The Canadian Defence League was an organization that advocated military training for all men in Canada. It was founded in 1909, at the suggestion of William Hamilton Merritt III,[1] and was formally inaugurated on September 10, 1910, in Toronto.[2] The League operated from 1910 to March 1914,[3] around the outbreak of World War I.[2] Merritt was its president.[4]
Ultimately, the organization favoured universal military service, on the Swiss model.[1] Albert Carman, William Lash Miller, Maurice Hutton, Byron Edmund Walker, Reuben Wells Leonard, and Rufus S. Hudson were among the League's boosters.[1] Many of its members favoured cadet drills in schools.[5]
Desmond Morton argues that the League's efforts in favour of military training "failed miserably only months before the outbreak of war".[6]
References
edit- ^ a b c Morton 1978, p. 62.
- ^ a b Wood, James (April 20, 2010). Militia Myths: Ideas of the Canadian Citizen Soldier, 1896–1921. University of British Columbia Press. p. 197. ISBN 978-0-7748-5928-8.
- ^ Morton, Desmond (1993). When your number's up : the Canadian soldier in the First World War. Random House of Canada. pp. 1–2. ISBN 0-394-22288-1. OCLC 28218393.
- ^ Maroney, Paul; Harris, Stephen John (1998). "Merritt, William Hamilton". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Retrieved May 16, 2021.
- ^ Berger 2013, p. 254.
- ^ Morton 1978, p. 56.
Sources
edit- Berger, Carl (2013). The sense of power : studies in the ideas of Canadian imperialism, 1867–1914 (2d ed.). University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-1-4426-6897-3. OCLC 852803516.
- Morton, Desmond (May 1978). "The Cadet Movement in the Moment of Canadian Militarism, 1909–1914". Journal of Canadian Studies. 13 (2): 56–68. doi:10.3138/jcs.13.2.56. ISSN 0021-9495. S2CID 151472092.
Further reading
edit- The Canadian Defence League. Toronto, Canadian Defence League. 1913. OCLC 1041670504.
 | This Canadian military article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |