Did Canada or will Canada ever have a draft?

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Rank Jeff

Canada has a draft when they need it, like in ww1 and ww2 but usually no. Canada doesn't really fight many wars and when we do it usually just a few thousand troops send along with american units like in afghanistan. If a big war came then we might have a draft again, but I am a conscious objector so I can't fight

Randy B

We have never gone that far although there have been steps taken to set up for conscription if required. By in large however most Canadians have volunteered for the causes they feel are worth fighting for. Even with the current war in Afghanistan they have been flocking to the recruiting centers to sign up.

ETA: As to your question of will we ever have conscription...if I knew that I would know which stocks to buy next week. Anything is possible however unless we are in for a major major world war I can't see it happening.

And as for the other person who said that Canada is known for it's peacekeepers, I'd respectfully request that he have a good read of the history books. Canada is well known for it's fighting spirit and we haven't been peacekeeping since Kosovo/Croatio/Bosnia. Just do a simple search on the Medak Pocket and Canada's participation there.

K B

As others have said - it is doubtful if we would have a US type of draft.
We have had conscription. It did not cause a vast schism though some did not want to join the fight. And to lay 'a vast schism' on all Quebecois is a pretty low, uninformed view of things. Some of our most courageous heroes of the two World Wars were Quebecois. For one such hero see
http://www.kvacanada.com/stories_taportraits.htm

To understand the reason for the conflict over conscription, one would have to understand the arguments put forward at the time (1917) rather than the biases of the here and now generation. And it would be best if you talked to Quebecers, English and French who lived there at the time, rather than non Quebecers who just spread negative rumours that shore up their own prejudices.

It never hurts to put yourself in the other guys shoes. In this case, The French in Quebec were on the losing side of the war between the French and the English. They never willingly swore allegiance to England and most of them considered WWI as a war of England's, not Canada's. Had the English lost the war on the Plains of Abraham, ... well, who knows if there ever would have been a conscription in 1917.

Conscription during WWII was quite different. P.M. Mackenzie King tried and succeeded in keeping it out of the war until the final year and a half. When it was finally and probably necessarily brought in, most Canadians respected the decision, partly because they knew how hard the P.M. had tried to keep it out.
You could start reading about conscription here
http://www.mta.ca/about_canada/study_guide/debates/conscription.html

At best only 15% of Canadian males volunteered to go to war. That is a far cry from "all" Canadian men. Our war heroes, whether French or English, whether WWI or WWII, came from a small elite group and language has very little to do with it. The fact that fewer English Canadians spoke up against conscription does not mean that all English Canadians approved of it - They didn't. And in fact it was probably no more than a political move on Mr. Borden's part that fell flat. If it had won the day, I can promise you, more Canadians would know who Mr. Borden was - ask around. Most have no idea who he was. He will never rank on anyone's list, barring relatives, of the best, most revered Prime Ministers of Canada.

I am not anti-British but I am glad that I live in a time when that is not as important as being Pro Canadian. We still depend on volunteers in our forces, not draftees, and they are still a very special group of people. We are also lucky here in North America, especially here in Canada. Wars do not often come to our shores. We sometimes have little tussles with our provincial neighbours and sometimes words with our American neighbours. But we have not had a major war here in centuries. And by today's standards, even the last one on this Canadian soil (1812 -1814) can hardly be viewed as a major war anymore. [though it sure is fun to use it for bragging rights with our American friends :o)]

Edit to Jim B - You write other fiction when you are not writing it here?

MasterPython

There was never a peacetime draft like in the states. But near the ends of WWI and WWII they did conscript troops. Apparently the conscripts were not placed in combat units but used for support tasks.

old lady

Canada did have a wartime draft in 1917, during WW1, which was called conscription . It created a vast schism within Canada, as the Quebecois were reluctant to join up and, when recruited, pleaded conscientious objector status and spent the war doing tasks not related to fighting.
In WW2, all enlistments were voluntary, and it is likely that were there to be a future war, Canadians would continue to have volunteer soldiers.

Jim B

NOTE for KB........

Do a google search for the term "Zombies " and learn something about the real history of the Canadian Army in WW2.

The Zombies were the Canadians , mostly from Quebec who were conscripted, but NEVER went to Europe, due to the weakness of the PM Mackenzie King, who was afraid of the power of the Catholic church in Quebec.

The Zombies were fully trained soldiers, but they sat out the war, in camps in Canada, because Mckenzie King was unwilling to send them to fight, They got full pay and rations, to do nothing. They sat on their backsides, while the real Canadian heros were dying in Italy, France, Belgium, Holland and in Germany at the end of the war.

To this day, ask any Canadian WW2 vet about the Zombies, at be prepared to get yelled at.

And by the way, Quebec has the fewest number of Royal Canadian Legion branches of any Province, and the smallest number of war memorials, too. I wonder why that is ?

Jim B. Toronto.

Jim Z

Draft = Conscription they are homonymns. Yes Canada had conscription in both the first and second world wars even before the USA did. The US has not had a draft in about 40 years. Their requirements to get into the service are more stringent than Canada. You must be a volunteer, without a felony, and you must have a high school diploma. Canada like the US has conscription or a draft as is required. Drafted Canadian soldiers saw raw combat in Europe the same as the volunteers did. It saddens me with these answers how Canadians do not know the history of the men that fought for the freedom given them.

kenoplayer

If you mean as in a war, no, Canada has never had a draft. I don't believe Canada will ever have one, as Canada is known all over the world as a peacekeeping nation.

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