Canada entered the First World War exactly one hundred years ago on Monday. On Aug. 4, 1914, Canada declared war on Germany.
Several services are planned throughout Manitoba and across Canada to mark the centennial of the start of a war that would kill 61,000 Canadians before it ended on Nov. 11, 1918, according to the Canadian War Museum.
Parks Canada planned a commemorative display at The Forks to mark the anniversary Monday morning. The event included readings of government telegrams announcing the declaration of war and excerpts from Prime Minister Robert Borden’s speech to Parliament.
Parks Canada Spokesperson Marilyn Peckett said the war was a turning point in Canada’s development as a global power independent of Great Britain.
“At the start of the war, we weren’t very old as a country, and by the end of it, we had earned a separate signature on the peace treaty, when it was finally signed, really indicating that we were now our own, sovereign nation.”
The RCA Museum in Shilo will hold an exhibit focusing on the first year of the war, titled The Great War 1914-1915. It will focus on the founding of the Princess Patricia’s Light Infantry in 1914 and the writing of the poem “In Flanders Fields” in 1915.
Canadian film director and author Paul Almond will speak at the opening ceremony, planned for 5:00 p.m. Monday. Almond’s father was a Canadian Gunner in the First World War.
The exhibit is planned to run until June 2015.
