Laurier worried that agreeing to Borden's coalition offer would cause that province to abandon the Liberals and perhaps even Canada.

Borden proceeded to form a "Unionist" government, and the Liberal Party split over the issue.

To ensure victory for conscription, Borden introduced two laws to skew the voting towards the government.

The first, the Wartime Elections Act, disenfranchised conscientious objectors and Canadian citizens if they were born in enemy countries and had arrived after 1902.

That allowed government officials to guide the strongly pro-conscription soldiers into voting in those ridings where they would be more useful.

[3] Soon after these measures were passed, Borden convinced a faction of Liberals (using the name Liberal-Unionists) along with Gideon Decker Robertson, who was described as a "Labour" Senator (but was unaffiliated with any Labour Party) to join with them, forming the Unionist government in October 1917.