1918 vs. 2020: A look at pandemics in Canada

Dr. Arne Kislenko is an Associate Professor of History at Toronto Metropolitan University. In this piece, he’ll explore how the lives of Canadians were affected by the Spanish Flu in 1918 and compare it to life today.

1918 vs. 2020: Comparing Pandemics in Canadian History

While no one can predict what will happen with the COVID-19 crisis, we can draw on history for an understanding of how previous generations survived pandemics. The 1918 “Spanish Flu” was amongst the deadliest in history: killing an estimated 50 to 100 million worldwide, roughly 5 percent of the global populace. Nearly 55,000 Canadians died —  almost as many as Canada lost during the First World War. 

Like today, schools, businesses, and public places were closed. Governments mandated the wearing of masks. People practiced social-distancing. Quarantines were enforced. But still the pandemic spread. By October 1918, Toronto Western Hospital was full with the sick: half of its nursing staff included. Assertions that the outbreak was confined overseas, or that purported cases here were just seasonal grippe, gave way to urgent warnings.

In Montreal, trolley cars became hearses to move the dead. Woodworkers in Ontario had a hard time meeting the demand for coffins. Some pushed for schools to reopen, arguing that by keeping children in classes they wouldn’t run around infecting others. Eaton’s and other stores advertised sensational cure-alls. People tied mothballs around their necks to ward off disease. The sick were treated with lard, tree resins, and mustard among other ‘home-made’ remedies. Doctors used baking soda, milk, and heroin for their patients. Some people refused to wear masks, provoking anger from those who did. And in the midst of it all, experts debated different treatments, and worked feverishly to discover a ‘cure’. Connaught Laboratories in Toronto developed a vaccine by late 1918, but offered consumers no guarantee it would work. Some retreated to Canada’s wilderness, convinced they could ‘hide out’ from the virus. But modernity proved that notion false: trains, roads, and water routes spread the flu to the most remote parts of the country. Cree and Métis communities in and around Norway House had a mortality rate of one in ten. Just as in 2020, marginalized populations were particularly ravaged. Indigenous communities faced a mortality rate five times the national average.

Like 2020, in 1918-1919 life dramatically changed. Businesses collapsed. There were shortages of essential goods. And there were fears about ‘waves’, especially as governments hurried to phase in ‘re-openings’. When the virus dissipated, Canada emerged a different country. A federal Department of Health was created. Many lessons were learned about disease control and governance. Just like the Great War, the flu illustrated that Canada was not immune to the vagaries of the global order. Some communities were destroyed, or changed forever. But Canadians also proved resilient: developing stronger senses of community through volunteerism and collective action. 

Still, there are crucial differences between the pandemics. Other diseases like tuberculosis and typhoid were widespread in 1918. There was no public health insurance, diets were poorer, and sanitation standards were lower. Vaccination programmes were in their infancy, while antiviral drugs and other ‘front-line’ technologies used today were non-existent. In so many ways, 1918 and 2020 are vastly different, rendering comparisons difficult. 

What we have learned is that viruses are living social laboratories with many variables. And despite advances in medicine, the ‘old ideas’ of basic prevention, social distancing, and quarantine remain the best defense. We’ve also learned that only through patient and concerted action can we manage the historical realities of pandemics.