The Impact Of Propaganda During World War II

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World War II was a horrible event that included many important nations of the world, including Canada, but the war was not just fought in Europe; there was a more clever battle being fought on the homefront with Canadian propaganda. Propaganda persuaded Canadians to contribute to the war through victory bonds. Propaganda was used to recruit soldiers and female workers, which helped many unemployed Canadians who were victims of the Great Depression. As well, the government campaigns to increase support for the war effort, that relied heavily on posters to spread their message, were very successful. Canadian propaganda was effective during World War II, as it stimulated support for the war economy after the Great Depression.
Propaganda persuaded
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As stated in the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum, “During the war, 1,086,343 men and women performed full-time duty in the three services while 1,239,327 worked in the war industries”. The end of the 1930s came and the Great Depression seemed to never end. Men were still unemployed and families were struggling to get the basic needs of life. The only solution seemed to be another world war, which was essentially what got Canada out of the Great Depression. When Canada declared war on Germany on September 10th, 1939, the country needed many people to engage in the war. Propaganda was spread all over towns and cities, announcing that Canada was in need of soldiers to fight the war. Canadian men saw the war as an amazing opportunity to finally do something after waiting for almost 10 years because of the Great Depression. Furthermore the National Film Board of Canada states that, “Thousands of Canadian women were called upon for the war effort. Taking over from the husbands, brothers and fathers who had left to fight, they volunteered, worked in munitions factories or enrolled in the army, navy or air force”. Although women of the 1930s were regarded as the ones who stayed home and took care of the kids, World War II created a new era for Canadian women. Many times it seems as if the second world war was necessary to get Canada …show more content…
According to the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum, “After a shaky and indecisive start, the government, through the Bureau of Public Information and later the Wartime Information Board (WIB), undertook an extensive propaganda campaign "to dampen cynicism" and stimulate support for the war”. When Canada got involved in the war, everyone was completely unprepared for it. For that reason, the government had to make a decision of what actions they were going to do, to encourage support and eliminate any uneasiness Canadians had about the war. Often times, powerful images of Hitler and the Nazi party were created in order to fully get people to go against him and Germany. Additionally the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum says that, “Canadian war posters were colourful, with a clear direct message. Produced and displayed in a variety of sizes on buses, billboards, in theatres, in the workplace ect., even on matchbox covers. Posters as a propaganda tool, had a direct clear message”. This posters became an essential part of the propaganda campaign, as they were not expensive to produce, were effective and efficient. The government used this posters and other kinds of media to promote their messages and change the opinions of Canadians. The posters that were created in Canada sent out strong, emotional messages that immediately had

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