 Mistakenly considered "ethnic Germans", even though they were actually primarily of Dutch ancestry, the Mennonites were caught up in the anti-German sentiment of the time and Conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden banned Mennonites from Steinbach and other areas from voting in 1917.A year later in 1918, as soldiers returned to North America, Spanish flu struck the village, killing many.Mennonites in the region were particularly affected by the outbreak, dying at a rate nearly twice that of other ethnic groups.