Mackenzie King and Minorities

“At the outbreak of war in 1914, over 30 000 volunteers joined the army, far more than expected. These volunteers were mostly recent immigrants from Britain, as well as unemployed young men from the English-speaking provinces.” (Wikipedia, par 1) Robert Borden had promised 500,000 more volunteers but there was no one volunteering. So Borden was forced to put conscription into effect in 1917. This put a huge strain on English – French relations in canada. The English and French started to play the blame game. The English speaking Canadians pointed out that only four percent of the

From the strife conscription had put on French-English relations in Canada, it made sense for William Lyon Mackenzie King to try and prevent conscription during World War II at all costs. So even before the outbreak of war, Mackenzie King pledged to have no conscription during the war if there should be one. “No one was more concerned than the Prime Minister. His whole political life, like that of Laurier, had been centered on the effort to bind together french and English Canada, and he was thus a confirmed anti-conscriptionist so long as that policy could be applied with any hope of success.” (Dawson, p.16) Although he felt this way, by mid-1940, English Canada was pressuring the government for “total mobilization of manpower.” (Canadian War Museum, par 1) So Mackenzie King introduced an act that called for a countrywide registration of suitable men and approved conscription for home defense called the National Resources Mobilization Act. So basically it called for every eligible person to fight the war from home. This wasn’t enough for the English Canadians though; they felt the people of the NRMA should fight overseas. So this pressure and the joining of Japan to the war caused Mackenzie King, against his wishes, to ask Canada to release him from his 1939 promi

Some topics in this essay:
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