William Mackenzie King's Conscription In Canada

It takes a lot of courage and manpower to run a country especially such a big one like Canada.William Mackenzie-King was born 1874, he served as prime minister from 1921-30 and 1935-48. Considering he served for twenty-three year and he served as the longest standing Canadian PM through the great depression and a world war, he made few mistakes mostly not recognizing and acting during the depression. William Lyon Mackenzie King was a semi-successful prime minister considering the economic and military conflict that was present in Canada at the time of his reign. He had a close friendship with the American prime minister, Franklin Roosevelt ultimately helping the Canadian and british war effort. King considered the French canadians and he did

This promise would appeal to the French Canadians that did not feel a connection to Britain and did not feel any sense of loyalty. He also saw how conscription divided Canada at the end of the first world war, and did not want to recreate that scene. There came a time near the end of world war two when there was a shortage of men. This was due as a result of D-Day and the Dieppe raid. Many men were dying in the war and that must have discouraged other men in Canada from signing up. Nevertheless, Canada needed men to fight. King fought with cabinet and other sections of parliament as much as he could against conscription. The need for conscription arose when the Canadians of British descent demanded conscription while the French Canadians demanded him to stick to his promise. In the end, He did enforce conscription out of necessity. “Not necessarily conscription but conscription if necessary”(King).This quote was king trying to express his effort to keep to his promise and stay truthful. But as with the first world war, the war ended before very many forced soldiers got onto the field. Doing what King did, he tried as hard as he could to stick to his original promise, a sign of a great