Summerside's War Effort During WWII

The people of Canada looked to the government to lead them through the wartime period. There was an expectation that military recruitment would take place, war industries would be established, and money would be raised. The general public also expected that government would provide information about what was happening on battlefronts and on the home front. They were also aware that not everything was revealed. Sometimes it was months or even years before sensitive information was released for public knowledge. The control of information was part of the wartime experience.

The dissemination of official information was undertaken by the Canadian government for several reasons: in order to keep citizens informed; to make them willing to comply with new rules and regulations; and to encourage optimism about the outcome of the war. Much of the information could be considered as propaganda, which is simply defined as "information that is spread for the purpose of promoting some cause." The task of churning out the propaganda was assigned to a body formed for that purpose. The national Bureau of Public Information formed shortly after the war began was integrated into the Wartime Information Board in 1942.

Some sections of government had their own publicity divisions: Department of Defence, Department of Munitions and Supply, Department of Labour, National War Finance, and the Wartime Prices and Trade Board.

As a means of presenting some details about this subject area the following sub-sections are available: Wartime Information Board, CBC and NFB, and Censorship.