With the Conscription Crisis of 1917 in full swing, Prime Minister Robert Borden was anxious to produce a solution to the manpower problem that Canada had been experiencing as the war drew on.
Although Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the Liberal party leader, understood the need for a coalition government in order to withstand the war, he was opposed to the implementation of conscription.
[14] The Military Voters Act was introduced in August 1917 and gave the vote to all Canadian sailors and soldiers regardless of their period of residence in the country.
The other unique provision of the act was that a military voter was not to cast his ballot for a specific candidate, which was standard procedure for general elections.
[18] As most people born in Canada were British subjects at the time, this law applied to most Canadian women who were not status Indians or members of a racial minority (these groups would be separately enfranchised in later acts).