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      d. 17 May 1815 at Quebec
      PANET, JEAN-ANTOINE
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Recruitment during the First World War

Central to Canada’s efforts during the First World War was the recruitment of a force that Canada would send to the front. Organizations, especially anglophone ones, were created to promote the recruitment of volunteers. Young men answered the call in great numbers: 150,000 in July 1915; 250,000 in October 1915; and, finally, 500,000 in January 1916. By July 1916, however, the seemingly endless flow of recruits had dwindled to a mere trickle. Volunteerism was over and the casualty rates were appalling. The first cries for conscription were heard on the home front. In 1917 Prime Minister Sir Robert Laird Borden abandoned his promise of no conscription and passed the Military Service Act: 100,000 single men aged 20 to 22 would be conscripted. The division between the majority of French Canadians, who opposed conscription, and the majority of English Canadians, who supported it, wreaked havoc on national unity.

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Other Resources

Aboriginal contributions during the First World War
Canadian Posters from the First World War -Recruitment
Dundas Museum & Archives | Recruitment and Conscription in World War I. Content archived on 19 Apr. 2022
First World War (WWI) - The Canadian Encyclopedia. Content archived on 20 Dec. 2024
First World War - Library and Archives Canada
First World War Recruitment Posters | Imperial War Museums. Content archived on 16 Jan. 2025
First World War posters | Canadian Geographic
First World War: Personal Experiences; Propaganda and Recruitment | McMaster University Library, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
French Canada and Recruitment during the First World War | Dispatches | Learn | Canadian War Museum
NL in the First World War
Recruitment. Content archived on 31 Oct. 2019
Recruitment During the First World War | Historica Canada Education Portal
Recruitment and Conscription (Canada) | International Encyclopedia of the First World War (WW1). Content archived on 15 Feb. 2024
Recruitment and Conscription - Voluntary Recruitment | Canada and the First World War
Recruitment to the British Army during the First World War - Wikipedia

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We acknowledge the support of the Government of Canada.


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