Nationalism

Cheer after cheer from the crowds of people who waited long and anxiously for the announcement of Great Britain’s position in the present conflict in Europe greeted the news that the Mother Country had declared war against Germany. Groups of men sang “Rule Britannia,” others joined in singing “God Save The King”; some showed their senses of the seriousness of the situation by singing “Onward Christian Soldiers”…
Toronto Mail and Empire, 5 August 1914 

"Bound by no constitution, bound by no law, equity or obligation, Canada has decided as a nation to make war. We have levied an army; we have sent the greatest army to England that has ever crossed the Atlantic, to take part in the battles of England. We have placed ourselves in opposition to great world powers. We are now training and equipping an army greater than the combined forces of Wellington and Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo."
Speech of Sir Clifford Sir Clifford Sifton at Montreal, 1917?

"Canada entered the war a colony, she emerged from it close to an independent state."
Arthur R. M. Lower, Colony to Nation