Conscription Crisis Research Paper
Conscription Crisis, 1917
The defining moment I chose is Conscription Crisis, 1917. This predicament started in early 1917 right down to the end of the war. World War I broke out in 1914 and Canada, as a collaborator of Great Britain, involuntarily found itself in the scrimmage. Such was the estimation of Prime Minister Robert Borden, to say the least.
Towards the end of 1916, tallies were being sent back to the commonwealth of the total killed. The information was catastrophic. 1916 was demonstrating to be the most horrible year of the war so far, at least for the Allies. The French and British had experienced and were still suffering heavy casualties. French soldiers at Verdun were even beginning to mutiny. Russia was whispered to …show more content…
be diminishing out of the war. Some radical action had to be taken.
A new government in Great Britain, which was determined to win the Great War, had requested all its dominions, i.e.
Canada, to put forth fresh recruitments. After a visit to the battlefront, Prime Minister Borden agreed in every respect with this proposition. He had witnessed himself that the Australians, who had much less inhabitants than Canada, had put forth undisputedly more supplementary soldiers then Canada.
Conversely, volunteers were getting harder to get. Due to the fact that the numbers of fatalities in the war were not kept undisclosed to the communal, the request of the government for additional armed forces seemed incredulous, and had an instantaneous reverse effect. When Prime Minister Borden formerly put forth the idea, in private I might add, not yet in the House of Commons, his own cabinet, which he himself had put in place, told him the idea was crazy, …show more content…
preposterous.
Borden was convinced of the significance of launching a compulsory conscription structure to recompense for wounded and deceased. Even his cabinet became increasingly distressed as to some extent agree with what he said. He thus passed the Military Service Act. Francophones were approximately unanimous in their disagreement. Henri Bourassa, the representation of French-Canadian patriotism, refused to let the government enforce conscription as long as Bill 17 was still in effect in Ontario. Borden forced through the Military Voters Act and the War-time Elections Act, and then called an election. With all the extra votes he guaranteed to be in his favor, he had already sealed the deal on conscription. This had great consequences in Canada, and with their international and foreign affairs and policies, as we will look at in parts B, C and D of this writing piece.
Section B
There are many reasons why the conscription crisis of 1917 is important to Canadian history, and I will go over four of them right here.
First of all many new laws were created due to this crisis. The Military Voters Act for instance. This act enacted that anyone who had once been active in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, the Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Militia, or any Air Force of the British or Canadians, is allowed to vote, whether or not he is Indian (which is very abnormal), whether or not a citizen of the Dominion of Canada, whether or not female, (again irregular), is considered a military elector. In addition, which I think is the most abnormal of all; minors were given the vote if they were active in one of the groups mentioned above. The second law, the War-time Elections Act, extended the vote to all mothers, sisters and wives of the soldiers serving at the front at the time. This actually ensured a double vote for each soldier, for undoubtedly his mother sister or wife would vote the same as he would. These laws would have affect on Canada because, although they were designed for that certain time period, they will most undoubtedly be used
again.
Another way that conscription is significant to Canadian history is basically because this was the first time they had to deal with it on their own. Once could argue that they had to deal with it during the Boer War, but their participation there was extremely limited, and there was no way that the conscription would be passed for something like that. However, that first time that Prime Minister Borden forced conscription foretells the outcome on any future referendums on such issue.
There is another outcome that this conscription crisis foretells, and this is the strained future relation between Quebec and the rest of the provinces. As I mentioned in Section A, paragraph 5, sentence 3, “Francophones were approximately unanimous in their disagreement.” Due to fact that their opinion was ignored and that Henri Bourassa request was rejected, the relationship was stretched tight indeed. I believe that had they not been in the middle of a war, the French population in Ontario and Quebec would have had a massive revolt. After the war, there was too much jubilation and most of the French had calmed down just as me or you would fight down that impulse to hit somebody, they forgot all about it. Besides, of 100,000 who had been listed to fight, only approximately 30,000 actually saw battle, of which very few were casualties.
The final reason I will mention here that this was important to Canadian history was the way that Canada agreed to Britain’s request. Although Canada is a commonwealth nation, they had complete independence and they did not have to follow through with that request. The fact that they did, however, shows what their future relationship will be. Trust and friendship, perhaps, or co-operation and slavery? One can never tell.
Section C
This defining moment was essential to Canada’s development as a nation in one essential way. It foretells the relationship that Canada and Britain would continue to have over the next century. Mr. Borden tells us in a few words the implications that led him to agree to the request of the British Prime Minister.
“The relations between the Dominions and the Motherland were abnormal, he said, thrown into war because the Motherland was at war, and yet we were not aware of the diplomatic relations that Great Britain entertained with other nations of Europe; there were treaties and agreements about which we were not informed. Because of our participation we have acquired the right to be better informed for the present and the future. It is to remedy this situation and for other very important reasons that the British Prime Minister conceived the idea of uniting the heads of government of each overseas Dominion."
Canadian nurses in a military hospital in France vote in the federal election of 1917, thanks to the Military Voters Act of 1917.
Anti-conscription protest in Montreal, May 24, 1917.
These two pictures show the way that the vote was put in place for a certain victory for Mr. Borden and the way the Montreal and other Quebec cities were against conscription in Canada
Section E
A.M. Willms, Conscription 1917, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, all pages used
Robert Qwinn, “conscription”, The New Encyclopedia Britannica, 1993,
“Conscription”, Wikipediea, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription, 26 MAR 06
“The Conscription Crisis of 1917”, Peace and Conflict, http://www.histori.ca/peace/page,
25 MAR 06
The defining moment I chose is Conscription Crisis, 1917. This predicament started in early 1917 right down to the end of the war. World War I broke out in 1914 and Canada, as a collaborator of Great Britain, involuntarily found itself in the scrimmage. Such was the estimation of Prime Minister Robert Borden, to say the least.
Towards the end of 1916, tallies were being sent back to the commonwealth of the total killed. The information was catastrophic. 1916 was demonstrating to be the most horrible year of the war so far, at least for the Allies. The French and British had experienced and were still suffering heavy casualties. French soldiers at Verdun were even beginning to mutiny. Russia was whispered to …show more content…
be diminishing out of the war. Some radical action had to be taken.
A new government in Great Britain, which was determined to win the Great War, had requested all its dominions, i.e.
Canada, to put forth fresh recruitments. After a visit to the battlefront, Prime Minister Borden agreed in every respect with this proposition. He had witnessed himself that the Australians, who had much less inhabitants than Canada, had put forth undisputedly more supplementary soldiers then Canada.
Conversely, volunteers were getting harder to get. Due to the fact that the numbers of fatalities in the war were not kept undisclosed to the communal, the request of the government for additional armed forces seemed incredulous, and had an instantaneous reverse effect. When Prime Minister Borden formerly put forth the idea, in private I might add, not yet in the House of Commons, his own cabinet, which he himself had put in place, told him the idea was crazy, …show more content…
preposterous.
Borden was convinced of the significance of launching a compulsory conscription structure to recompense for wounded and deceased. Even his cabinet became increasingly distressed as to some extent agree with what he said. He thus passed the Military Service Act. Francophones were approximately unanimous in their disagreement. Henri Bourassa, the representation of French-Canadian patriotism, refused to let the government enforce conscription as long as Bill 17 was still in effect in Ontario. Borden forced through the Military Voters Act and the War-time Elections Act, and then called an election. With all the extra votes he guaranteed to be in his favor, he had already sealed the deal on conscription. This had great consequences in Canada, and with their international and foreign affairs and policies, as we will look at in parts B, C and D of this writing piece.
Section B
There are many reasons why the conscription crisis of 1917 is important to Canadian history, and I will go over four of them right here.
First of all many new laws were created due to this crisis. The Military Voters Act for instance. This act enacted that anyone who had once been active in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, the Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Militia, or any Air Force of the British or Canadians, is allowed to vote, whether or not he is Indian (which is very abnormal), whether or not a citizen of the Dominion of Canada, whether or not female, (again irregular), is considered a military elector. In addition, which I think is the most abnormal of all; minors were given the vote if they were active in one of the groups mentioned above. The second law, the War-time Elections Act, extended the vote to all mothers, sisters and wives of the soldiers serving at the front at the time. This actually ensured a double vote for each soldier, for undoubtedly his mother sister or wife would vote the same as he would. These laws would have affect on Canada because, although they were designed for that certain time period, they will most undoubtedly be used
again.
Another way that conscription is significant to Canadian history is basically because this was the first time they had to deal with it on their own. Once could argue that they had to deal with it during the Boer War, but their participation there was extremely limited, and there was no way that the conscription would be passed for something like that. However, that first time that Prime Minister Borden forced conscription foretells the outcome on any future referendums on such issue.
There is another outcome that this conscription crisis foretells, and this is the strained future relation between Quebec and the rest of the provinces. As I mentioned in Section A, paragraph 5, sentence 3, “Francophones were approximately unanimous in their disagreement.” Due to fact that their opinion was ignored and that Henri Bourassa request was rejected, the relationship was stretched tight indeed. I believe that had they not been in the middle of a war, the French population in Ontario and Quebec would have had a massive revolt. After the war, there was too much jubilation and most of the French had calmed down just as me or you would fight down that impulse to hit somebody, they forgot all about it. Besides, of 100,000 who had been listed to fight, only approximately 30,000 actually saw battle, of which very few were casualties.
The final reason I will mention here that this was important to Canadian history was the way that Canada agreed to Britain’s request. Although Canada is a commonwealth nation, they had complete independence and they did not have to follow through with that request. The fact that they did, however, shows what their future relationship will be. Trust and friendship, perhaps, or co-operation and slavery? One can never tell.
Section C
This defining moment was essential to Canada’s development as a nation in one essential way. It foretells the relationship that Canada and Britain would continue to have over the next century. Mr. Borden tells us in a few words the implications that led him to agree to the request of the British Prime Minister.
“The relations between the Dominions and the Motherland were abnormal, he said, thrown into war because the Motherland was at war, and yet we were not aware of the diplomatic relations that Great Britain entertained with other nations of Europe; there were treaties and agreements about which we were not informed. Because of our participation we have acquired the right to be better informed for the present and the future. It is to remedy this situation and for other very important reasons that the British Prime Minister conceived the idea of uniting the heads of government of each overseas Dominion."
Canadian nurses in a military hospital in France vote in the federal election of 1917, thanks to the Military Voters Act of 1917.
Anti-conscription protest in Montreal, May 24, 1917.
These two pictures show the way that the vote was put in place for a certain victory for Mr. Borden and the way the Montreal and other Quebec cities were against conscription in Canada
Section E
A.M. Willms, Conscription 1917, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, all pages used
Robert Qwinn, “conscription”, The New Encyclopedia Britannica, 1993,
“Conscription”, Wikipediea, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription, 26 MAR 06
“The Conscription Crisis of 1917”, Peace and Conflict, http://www.histori.ca/peace/page,
25 MAR 06