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Canadian Navy |
1911
At the turn of the century, Canada had no
naval presence and relied upon he Royal Navy for the
protection of it's coastline, enforcement of national
boundaries and the performance of specific missions. The
Imperial drive by the British to form a more integrated
defensive system fro the British Empire relied upon
Empire counties contributing funds to Britain to build
up and support the Royal Navy. Briton was under serious
challenge form Germany for high seas supremacy and an
arms race had developed with battleships being the main
measure of leadership.
Wilfred Laurier realized that Canada
would not accept a solution whereby Canada would pay
into Britain's naval program, especially French Canada,
but felt that he could compromise and satisfy all
parties by creating a Canadian Navy and purchasing ships
form Great Britain which could be used by England
in times of emergency. On May 4th, 1910 Laurier's
Liberal government passed the Naval Service Act which
established the Royal Canadian Navy and effectively
created a force with the purchase of two older ships
form Britain, the Rainbow and the Niobe. His compromise
did not only not please everybody but displeased
everybody and contributed to his election loss in 1911
to the Conservatives.
Robert Borden and the Conservatives
agreed with the creation of the Canadian navy but saw a
political opportunity and came out in favour of paying
money into the Imperial coffers as an alternative to
commenting Canadian sailors to dangerous situations.
This was a position that was popular in Quebec and which
managed to crack the Liberal grip n the province.
In the meantime the HMCS Rainbow had
arrived on the West coast where it began patrol duties
based out of the RCN base Esquimalt located near
Victoria. The HMCS Niobe was stationed in Halifax and
arrived there in 1910. Both ships were essentially
obsolete but could be claimed to be the start of
imperial contribution if war broke out and Great Britain
needed additional vessels.
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