Canada Joins the War
Many say that the reason Canada joined the war was because it was part of the Common Wealth Countries, and was juridically bound by Britain’s Declaration of War. They technically joined the war the moment Britain did. But, they only declared war 7 days later. This is because the Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King stated that the decision to declare or not declare war would be up to the Parliament. He wanted to show that Canada was independent from Britain. Although, many are not looking deep enough. What caused America to join the First World War was the sinking of a ship, RMS Lusitania. Could this not have happened again? Looking into the Battle of Atlantic, there is one special ship, named SS Athenia. The SS Athenia was passenger ship that carried more than 1,103 passengers and 315 crew members, most of which were Canadian, and was a boat that was traveling between Britain and Canada constantly. On September 3, 1939 a German submarine (U-30) had attacked the ship with torpedoes and managed to sink the ship. Fortunately almost everyone survived, but 98 passengers and 19 crew members were killed. This ship was the first Britain ship to be sunk by Nazi Germany in World War 2. The sinking had created major publicity in the English-speaking world. Manly because many children were killed. In fact, a 10-year old Canadian girl Margaret Hayworth was included among the casualties, and was one of the first Canadians to die as a result of the war. The sinking of the ship is what got Canada involved. Just because Britain was in war did not mean that Canada had to join also. Canada was its own Sovereign country and thus had no obligation to take part. But when Canada was affected directly as a result of the death of 117 people many of which were Canadian, and the sinking of an innocent ship, Canada didn’t think twice. Just like in World War 1, America joined only when it was harmed directly (the sinking of the RMS Lusitania). History tends to repeat itself, so when a U-boat destroys another North American ship, someone has to step in. This time, Canada decided to do so. Thus, seven days after the sinking of the passenger ship, Canada had declared war on Germany.
SS Athenia
Historical Musings 