas to Canada could create problems because it could get misplaced or mixed up, there would be more paperwork.

3.       This act helps Borden win votes, and he is pro-conscription.

So, these are all of the reasons we are against the Military Voters’ Act. We hope you can empathize with us. Thank you~

VOTE: Wartime Elections Act

The Wartime Elections Act would allow any women related to a soldier to vote and would take away the right to vote from any immigrant from an enemy country.

 

FOR

It would be unthinkable to allow immigrants from enemy countries to vote in the wartime election!

1.      The choices made in a country should be made and supported by people born in that country.

2.      You never know if one or more of the immigrants who fled here is actually a spy trying to sabotage from the inside

3.      Only those who are working to support the war should be allowed to vote therefore women who aren’t related to servicemen and immigrants who don’t contribute to the war and don’t want anything to do with the war shouldn’t have a say in how things go.

We argue that voters see the light and realize the proper, reasoned judgement FOR preventing immigrants from enemy countries to vote!

 

 

AGAINST

With women given the power to vote, who knows where our country will end up.

1.       Women are emotional. Women are not as mentally capable as men to decide what is best for our country. Women could not mentally handle the pain in wars and the loss they would experience. Men are more calm and collected than women.

2.       Women are not the ones going to war, so why should they be the ones voting? Women are not experienced in the war and have no clue what it’s like. Women do their jobs in the home and should focus on that.

3.       Immigrants may hate the country they came from, so their vote is imperative. Everyone has a different reason for leaving their homeland, but the most common is distaste for their country.  Immigrants also know the enemy country better than any of us.

All of these reasons are proof enough for YOU to vote AGAINST giving women the privilege vote and taking the vote from our immigrants!

 

VOTE: Military Service Act (Conscription)

The Military Service Act would mean that all men between 20 and 45 could be forced to enlist in the army and go to war.

 

FOR

Without Compulsory Conscription, the war would have been lost. Also, would you be ok with not having the right you have today?

1.      It gave a better chance at winning the war with the amount of people provided.

2.      Many of the survivors were proud they had the opportunity to fight for their country.

3.      It provided jobs for young families.

 

Would we all be where we are today without these rights that came from Compulsory Conscription?

AGAINST

The government believed that conscription was the only way they could win the war, but they didn’t stop and think what effects it may have on the people.

1.     Conscription took away the choice people had when it came down to joining the military, and it took away part of their freedom.

2.     It forced people who were unwilling to join like the French Canadians that were not represented very well in the military and most of the French Canadians couldn’t even understand their officers for they were mostly English speaking

3.     93 percent of the Canadians registered evaded being conscripted anyway so not much actually changed other than 93 percent of men became criminals for trying to stay alive.

These are the reasons why we are against conscription for the people did not evenly agree on conscription across the country so it should have never been passed.

A soldier’s cemetery

Behind that long and lonely trenched line
To which men come and go, where brave men die,
There is a yet unmarked and unknown shrine,
A broken plot, a soldier’s cemetery.

There lie the flower of youth, the men who scorn’d
To live (so died) when languished Liberty:
Across their graves flowerless and unadorned
Still scream the shells of each artillery.

When war shall cease this lonely unknown spot
Of many a pilgrimage will be the end,
And flowers will shine in this now barren plot
And fame upon it through the years descend:
But many a heart upon each simple cross
Will hang the grief, the memory of its loss

Created by John Williams Streets during the year of 1916 I don’t know where the poem was created

The poem gives a sad feeling to the readers I don’t know what the writer felt about the war and yes I do think the piece accurately portrays the war

 

 

 

Paul Nash was born on May 11, 1889 in London, England, and died July 11, 1946 in Boscombe, Hampshire. He was a British painter and war artist, as well as a photographer, writer and designer of art. Nash was one of the most important landscape artists of the first half of the twentieth century. Nash grew up in Buckinghamshire where he developed a love of the landscape. He studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. In 1914 he enlisted in the Artists’ Rifles to serve in World War I.

We Are Making a New World by Paul Nash is a 1918 oil-on-canvas painting. It is the description of a scarred landscape created by the First World War, with shell-holes, mounds of earth, and leafless tree trunks.

I think the artist felt sad about the war because the painting gives an unhappy feeling to the viewers because it’s dark and gloomy.

The piece of art makes me feel like the war was a hard time for everyone, and I think it is an accurate portrait what the war was like because many people died, and it was filled with pain, loss, grief and sadness.

Goodbye Old Man

The picture I chose is called Goodbye Old Man and I chose it because it was a very beautiful painting and I liked that it was honouring not only the men that passed and served in world war one but also the horses. During the course of the war the blue cross attended to some 50,000 inured horses. It estimated that 1.2 million horses and mules were used during the world war and 484,000 were killed. The man who created this picture was named Fortunino Matania he was very famous for his realistic art of World War One.

     Katharine Tynan created this poem. She was born in Clondaklin, Dublin in 1859. Katharine went to school at Dominican Convent of St Catherine. She started writing at a young and wrote all the way up until her late 60s. Katharine and her protestant barrister lived in England before moving to Claremorris, Mayo. Tynan has written over 100 novels, 10 collections of short stories, plays, and more than a dozen books of poetry. Katharine died in 1931.

• The poem "Joining the colours" was written in Dublin on the 13th of August, 1914.

 
Joining the colours

By Katharine Tynan          

 

There they go marching all in step so gay!

Smooth-cheeked and golden, food for shells and guns.

Blithely they go as to a wedding day,

The mothers' sons.

The drab street stares to see them row on row

On the high tram-tops, singing like the lark.

Too careless-gay for courage, singing they go

Into the dark.

With tin whistles, mouth-organs, any noise,

They pipe the way to glory and the grave;

Foolish and young, the gay and golden boys

Love cannot save.

High heart! High courage! The poor girls they kissed

Run with them : they shall kiss no more, alas!

Out of the mist they stepped-into the mist

Singing they pass

 

 

 

 

About the poem:

 

• "Colours" is usually a reference to a flag.
• "Joining the Colours" means joining the military or army.
• This poem is about the first Battalion leaving the Barracks to join the army in France.

       At first I think that its all happiness and that the soldiers are ready for the war. The soldiers lining up almost thinking that they will die. This makes me feel sad and sorrow. Leaving their loved ones and thinking that they will never see them again. When it says that " their mother's sons" and "Foolish and young", that likely means that they are young boys who haven't lived their full life. I think Katharine is talking about motherhood and how heartbroken she would be if her sons went to war.

      I do think that this poem is accurate towards the war. When it says "row on row" I believe it is very accurate because all of the soldiers line up in rows just waiting to get to the first line. And it expresses how many men were in the war. "Singing they go into the dark" I believe is when the soldiers are leaving their families and friends for the war and singing as an encouragement.