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Voluntary recruitment was failing to maintain troop numbers, and Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden believed in the military value, and potential post-war influence, of a strong Canadian contribution to the war.
In 1917, facing what he believed to be a shortage in Canadian soldiers, Borden introduced conscription, angering French Canada and sparking a national divide known as the Conscription Crisis.
The Conscription Crisis of 1917 caused a considerable rift along ethnic lines between Anglophones and Francophones. [1] After visiting Britain for a meeting of First Ministers in May 1917, Borden announced that he would introduce the Military Service Act on August 29, 1917. The Act was passed: allowing the government to conscript men aged 20 to ...
The Military Service Act, 1917 (French: Loi concernant le Service militaire) [1] was an Act passed by the Parliament of Canada which introduced conscription in the midst of the First World War. [2] It was passed due to a shortage of volunteers and was an effort to conscript more soldiers.
Borden believed that the sacrifice of the Canadian forces in the field would require Britain to renegotiate with Canada after the war on full sovereignty. But the extreme war effort Borden encouraged in pursuit of victory led to conscription, one of the most traumatic events in Canadian history.
Feb 7, 2006 · After returning from a visit to France in the spring of 1917, Prime Minister Robert Borden was shocked by the enormity of the conflict. He was determined that Canada should play a significant role in the war and announced that compulsory service would be necessary.
When Prime Minister Robert Borden returned from a series of meetings with the Imperial Staff in the spring of 1917, he was convinced that conscription (compulsory military enlistment) was needed in order to maintain the strength of the Canadian Corps in France.
