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Involvement of canada in the second world war
Mandatory military service in the US
Conscription act ww2 essay
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Behind every successful country is a strong leader. William Lyon Mackenzie King (WLMK) was a gold mine for Canada during World War 2 (WW2). He was the longest serving Prime Minister (PM) of Canada who possessed political smarts, skillful parliamentary tools, and brilliant tactics. He was also the most important PM. Mackenzie King was an effective Prime Minister during WW2. He prevented the split between Canadian French and English; he had good intentions for Canada and stabilized the economy.
During World War 1 (WW1) the Canadian French and English had a very unpleasant relationship because of conscription. With the help of almost all of the English speaking members in Parliament; disregarding the French members, Prime Minister Robert Borden imposed conscription which caused a riot in Montreal. Store windows were broken; railway cars were flipped upside down causing thousands wounded and four people killed. On the other hand WLMK was quite aware of this situation during WW2; he thought it was important to keep Canada united. In 1939 and 1940 during the election campaign, King was against mandatory overseas conscription because he knew most men would not want to participate out of the country. However, King imposed conscription in the National Resource Mobilization Act for service at home to help with wartime production. By 1942, King noticed that Canada would need more troops because of our great loss during the battle of Dieppe. To prevent another riot, he decided to hold a Plebiscite. He wanted Canadians to allow him to break his promise about overseas conscription; 69% of Canadians voted “yes” and 36% voted “no”. Mackenzie King always said, "not necessarily conscription, but conscription if necessary." He is saying that he would not necessarily impose conscription, but if he felt that it is a necessity he would impose it. King was very careful about
In changing his mind, he lost many citizens’ trust in their government. The majority of those opposing Borden were French-Canadians. While Canada's involvement in WW1 was supported by the vast majority of English Canadians, the issue of conscription clearly and sharply divided the country. For some Canadians it was an important and necessary contribution for a faltering war effort. However, for others it was an oppressive act passed by a more British government than Canadian. Many francophones living in canada during World War 1 were not to fond of the idea of a draft army and were more reluctant to enlist as they felt a little attachment to Britain. They did not believe that it was their war, as a result they felt suppressed by the canadian government and that their opinion, linguistic and cultural independence was ignored. The French-Canadian’s reluctance to enlist had much to do with the fact that little accommodation was made for those soldiers that did not speak English. Francophones were expected to understand the English commands given by British officers, which they resented. Their linguistic barriers were ignored and the feel of having conscription being imposed on them led to public displays of resentment. Former Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier claimed that conscription "has in it the seeds of discord and disunion". He was correct since
Later on in his developing career, Currie met with a woman named Lucy Charworth-Musters, who would one day be his wife. With a paying job as a teacher, he decided to enlist in the militia as a lowly gunner in the 5th Regiment at the Canadian Garrison Artillery. In 1901, Currie married Lucy and found a better-paying job at an insurance firm at Matson and Coles (Dancocks, 1985). With great devotion to his wife and two children, the militia was still one of Currie’s priorities and he became a commander of the 5th Regiment of Artillery, winning the Governor-General’s Cup for efficiency (Hyatt, 1987). On the 4th of August in 1914, the British ultimatum to Germany expired and Canada was now automatically at war (Hyatt, 1987).
Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson was a prominent figure in Canada in the 1960s. Pearson was Canada's most significant post WWII prime minister because of his government's many innovations that still benefit Canadians today. He fostered Canadian nationalism, which continues to the present day, promoted equality throughout Canada – equality that now thrives as part of Canada's identity – and he introduced many social services that are still implemented today.
Canada also became a leader internationally as well. With such an enormous military contribution during the war, other countries began to recognize the success of Canada. People wanted to know more about Canada. Consequently, the war advanced Canada’s sense of identity.
During the First World War, Canada suffered a great conscription crisis that divided the nation. The French-Canadian nationalists, led by Henri Bourassa, opposed conscription and felt that they were fighting an English war, and therefore felt no obligation to fight. The vast majority of those who enlisted during the age of voluntary recruitment were Anglophones; in contrast, very few Francophones volunteered to fight. On 17 May 1917, Prime Minister Robert Borden announced that military service was to become compulsory among men of fighting age of all classes. French-Canadians protested; however, despite their best efforts, the Military Service Bill came into effect. The protest eventually led to lengthy riots. Following this, Canada became
Pierre Trudeau is the greatest Canadian of the twentieth century due to the fact that he declared Canada’s independence from Great Britain, he abolished the death penalty, and he created the Official Languages Act, making our nation entirely bilingual.
The prime minister at that time, Mackenzie King, was unprepared to deal with the crisis at hand. His thoughts were that the depression was only a fluke, and that given time, the economy would prosper once more. King never answered the pleas for aid by his citizens, and told ...
Sir John A. Macdonald was one of Canada's founding fathers. He is most remembered as being Canada's first Prime Minister, running the government from July 1, 1867 until November 5, 1873. Macdonald would become Prime Minister once again on October 17, 1878 and would stay in this position until June 6,1891. While he was leader of the country he faced his own share of political obstacles, including Confederation, the Metis rebellion and threats of an American he is among the greatest leaders Canada has ever seen and played a significant part in the forming of Canada as a country.
...t of all allied forces. Canada made the largest contribution by any commonwealth towards the allied forces during World War II. Without the BCATP and the insurgence of thousands of aircrew it would have been extremely difficult for the Allied powers to stand much of a chance against the might of Germany.
At the beginning of World War I, the Canadian government was hesitant about Aboriginals in the military. When the war broke in 1914, recruitment of “Status Indians” was prohibited, as they were often connected to torture and scalping. Some natives enlisted in face of the law, thanks to a commitment to their land. It wasn't until 1916 that the government allowed active recruitment of Status Indians by reason of Robert Borden's endeavours to replace the growing number of casualties on the front lines. Still the active recruitment of Aboriginals was an effort to encourage the men to join, not force them. However, in 1917, the Canadian government chose to enforce conscription, or mandatory military service. Native communities reacted very quickly to this news, writing to the government with letters noting that Aboriginals still did not have rights of citizens and should therefore be exempt from conscription. Finally, in January 1918, the cabinet passed an order-in-council absolving Aboriginals from compulsory enlistment. At the beginning of the Great War, Aboriginals were not accepted by the Canadian government for military service, but the Canadian leaders soon came to realize that native men would be a great addition to the service.
William Lyon Mackenzie King was one of the greatest prime ministers in Canada, although he did not give a fascinating speech or had an exciting image and supported few radical policies . King’s opinions were very strong and would not be changed no matter what. No one could influence King and this was shown through his leadership during the Great Depression and the election in 1930.
Canada over the years have made itself known with it’s aspect of military combat. It’s soldiers have proven themselves undoubtedly strong willed and the prowess of Canadians shown bright in the battlefields of WWI and WWII. However, the brilliance of the Canadian forces was not without its own indigenous faults. In WWI alone, there have been 100,000 men conscripted into the armed forces, upping the count to meet the number Robert Borden, the PM at the time’s promised 500,000 by 1917. Simple math presents that over 20 percent of the men that then made up of Canada’s armed forces were conscripts, and the men were unwilling to do battle. Out of the French, 93% of those who were enlisted had applied for exemption. The lack of discipline out of the French Canadian soldiers even resulted in riots in Quebec. The savagery of the riots shocked conscripts and volunteers alike, and lowering the morales of both Conversely, the majority of soldiers who applied for the exemption of the military did not receive their goal. Nevertheless, those men still found other ways to avoid the frontlines, by assuming non-combat roles with duties of cleaning and other labour. While these militia servants were frowned upon, and even harassed by other soldiers, it did not stop the population of conscripts from ...
...e to power in Quebec. This indicates that Quebecers supported non-violent methods in order to achieve independence for Quebec, rather than the violent methods of the FLQ, also indicating that the efforts of the FLQ would have been subdued by the Parti Quebecois. The death of Pierre Laporte was another unfortunate occurrence as a result of the War Measures Act which could have been avoided, yet some still believe his death is not related to the invocation of the War Measures Act. Justification is required for all actions which spark debate, and in events where the justification is provided under false pretences, someone must be held responsible. In this case it remains the Trudeau government. Trudeau may have had an admirable political career in which he made many wise decisions, however, the invocation of the War Measures Act in October 1970 was not one of them.
Canadians contributed in many ways to help our country's great efforts in the First World War. Canadians had literally the whole country and made enormous demands on the Canadian people, whether they were involved in the actual fighting or remained on the home front to work in industry or farming to support the war effort. Canada grew tremendously through the war as a nation, individually and emotional. Canadian troops had to be strong and responsible as they were always running from one front to another and had to be strong so that the little thing don’t bother them so they don’t become emotionally unstable, then could end there life. Strength played a major role through the war as did courage and every Canadian troop had those two components making them a strong army to attack against.
A century ago, Canada was under control by the British Empire. The battles we fought the treaties we signed and the disputes we solved all helped us gain independence from our mother country “Britain”. Canadians fought a long battle protecting others, and from these battles we gained our peaceful reputation and our independence from Britain. Canada became a nation on July, 1st 1867. Although we were an independent country, our affairs and treaties were all still signed by Britain. In the next years Canada would establish its own government, and lead its own affairs. Many important events led to Canada’s independence, one of the earliest signals that Canada wanted to establish autonomy was the Chanak affair of 1921. In addition the battle of Normandy, which occurred on June 6 1944, contributed to the autonomy of Canada. The Suez Canal Crisis, which took place in the year 1956, earned Canada a place in the media spotlight, displaying Canada as a peaceful country that deserves the right to be independent. One of the final steps that aided with Canada’s independence from Britain was the Canada Act of 1982. Independence from Britain steadily increased throughout the 20th century because of political decisions made in Canada.