Essay On Conscription Before Ww1

As WW1 ended with the Canadian government forcing conscription amongst Canadians in 1917, it left the francophone in anger amongst the Anglophone causing a drift in between the country. In 1939, William Lyon Mackenzie pledged that there would not be another conscription, as it caused a rift between the country in WW1. However, WW2 brought more casualties than WW1. As the battle was getting more fierce, Canada was forced to break conscription promise to the French-Canadians due to low amount of volunteers in the latter part of the war, the number of casualties in the war, and the rebellion of the English cabinet ministers.

William Lyon Mackenzie promised that they would not have another conscript. Which meant that the country would rely heavily

Not only was it Germany but also the entire axis group including Italy, and Japan. With this, created lots of casualties. One event was named ‘The Battle up the Boot’ where the Canadians and the Italians were battling it out. Although the Canadians won that battle, the Italians claimed over 5000 Canadian’s lives. As if the circumstance couldn’t have been much worse, in 1941 the Japanese entered the war, which gave in more demands for overseas conscription. This gave the Prime Minister William Mackenzie a much worse position to be in as the military population is declining due to the lack of volunteers joining in. Mackenzie however had to go back on his word in 1944, because the troop shortages were so severe to the point where they have to send conscripts to fight in the war. William Mackenzie has sent around 12-16 thousand conscripts overseas, not too much and not too little. In return, Quebec wasn’t too upset and the war was ending. At the end of the war, a total of 42,042 Canadian men and women of Canada’s armed forces died, around 22-23 thousand in the Canadian army, around 17, 000 in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and around 2,000 in the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) were wounded and around 9,000 were taken prisoner. With the shocking number of casualties occurring during the war it caused a shortage in the number of