Background
Allied intervention in Siberia was driven by a mix of motivations. Prior to the Armistice in the fall of 1918, there was a genuine concern that military supplies would be used - directly or indirectly - by the Germans, and that access to the natural resources of the Russian Far East (over the Trans-Siberian Railway) could tilt the outcome of the battles on the Western Front. There was outright hostility to the Bolsheviks, particularly on the part of Winston Churchill, national trade and (perceived) economic interests on the part of each of the governments. The case of the Czechoslovak prisoners of war, which had been offered safe passage by the Soviet government and then threatened with internment in "concentration camps" aroused sympathy on the part of many governments, particularly the United States. When the Czech troops attempted to battle their way out of Russia - eventually controlling much of the Trans-Siberian railway - various Western governments chose to intervene.
Canadian involvement in the Siberian campaign was to a significant degree driven by the policy of Canadian Prime Minister Robert Borden towards the United Kingdom. As a dominion, Canada was neither a full-fledged member of the Entente, nor simply a colony. Borden's arguments for Canada's involvement ""had little to do with Siberia per se, and much to do with adding to the British government's sense of obligation to their imperial junior partner." According to Gaddis Smith, Canadian intervention "represents the initial episode in the Canadian struggle for complete control over her foreign policy after World War I. As such, it illustrates the changing relationships within the British Empire more realistically than the scores of constitutional documents that the Commonwealth statesmen self-consciously drafted between 1917 and 1931."
Domestically, the Siberian expedition was presented to the public as a trade and economic opportunity. After the Armistice, however, domestic opinion turned against foreign involvement, particularly with conscript troops.
Read more about this topic: Canadian Siberian Expeditionary Force
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