The answer to the question "did the Great War significantly affect [insert nation here]?" will almost always be yes. Canada is no exception.

Tensions between French and British Canada were made significantly worse by the War, particularly by the introduction of conscription. French Canadians often felt opposed to serving in the nation's army, and protested bitterly when called to do so.^1 Influential protesters argued that the War was actually pitting Canadians themselves against one another by worsening tensions in this way.^2 Factors such as these may have contributed to a greater sense of Canadian autonomy from Britain as well (See Skelton, Oscar, The Life and Times of Alexander Tilloch Galt), which would make them definite candidates for "watershed event" status.

Women's suffrage was benefitted by the increased role that women took during the War, as it was in many other nations as well. Canadian women served as nurses on the Western Front, and in factories and farms on the home front -- working 12 hour days six days a week to support the war effort^3 (also see Gossage, Carolyn, "Greatcoats and Glamour Boots"). The effects that this had on Canadian suffrage movements is evidenced by the fact that women first gained the right to vote in several areas of Canada during the War, under the Wartime Elections Act.^4

The War affected Canadian art and literature, too. I'm going to single out war memorial artwork specifically, since it's my biggest area of knowledge. The Great War shaped a more individualized approach to wartime artwork in many ways, as soldiers who fought and families who suffered each experienced the war in different ways (see Winter, Jay, "Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning"). The effect this had on memorial artwork was obvious, and can be credited with a move away from the "big gold general on a horse" style and toward things such as the American Vietnam War Memorial or London's Cenotaph. In Canada, the National War Memorial is a good example: it depicts violence and individual soldiers, rare occurrences in pre-War memorial sites. Indeed, Canada even recruited Great War veterans to design its memorials out of a belief that their experiences allowed more "honest" portrayals of conflict (see letters in ERIC KENNINGTON 1917 - 1918, Part 1 (n.d.): 245a / 6, Imperial War Museum London, First World War Artists Archive).

The Great War is often thought of as the first of the Total Wars: conflicts that changed nations from civilian economies into war-making machines. The ability of the War to have such substantial effects on so many different parts of Canadian life is an example of why that is.

If you're interested in reading more about the cultural history of the Great War, I highly recommend Paul Fussell's "The Great War and Modern Memory." Fussell elaborates better than almost anyone else on the War's impact on art and literature, and discusses the ways we conceptualize suffering differently today because of it. Brilliant read.