Public Lecture: Boosters and Barkers, Financing and Canada's Involvement in the First World War

Event Date: 
Tuesday, March 25, 2025 - 7:30pm to 9:00pm EDT
Event Location: 
Thunder Bay Museum (425 Donald Street East) and Online
Event Fee: 
Free. Everyone is welcome.

Join us on 25 March at 7:30pm for a presentation by David Roberts and book launch for Boosters and Barkers: Financing and Canada's Involvement int he First World War

"Stick it, Canada! Buy more Victory Bonds!" The First World War demanded deep personal sacrifice in the field and at home - even when home was far from the front. It also made unrelenting financial demands on both the governments and populations of Canada and Newfoundland.

Boosters and Barkers is a highly original examination of the drive to finance Canadian participation in the conflict. David Roberts examines Ottawa's calls for direct public contributions in the form of war bonds; the intersections with imperial funding, taxation, and conventional revenue; and the substantial fiscal implications of participation in the conflict during and after the war. Canada's six bond-selling campaigns received an astounding response, generating revenue that covered almost a third of the country's total war costs, which were estimated at $6.6 billion. This amount was modest in comparison with the burdens placed on European countries, but it was still a dramatic contribution from a dominion so distant from the front.

This story is one of in exorable need, shrewd propaganda, resistance, engagement, and long-term consequence. Boosters and Barkers mines a wide range of sources in Canada, the United States, and Britain to reveal how bond campaigns used coercive, modern marketing techniques - encompassing print, images, and music - to sell both the war and wide public participation.

Speaker Bio: David Roberts is a retired editor at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography/Dictionnaire biographique du Canada. He has written several entries for the DCB/DBC on his own time as well as In the Shadow of Detroit: Gordon M. McGregor, Ford of Canada, Motoropolis (Wayne State University Press). His recent book, Boosters and Barkers: Financing Canada's Involvement in the First World War, is published by the University of British Columbia Press with support from the Canadian War Museum. He lives in Don Mills, Ontario.

This presentation will be in-person and online. Complete information and how to register can be found at https://thunderbaymuseum1.wildapricot.org/event-5874535 

This presentation is part of the 2024-25 Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society’s Lecture Series sponsored by the Department of History. 

Since 1908, the Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society has been regularly holding talks on a wide range of topics on the fourth Tuesday of each month at the Thunder Bay Museum (425 Donald Street East) from September to April. All presentations are free and open to the public.