Was conscription necessary in Canada during World War 2 and why?

Answer 1

Conscription was necessary in the sense that Canada needed to conscript soilders in order to have a big enough army as the allied forces. Canad's army was whitering down therfore they needed more members to be in the army. Prime minister Mackenzie King created the NRMA which conscripted soilders to provide defense on the homefront. This outraged Francaphones however please anglaphones.

Answer 2

In the initial years, the flow of volunteers was high enough to fill the needs of the growing Canadian Army, Navy, and Air Force. At a certain point it was realised that once the Army, in particular, got into heavy combat, the existing troop levels would not be enough to supply re-inforcements for the dead and wounded. There was also the need to provide home security in Canada, so a full division was to be kept at home, throughout the war. The response from English Canada was overwhelming in terms of voulunteers, not so in Quebec, where there were a FEW units of French speakers raised, such as the Sherbrooke regiment, the Maisoneuves, Three Rivers Tanks, and The Van Doos. The majority of French speaking males did not respond to calls for volunteers, so conscription was implemented. The result? Thousands of Quebec males went into hiding, in the bush. Many worked under false names, in war plants, happy to make "big money" and get lots of overtime, but un-willing to actually risk their life for the country. The re-inforcement shortage started in Italy, where many wounded men were rushed back from the hospital to the fighting, before they were properly healed. By the winter of 43/44 the Canadian First Infantry Divison was down to 50 percent of normal strength in all its infantry units, and in some armoured units it was only 30 percent of normal. That meant that attacks went in with only half as many men as normal, and in some cases, units were close to being completely eliminated, in combat, due to a lack of manpower to hold a newly captured onjective. After D-Day, in June,1944, the Second Divison was starting to also be ground down thru the bitter fighting in Normandy. The rates of loss were accelerated by the nature of the geography, which was small fields surrounded by tall hedges, which were fought for one after the other. Heavy loses, day after day, all through the summer, and into the fall. And all the time, over 100,000 trained men were sitting on their asses in Canada, because McKenzie King had made the foolish promise that they could "sign up for home service only" and never have to go overseas unless they volunteered to go. What a slap in the face for those Canadians who HAD voulunteered, and were now fighting in Europe, with fewer and fewer men to do the job? No wonder the "Home Service Only " men were known as Zombies, by the fighting troops. In the end a very samll number, 13,000 actually signed to go overseas, but it was too few, and too LATE. Less than 2,000 of the Zombies actually got to a fighting area, before the war ended, in May , 1945.

Answer 3

because we needed more soldiers...