Prime Minister Mackenzie King opposed mandatory military service during most of the Second World War. He wanted to avoid a repeat of the conscription crisis which erupted during the First World War. Pictured here, King inspecting seamen of H.M.C.S. Assiniboine, 1940. (National Archives of Canada, PA-104239)

Conscription - mandatory military service - touched the souls of both English and French Canada. Many English Canadians felt strong ties to Britain and conscription was considered a crucial part of an all-out war effort. French Canada felt considerably less loyalty to the Imperial Mother and held steadfast to Kings election promise of no overseas conscription.

For his part, the Prime Minister remembered the riots and chaos that erupted in World War I after the government introduced conscription. King was determined to avoid a repeat of the crisis.

In the early part of the war, voluntary enlistment was strong and King was able to take the political middle ground on conscription. His government passed the National Resources Mobilization Act, requiring all single men to register for home defense; it stopped short of conscription for overseas service.

But the winter of 1942 brought grim news from the Allies (countries fighting Germany). Hitlers troops were winning the war. At the same time, voluntary recruitment in Canada began to slow. There was a resurgence of pro-conscription sentiment in English Canada.

Attacks on King came from both from the press and from Arthur Meighen, an old political foe who was now leader of the Conservative Party.

"The reason is, the head of the government says, that if we compel Canadians to fight to save Canada, we will destroy the unity of the nation. Can any normal mind accept such a preposterous contention? We can only keep Canada united, the head of the government says, by allowing Canada to be deserted in the hour of peril."

King decided to hold a plebiscite on the issue. The national vote would buy him time and put the onus on the Canadian public to release him from his election promise of no conscription.

In reaction to the plebiscite announcement, La Ligue pour le defense du Canada was formed, uniting nationalists and leaders in unions, farm and community groups and youth movements. The group's manifesto explained why members opposed conscription.

"Because a small country of 11 million inhabitants cannot be, as it is claimed, the arsenal of the democracies and the allied nations, and at the same time, an inexhaustible reservoir of fighting men. Because Canada has already achieved and even surpassed the limit of its military effort. Because relatively speaking we have ready done at least as much as any of the major belligerents - Canada has no right, let alone obligation, to sabotage itself."

On April 27, 1942, Canadians voted, with 80 percent of Canadians outside Quebec voting in favour of conscription, and 72% percent of Quebeckers voting no.

King now had the political mandate but he still had no intention of introducing conscription. He would dance around the issue as long as he could. His nebulous slogan became, "Not necessarily conscription, but conscription if necessary."

	In fall 1944, Colonel James Ralston, the Minister of National Defence, visited Canadian troops in Europe. He returned determined to convince his government to impose conscription. (National Archives of Canada)

By fall 1944, King was running out of stalling tactics. Fighting was fierce in Europe and the Canadian forces were thinned by casualties. The Minister of National Defense, Colonel James Ralston, returned from visiting troops in Europe determined to do battle with King over mandatory enlistment.

Ralston met with King, and succeeded only in reviving all the Prime Minister's doubts and fears regarding conscription.

"Considering all aspects of the situation more harm than good would be done with any attempt to force conscription at this time," King wrote in his diary. "I could not bring myself to being the head of a Government which would take that course - a course which might, after five years of war in Europe and preparations for a year and a half of another war in the Pacific - lead to spurts of civil war in our own country."

Despite pressure from his Minister of Defense, King had not played out his hand. At the next Cabinet meeting, he produced a letter of resignation that Ralston had offered two years earlier and failed to withdraw. King announced that he was now accepting it. One Minister called the act the most cold-blooded thing he has ever seen.

King replaced Ralston with retired General Andrew McNaughton. The General was popular and felt he could raise enough troops voluntarily.

He failed. Near the end of November 1944, King had run out of options.

Military high command told McNaughton that they would not continue the voluntary campaign as it would not raise the needed men.

King realized the armys decision could be a fatal blow. But it could also be way out. He changed his mind and decided to introduce conscription.

In King's final political move, he realized he had to get the support of his Minister of Justice Louis St. Laurent. He used the threat of an army revolt to justify his reversal to St. Laurent.

"I spoke of how impossible government law and order might become. He was very much perturbed. He spoke of it as raising serious questions of relations of Army with Government, very serious if there was anything in the nature of a Palace revolution."

On November 22, 1944, after years political maneuvering, King finally announced he would send troops - trained for home defense - overseas.

The announcement was met with anger from Quebec and protests from home defense troops around the country. But now time was on King's side.

By the end of the war, only 2,400 conscripted soldiers reached the front lines. When they finally arrived they were no longer really needed. King had played his political hand until the end and skillfully delayed conscription until time had run out on the war.

André Laurendeau, editor of the French Canadian nationalist journal, laction nationale, commented on King's political mastery:

"He knew the trick holding a vast, divided country together. Like a diligent tailor, each night he mended the wear and tear of very day. He sewed and dared and redarned so much and so well that the cloth more or less held together. If he had disappeared, a reign of violence would have followed."