1 / 5

Canada at War: The Conscription Crisis

Canada at War: The Conscription Crisis. The Conscription Crisis. “All able-bodied men” - By 1917 the war had been dragging on for much longer than had been anticipated. The number of Canadians willing to voluntarily enlist was shrinking rapidly

danica
Download Presentation

Canada at War: The Conscription Crisis

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Canada at War:The Conscription Crisis

  2. The Conscription Crisis “All able-bodied men”- By 1917 the war had been dragging on for much longer than had been anticipated. The number of Canadians willing to voluntarily enlist was shrinking rapidly - PM Borden visited the front lines that spring and was horrified by what he saw. When he returned he asked parliament to pass a conscription bill. - This caused outrage across the country, particularly in Quebec

  3. The Conscription Crisis - Up to this point, Quebec had provided the fewest volunteers by far to the war cause - Resentment existed all over the country, as many other Canadians felt that Quebecers were not pulling their weight - Quebec was a mostly rural province, with the majority of men being farmers. This was considered an essential service in Canada, as they supported the cause through food production - Although both Britain and France were fighting in the war, Quebecers did not feel a sense of ‘familial’ obligation, as Anglophone Canada did

  4. The Conscription Crisis -Opposition in Quebec was led by Henri Bourassa. Laurier was outspoken in opposition in Ottawa (he was leader of the official opposition at that time) - The law passed, but in the ensuing general election Borden’s Conservatives were almost completely shut out of Quebec - Riots in Quebec City and Montreal ensued

  5. The Conscription Crisis - The first conscripts were sent overseas in 1918 - By the time that the war was over in November of that year, only 45 000 conscripts were sent - The end result of this action was a deeply divided Canada, which still exists in many ways to this day

More Related