World War II

   The Conscription Crisis of 1917 had a major influence on the choices made by future politicians. In 1944, a second conscription crisis arrived as a result of World War II and it was much better handled.

   With the arrival of World War II, Parliament was focused on keeping Canada united and did not want to repeat the previous disaster. The general consensus was that conscription should not happen again. By 1942, Germany was greatly weakening the Allies and Great Britain was pressuring Canada to bring in more people. William Lyon Mackenzie King, the Prime Minister of the time, decided to hold a plebiscite, a vote in which the entire electing population can participate. In the end, the majority of Canadians voted in favour of conscription, but 72% of Quebec was against it.

   Although he had won the support of the majority, Mackenzie King was not as quick to disregard opposing opinions as Borden had been. He waited two years before enforcing conscription, and when he did, he limited the number of conscripted citizens to 16,000. He also lessened opposition in Quebec by securing the support of Louis St. Laurent, who was a young and well-respected justice minister in Quebec at the time. Through these actions, it is clear that Mackenzie King was careful to avoid the fiasco that had taken place in 1917.

   There were brief riots in Montreal and a brigade that refused to go to Europe, but the dispute was not as severe as what had happened in the previous conscription crisis. Having had the chance to learn from World War I, the government was much more careful this time around and managed to avoid the extent of the divide caused by the previous conscription crisis.