"International Friendliness" and Canadian Identities: Transnational Tensions in Canadian Junior Red Cross Texts, 1919–1939

Abstract

As the youth wing of the Canadian Red Cross Society, the Junior Red Cross (JRC) program of the 1920s and 1930s aimed to teach school-aged children and youth habits of good health, good citizenship, and service to others. Inspired by a transnational ethic of humanitarianism, the program tried to build international ties of friendship between JRC members in Canada and those elsewhere, while shaping Canadian Juniors in a particular mould of national citizenship. Through an examination of adult and child contributions to the national JRC magazine, and the portfolios Juniors created to send overseas, this article explores the tensions inherent in the national and transnational lessons conveyed by adult JRC leaders as well as the ways young Canadians embraced, modified, or rejected those perspectives.