The Bitter Harvest of War: New Brunswick and the Conscription Crisis of 1917

A prime minister determined to keep the troops in action. Waning support for the war effort. A country divided. These aren't today's headlines.

Picture this: Canadian troops die by the thousands in the muddy fields of Europe. Russia is descending into civil war, and will soon be lost to the Allies. The French army has mutinied. The United States has declared war on Germany, but their army needs time to prepare. German U-boats are turning the seas into floating graveyards. Back in Canada, fewer and fewer men are volunteering to join the fray. Prime Minister Borden's government proposed conscription to replace the dead and wounded. Farmers, fishermen, francophones, and the Liberal Party opposed the Military Service Act. Canada was in upheaval. Many reduced the issue to tension between pro-British Ontario and anti-war Quebec, but there was more.

In New Brunswick, ruptures emerged between rural and urban, liberal and conservative, north and south, Protestant and Catholic, and French and English. The legacy of bitterness and ethnic tensions echo to this day.