's naval policy to build war vessels, and Borden's to
contribute to their purchase for service in the British Navy take on
different aspect to Canada; and the Dominion enters a new era in her
development, as one of the dominant powers in the North Atlantic and
the North Pacific. That is--she must prepare to enter; or sit back the
helpless Korea of America. A country with a billion dollars of
commerce a year to defend cuts economy down to the danger line when she
spends not one per cent. of the value of her foreign commerce to
protect it. Like the United States, Canada has been inclined to sit
back detached from world entanglements and perplexities. That day has
passed for Canada. She must take her place and defend her place or
lose her identity as a nation. The awakening has gone over Canada in a
wave. One awaits to see what will come of it.

Much, of course, depends upon the outcome of the great war. If Britain
and her allies triumph--and particularly if peace brings partial
disarmament--the urgency of preparation on Canada's part will be
lessened. But should Germany win or the duel be a draw, then may
Canada well gird up her loins and look to her safety.

CHAPTER XVII

THE DOMAIN OF THE NORTH

I

Canada does not like any reference to her fur trade as a national
occupation. Of course, it is no longer a national occupation. It
occupies, perhaps, two thousand whites and it may be twenty or thirty
thousand Indians. More Indians in Canada earn their living farming the
reserves than catching fur, but the Indians north of Athabasca and
Churchill and in Labrador must always earn their living fur hunting.
Of them there is no census, but they hardly exceed thirty thousand all
told. The treaty Indians on reserves now number a hundred thousand.
Yet, though only two thousand whites are fur-trading in Canada, no
interpretation of Canadian life is complete without reference to that
far domain of the North, where the hunter roams in loneliness, and the
night lights whip unearthly through still frosty air, and no sound
breaks leagueless silence but the rifle shot, crackle of frost or the
call of the wolf pack. It will be recalled that Canada's first
settlers came in two main currents from two idealistic motives. The
French came to convert the Indians, not to found empire, and the
English Loyalists came from the promptings of their convictions. Both
streams of settlers came from idealistic motives, but both