Why did farmers opposed conscription in world war 1?

Answer 1

The military service act encountered resistance when dealing with the Canadian farming population. During the start of the draft, it was still possible to be exempt from service if the certain conditions were met. "Farmers sons should be exempt under the certain conditions" (5). However Robert Borden(Prime minister at the time) would latter put a stop to these exemptions resulting in a public outcry. Henry wise wood, the head of the united farmers of Alberta stated that " the end of exemptions would be a serious blow to production. Many cases leaving family helpless and farm unworked" One immediate result of the lifting of exemptions was the huge delegation of farmers, mainly from Ontario, that descended to parliament hill. The Farmers claimed that there were 41,852 (6) agriculturalists drafted for service. If they were to be called up than the results of the farm would drop tremendously." Each township in Ontario for example would see 4,400 acres go out of production" (7). This served out to be a crucial reason for opposition because if the act was passed then the removal of experienced farm help would result in a large number of crops that would be left to rot in the field. Ultimately, the Farming population of Canada knew that the loss of conscripted workers would severely limit Canada's production of food stuffs at the time. As a result of the conscripted agriculturalists, the farming population of Canada was a major driving force behind opposition towards the military service act.

The Canadian farmers cannot be over looked when viewing who opposed the military service act. Very similar to the Canadian labour unions, the Farming population was under an excessive amount of pressure to meet high wartime demands. In order to meet these demands the farmers declared that it would be next to impossible unless there workers would be exempt. "Loss of conscripted farm workers would severely limit Canada's production of food and war time supplies" (8) . This stood out to be a dominant reason for opposition towards the Canadian military service act.

Answer 2

they didn't feel like they owed the government anything. They didn't feel part of canada and they didn't want to be part of canada. Why would they go fight for a country that's done nothing for them but a short-change them? They had no loyalty to canada where most of the english speaking canadians did. A lot of the french canadians didn't enlist in the first place but after conscription was brought into play they were furious. No loyalty