The government of Mr. Robert Borden was destined to face the crisis of the world war. That Canada, vulnerable from the Atlantic as well as from the Pacific due to the wide expanse of coasts (well often open, like those of the lower San Lorenzo) and convinced like England of the German threat to the integrity and freedom of the empire, were to take the field with England, it was out of the question for the immense majority of the country. So much so that on the eve of the war, when for a day or two it seemed doubtful whether England would declare war on Germany, there were those in Canada who proposed to declare it on their own: an impossibility, as we can see, constitutional from the point of view. of British imperial sight, but a clearly symptomatic demonstration of that Canadian national consciousness which, as the war progressed, had to become more and more clear and accentuated. Even before the Canadian parliament was convened, the mobilization had begun: by October 1914, a first Canadian volunteer army of 30,000 men had reached England and a second of over 20,000 was set up. During the entire period of the war, 595,441 men were enlisted in Canada: of these, about 52,000 fell in the field and about 10,000 died from various causes. The Canadian forces, towards the end of the war gathered under the command of General Sir Arthur Currie to form a real Canadian army under the orders of the British Supreme Command, they fought in some of the most terrible battles of the Western Front, from the second battle of Ypres in April 1915, to that of the Somme in 1916, to the taking of Passchendaele on the Ypres salient in 1917, to the breaking of German lines in the summer of 1918 and, after the great battle of Arras, the capture of Cambrai in October of the same year. At the time of the armistice, November 11, they were in Mons, on the very ground from which the English had begun their great retreat in 1914.

The great test, however, did not find that absolute harmony of minds that could logically be expected from a country to which both great Western allied nations had given birth, France and England. Indeed, it once again brought to the fore, albeit momentarily, that disagreement between the two races, Franco-Canadian and Anglo-Canadian, which a century and a half of common life had dormant but not canceled. A nephew of that Papineau, who in 1837 had promoted and led the Canadian revolt, that is the French-Canadian nationalist Bourassa, who passed from the liberal to the conservative party and distinguished himself, even before the war, in the fight against the naval policy of the first to Canadian maritime autonomy base, as against the more advanced of the second Canadian imperial rather than regional base, equally denounced German and British imperialism, supporting the thesis quite widespread in the Franco-Canadian element and shared in the early days by the United States, that the Canadian homeland was in America and that Europe had to be left to settle the own disputes. When the mandatory conscription, adopted in May 1917, went into effect, bloody riots broke out in Quebec, forcing the government to militarily occupy the city. In 1918 in the provincial legislature of Quebec, although this had no basis or continuation in public action, it was possible to make a proposal for secession from the rest of Canada! that the Canadian homeland was in America and that Europe should be allowed to settle its own quarrels. When the mandatory conscription, adopted in May 1917, went into effect, bloody riots broke out in Quebec, forcing the government to militarily occupy the city. In 1918 in the provincial legislature of Quebec, although this had no basis or continuation in public action, it was possible to make a proposal for secession from the rest of Canada! that the Canadian homeland was in America and that Europe should be allowed to settle its own quarrels. When the mandatory conscription, adopted in May 1917, went into effect, bloody riots broke out in Quebec, forcing the government to militarily occupy the city. In 1918 in the provincial legislature of Quebec, although this had no basis or continuation in public action, it was possible to make a proposal for secession from the rest of Canada!

Far more important, however, than the internal political backlash was that of the world war on the constitutional evolution of Canada within the British Empire, indeed on its own political position in the world. Already earlier, the Dominion of Canada had clearly manifested its tendency to demand from the mother country that English foreign policy, as far as the Dominion was concerned, should be made by Canada and in view of its particular interests rather than by Great Britain and from the point of view of the general interests of the British Empire. The same appearance, indeed, that England, in the solution of the various diplomatic issues with the United States (from the Oregon treaty of 1846, relating to the partition of that territory, to the Washington treaty of 1909, relating to the commercial and military use of the waterways common to the two countries, i.e. the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River), had always been concerned with maintaining good relations with the United States rather than Canadian aspirations, was not least the cause of this trend. From request to request and from concession to concession, it was thus possible, still in the first decade of the new century, to be able to establish and operate a real Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Canada for the treatment and definition of the particular relations of Canada with the metropolis, with the other autonomous English colonies and even, in many matters, with foreign powers, the United States in particular. had always been concerned with maintaining good relations with the United States rather than Canadian aspirations, was not the least cause of this trend. From request to request and from concession to concession, it was thus possible, still in the first decade of the new century, to be able to establish and operate a real Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Canada for the treatment and definition of the particular relations of Canada with the metropolis, with the other autonomous English colonies and even, in many matters, with foreign powers, the United States in particular. had always been concerned with maintaining good relations with the United States rather than Canadian aspirations, was not the least cause of this trend. From request to request and from concession to concession, it was thus possible, still in the first decade of the new century, to be able to establish and operate a real Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Canada for the treatment and definition of the particular relations of Canada with the metropolis, with the other autonomous English colonies and even, in many matters, with foreign powers, the United States in particular.

In this trend, Canada had naturally found the best ally in the general movement of emancipation of all the autonomous colonies of the Empire, and in the conciliatory policy of the mother country in front of it. Thus, during the British imperial conference of 1911, the delegates of Canada, like the other Dominions, had been admitted to the shrine of British foreign policy, that is, to the knowledge of what the Asquith called the arcana imperii ; and beginning in the following year 1912, Canadian representatives – at first occasional and then permanent – had joined the Imperial Defense Committee. During the war, dating from 1917, Canada began, like the other British Dominions and the empire of India, to participate in the person of its Prime Minister in the same Imperial War Cabinet (British War Cabinet), that is to that real cabinet of British governments, rather than English ministers, created out of necessity of war and which later became the highest constitutional organ of the Empire. The imperial conferences of 1917 and 1918, functioning as imperial war conferences, radically changed the juridical status of Canada (like that of the other Dominions and India), with their decisions presupposing and involving the full recognition of the Dominions as nations autonomous of an imperial state (Imperial Commonwealth) and India as an integral part of it, with the consequences of a right also in Canada to an adequate voice in the foreign policy and relations of the British Empire with foreign countries, and the need for continuous consultation of it, like the other Dominions and India, in all matters of high common interest of the Empire. The basis of the future inter-imperial cooperation was this, at the same time, the juridical recognition of the national equality between Canada and the mother country; even if it – as is the nature of British constitutional evolution – had developed empirically, under the pressure of the needs of the moment, rather than being based on a speculative theory or a formal act of the imperial parliament. This was evident in the peace conference (1919), when Canada was able, like the other English Dominions and India, to have its own representation – despite the opposition of the other states of the winning Entente – and to become part of that treaty of Versailles, which was thus submitted for approval to the Canadian parliament, like the other British and foreign parliaments, and made Canada, like the other British Dominions, a member of the League of Nations, like any other state whatever. The Treaty of Versailles of 1919, which could be qualified as the Winning agreement – and to become a party to that Treaty of Versailles, which was thus submitted for approval to the Canadian parliament, like other British and foreign parliaments, and made Canada, like the other British Dominions, a member of the League of Nations, like any other state. The Treaty of Versailles of 1919, which could be qualified as the Winning agreement – and to become a party to that Treaty of Versailles, which was thus submitted for approval to the Canadian parliament, like other British and foreign parliaments, and made Canada, like the other British Dominions, a member of the League of Nations, like any other state. The Treaty of Versailles of 1919, which could be qualified as the magna carta of the British Dominions, thus marked the birth, also from the international point of view, after the internal British one, of the Canadian nation.