---
title: Can I Afford to Pay for Freedom (Canadian Patriotic Fund)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/can-i-afford-canadian-patriotic-fund-1915/
description: A text-only poster in red and blue type sets 'Freedom' against 'Slavery' and Belgium's occupation against Canadian safety, then asks the reader to…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![Can I Afford to Pay for Freedom (Canadian Patriotic Fund)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/can-i-afford-canadian-patriotic-fund-1915.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/can-i-afford-canadian-patriotic-fund-1915.jpg)

# Can I Afford to Pay for Freedom (Canadian Patriotic Fund)

A text-only poster in red and blue type sets 'Freedom' against 'Slavery' and Belgium's occupation against Canadian safety, then asks the reader to subscribe to the Canadian Patriotic Fund for the families of soldiers 'saving us from Belgium's fate'. The tell is that Belgium's occupation stands in for what could happen at home, with no figures on the fund's needs.

- **Date:** 1915
- **Period:** [First World War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=wwi)
- **Made by:** Canadian Patriotic Fund
- **Region:** [North America](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=north-america)
- **Country:** [Canada](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=canada)
- **Medium:** [Poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=poster)
- **Issuer type:** [NGO](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=ngo)
- **Regime:** [Borden Government](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=borden-government)
- **Leader:** [Robert Borden](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=robert-borden)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Fundraise](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=fundraise)
- **Themes:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Home front](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=home-front)
- **Event:** [World War I](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=world-war-i)
- **Techniques:** [Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/) [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/2005691293/), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain in the U.S. (published before 1931); LOC: 'No known restrictions on publication' Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZC4-12721.

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
CAN I AFFORD
To Pay for Freedom

BELGIUM MUST AFFORD
TO PAY FOR SLAVERY

CANADIANS
CAN AND
MUST PROVIDE
FOR FAMILIES OF THOSE MEN WHO ARE
SAVING US FROM BELGIUM'S FATE

Subscribe Now to the Canadian Patriotic Fund
```

The poster is set in red and blue display type; the line breaks follow the printed layout.

[← Bulgaren-Held (Bulgarian Hero)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bulgaren-held-1915/) [Canadiens-Français, enrolez-vous! Reformez les régiments de Voltigeurs de Salaberry (Canada) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/canadiens-francais-enrolez-vous-salaberry-1915/)

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- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [豬叫取胎圖 (Picture of the Pig Sect Extracting a Foetus), from Reverently Obeying the Sacred Edict: A Complete Picture Gallery to Repel Heterodoxy](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/pig-cry-taking-foetus-hunan-1891/) (1891 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Colour woodblock caricature depicting foreign Christians as members of a 'pig' sect and showing them cutting a foetus from a woman; violence against a woman and derision of Christianity.
- [The Radical Programme, No. 4: Dismemberment of the Empire (Gladstone & Co. auction India), St Stephen's Review Presentation Cartoon](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/radical-programme-selling-india-st-stephens-review-1891/) (Oct 31, 1891 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating)
- [En posesión de su presa (In Possession of Its Prey)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/en-posesion-de-su-presa-el-diablo-1894/) (Jun 2, 1894 · Fear appeal)
- [劉永福懸賞抓拿日本奸細告示 (Liu Yongfu's notice offering rewards for capturing Japanese spies), Taiwan](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/liu-yongfu-reward-notice-japanese-spies-1895/) (1895 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Sífilis: Curación absoluta y radical en el Sanatorio para sifilíticos (Syphilis: Absolute and Radical Cure at the Sanatorium for Syphilitics)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sifilis-sanatorio-abreu-1900/) (1900 · Fear appeal)