Editing William Lyon Mackenzie King (section)

==== Conscription ====
{{See also|Conscription Crisis of 1944}}
King's promise not to impose conscription contributed to the defeat of [[Maurice Duplessis]]'s [[Union Nationale (Quebec)|Union Nationale]] Quebec provincial government in 1939 and the Liberals' re-election in the 1940 election. But after the fall of France in 1940, Canada introduced conscription for home service (conscription meant for the defence of Canada only). Only volunteers were to be sent overseas. King wanted to avoid a repeat of the [[Conscription Crisis of 1917]]. By 1942, the military was pressing King hard to send conscripts to Europe. In 1942, King held [[1942 Canadian conscription plebiscite|a national plebiscite]] on the issue, asking the nation to relieve him of the commitment he had made during the election campaign. In the House of Commons on June 10, 1942, he said that his policy was "not necessarily conscription but conscription if necessary".<ref>Hansard, House of Commons, June 10, 1942</ref>
[[File:KingVEDay.jpg|190px|thumb|King making his address to Canada on [[VE-Day]]]]
French Canadians voted against conscription, with over 70 percent opposed, but an overwhelming majority – over 80 percent – of English Canadians supported it. French and English conscripts were sent to fight in the [[Aleutian Islands]] in 1943 – technically North American soil and therefore not "overseas" – but the mix of Canadian volunteers and draftees found that the Japanese troops had fled before their arrival. Otherwise, King continued with a campaign to recruit volunteers, hoping to address the problem with the shortage of troops caused by heavy losses in the [[Dieppe Raid]] in 1942, in Italy in 1943, and after the [[Invasion of Normandy|Battle of Normandy]] in 1944. In November 1944, the government decided it was necessary to send conscripts for the war. This led to a brief political crisis (see [[Conscription Crisis of 1944]]) and [[Terrace Mutiny|a mutiny]] by conscripts posted in British Columbia, but the war ended a few months later. In all, 12,908 conscripts were sent to fight abroad, though only 2,463 saw combat.<ref>{{cite web |last1=McIntosh |first1=Andrew |last2=Granatstein |first2=J.I. |last3=Jones |first3=Richard |title=Conscription in Canada |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/conscription |website=Canadian Encyclopedia |access-date=22 January 2022 |date=6 February 2006}}</ref>