1. The Conscription Crisis of 1944 A POLITICAL AND MILITARY CRISIS

2. AN OVERVIEW  The Conscription Crisis of 1944 was a political and military crisis following the introduction of forced military service in Canada during World War II.  It was similar to the Conscription Crisis of 1917, but was not as politically damaging.

3. THE BACKGROUNDER  Canada declared war against Germany on September 10, 1939 and sent one division to Europe, which had no chance for combat before France was overrun by Germany.

4. THE BACKGROUNDER: The Pledge  In 1940, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King pledged to limit Canada's direct military involvement in the war + promised no conscription in his election platform.  Many Canadians supported Mackenzie King's pledge, even as it became obvious the war would not be quickly resolved.

5. THE BACKGROUNDER: Who Joined?  As in the First World War, young French-Canadians volunteered/joined the few traditional French- speaking regiments of the Canadian army.  In the rest of the military, however, units were anglicized and English-speaking Canadians volunteered/joined these.

6. THE BACKGROUNDER: The NRMA  In June 1940 the government adopted conscription for home service in the National Resources Mobilization Act (NRMA), which allowed the government to register men and women and move them into jobs considered necessary for wartime production, but did not allow them to be conscripted for overseas service = the NRMA allowed for conscription, but only for home defense.

7. THE BACKGROUNDER: Recruit Numbers Dropping  By the late summer of 1944, the numbers of new recruits were insufficient to replace war casualties in Europe, particularly among the infantry.

8. THE PLEBISCITE OF 1942  By 1941 there were enough volunteers for five overseas divisions.  Meanwhile the Conservatives were pressuring King to advise that the Governor General introduce conscription.

9. THE PLEBISCITE OF 1942: The Promise  Canada had nearly been torn apart by conscription in WWI – Mackenzie King wanted to avoid conscription at all cost and promised there would be none.

10. THE PLEBISCITE OF 1942: The Promise Taken Back  In April 1942 a plebiscite was held, which asked the population not to support immediate conscription, but rather to allow the government to take back its promise made during the 1940 election.

11. THE PLEBISCITE OF 1942: Choice Words  King's famous remark on the issue, "conscription if necessary, but not necessarily conscription," reflected the ambiguous nature of the plebiscite.

12. THE PLEBISCITE OF 1942: Support  Unsurprisingly, the plebiscite was supported by most English Canadians as well as the banned Communist Party of Canada.  Across Canada, 63% of voters were in favour of conscription with voting English Canadians 83% in favour.

14. THE PLEBISCITE OF 1942: Unsupportive  The proposal received hardly any support from French Canadians, especially in Quebec, where anti-conscription groups (including one led by Henri Bourassa, the most vocal opponent of conscription in 1917) encouraged 72.9% of voters to oppose the plebiscite.

16. THE PLEBISCITE OF 1942: The Repeal  The government then passed Bill 80, repealing the sections of the NRMA that did not allow for overseas conscription.  Now conscription could be used “if necessary.”

18. CONSCRIPTION  However, many Canadians still did not support immediate conscription; there were a few riots in Montreal, although these were not on the same scale as the 1917 and 1918 riots.  Even in Toronto, a strongly pro-conscription region, Conservative Arthur Meighen was defeated in a by-election after promising to help introduce conscription.

19. OVERSEAS CONSCRIPTION  Late in the war (early in 1945), King had to agree to send conscripts overseas.

20. COMBAT IN EUROPE  Few conscripts saw combat in Europe: only 2463 men reached units on the front lines.  Out of these, 79 lost their lives.  The NRMA men who refused to "go Active" were derisively called "Zombies" both in Canada and overseas.

21. THE PLEBISCITE OF 1942: The Gamble + Zombies  Politically, this was a successful gamble for King, as he avoided a drawn-out political crisis and remained in power until his retirement in 1948.  More importantly, Canada was not as divided along French-English lines as it had been in 1917.

22. Up Next: The Battles