The Militia Act, 1904 already provided for military service for all male British subjects between the ages of 18 and 60,[3] but the calling-up was by levée en masse,[4] which would have caused massive disruption through the pulling of skilled workers from agriculture and industry.
[5] Encouraged by the British and English Canadians, Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden introduced the Military Service Act.
919 of April 20, 1918[14] retooled the classes, stating; It also introduced a redefinition: Lastly, it removed previously granted and instead permitted ministerial discretion in individual cases: Regulations under P.C.
It led to Borden's Union government and drove most of his French Canadian supporters into opposition, as they were seriously alienated by this attempt to enforce their participation in an imperial war.
[27] Conflicts between the government's calls for greater agricultural production and conscription would lead to the rise of the farmers' movements of the 1920s, and would have more lasting effects in rural and Western alienation.