Should Vimy Ridge Be Considered A National Building Event For Canada?

The Battle of Vimy Ridge, from April 9th to April 12th 1917, is known as a nation building event for Canada because it was supposedly when Canadians developed a new national identity. However, as more opinions are shared on this matter, historians are starting to question whether this is really the case. Vimy Ridge should not be considered a nation building event for Canada because there were many significant battles with a lot of Canadian sacrifice, and in some ways the battle split Canada apart. Firstly, the Canadian Corps that fought at Vimy Ridge did not have the intention of fighting for Canada’s recognition and glory. In fact, according to The Globe and Mail’s article on Vimy Ridge, “60 percent of the first Canadian Corps recruits were British-born,” and “quite a few had probably been in Canada only a few years.” (Everett, 2017) This meant that their loyalty was still …show more content…
Additionally, there was a rise in unemployment and a terrible crop right before the start of the war, so “a soldier's pay and a chance to help the Empire win a war that most expected to be short must have seemed, to many of them, a lucky break.” (Everett, 2017) As a result, a large portion of soldiers enlisted to get away from home rather than get to fighting on the front. Furthermore, the glorification of the battle at Vimy Ridge that led to it being thought of as a nation-building event only started so that Canadians could find a new way to justify all of the upsetting losses that resulted from sending so many men into battle for the British. The number amounted to over 10,000 Canadian casualties in just 3 days. At the time, Prime Minister Robert Borden, trying to increase morale on the homefront, said that the role of Canadian soldiers was integral “to ensure the integrity and maintain the honour of our Empire [Britain].” (Everett,