After being victorious at Vimy Ridge and Passchendaele, Canadian soldiers found themselves overwhelmed with national pride. As a result of their outstanding efforts during the war, Canada gained an international status by winning their own seat and participating at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. Although some country's representatives, including US President Woodrow Wilson, opposed the idea of Canada signing independently, Canada still got its own signature on the Treaty of Versailles indented under "British Empire". Canada also obtained a separate seat on the League of Nations, an international organization that was established at the Paris Peace Conference. Canada fought long and hard to receive the international recognition they deserved. As George Woodcock, a famous Canadian writer, said, "The emergence of Canada as a nation among nations within the broader world context, caused people to think less of what divided them than of what united them." With these factors, World War I was evidentially an important part of Canada's emerging independence. But the war also developed and caused troubles among people in Canada.
When the Canadian soldiers returned from a tough four years of war, they were expecting a peaceful, relieved feeling. However, that was not the case for those soldiers. They returned to Canada to find themselves with no jobs, unsteady pensions for veterans and poor special medical services. Many veterans were affected by shell shock, now known as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and no one knew how to deal with it. Aboriginal peoples didn't find much relief after the war, either. Their expectations were quickly let down as they found out their social status didn't improve one bit, along with losing their right to vote. The tense issues between Anglophones and Francophones that developed during the war were never forgotten. The conscription crisis caused bitter tension between them, resulting in the French Canadians turning against federal government and causing riots.
