The Conscription Crisis in Canada During World War Two

Background Information By 1942, volunteer rates had dramatically declined. As a result, the Canadian government was worried that Canada would not be able to maintain an effective armed forces. The Solution? Conscription!

Prime Minister King’s Solution Prime Minister Mackenzie King remembered his Canadian History. He knew that the conscription issue had divided French and English Canadians during World War One. In addition, he knew that a lot of his electoral success came from Quebeckers; specifically, French Canadians. What should he do?

King Introduces a Plebiscite on Conscription King’s famous line was “conscription if necessary, but not necessarily conscription!” His idea was to hold a plebiscite on the issue. A plebiscite is a non-binding question that asks the electorate to vote on a particular issue. MacKenzie King votes in the National Plebiscite in 1942

King Introduces a Plebiscite on Conscription King’s reasoning was that a positive result on the plebiscite would give him a mandate to proceed with conscription. However, since it was a plebiscite he would not necessarily be forced to introduce conscription. Confusing? Clever? Many historians argue about the merits of King’s tactic.

The Result of the Plebiscite The Result of the Plebiscite on Conscription was: 73% of Quebec voted “non” 80% of the Rest of Canada voted “Yes”

What did King Do? King knew that the results of the Plebiscite could be just as damaging to national unity as the original conscription crisis of 1917 during World War One. As a result, he delayed enacting conscription until 1944. Since conscripted men had to be trained before they hit the battlefield, most of them never saw combat.

The End Result Of the 13,000 who were sent overseas, only 2,500 reached the battlefield. 69 would die in action before the war ended (less than a year later). Mackenzie King would go on to win a majority government in the federal election of 1945 with most of his support from “la belle province. He was the great compromiser…or was he?

Zombies

Zombies With conscription came a very curious issue – the Zombies of the Canadian army. These were men who were conscripted into the army under the National Resources Mobilization Act and had completed their basic training here in Canada but then refused to go overseas to fight in Europe or the Pacific. They stayed in Canada and had nothing to do: they basically were “sleep walking” through the War like zombies. These men were very disliked amongst others in the military: people who served could not believe that the Zombies would wear the uniform of the Canadian military, but refused to fight alongside their brothers over in Europe and the Pacific. Eventually, however, King forced 17 000 of the Zombies to be sent to Europe and be prepared for battle.