A conscription crisis is a public dispute about a policy of conscription, or mandatory service in the military. Also known as a "draft," a dispute can become a "crisis" when submission to military service becomes highly controversial and popular revolt ensues. From the point of view of military officials, the "crisis" is one of supply; where they may claim to lack enough "troops" to accomplish a military objective, and have, to some degree, "lost control" of their political ability to enforce existing conscription law.
When conscripted soldiers are sent to foreign wars that do not directly affect the security of the nation, or under pretexts and contexts that are otherwise controversial, conscription has historically been highly politically contentious within democracies.
There were a number of conscription crises in history.
The New York Draft Riots of 1863 represented protests in response to President Abraham Lincoln's Enrollment Act of Conscription to draft men to fight in the ongoing Civil War. (See also the movie Gangs of New York for a depiction of the riots)
Québec would never agree to conscription, he believed, and if he joined the pro-conscription coalition French Canada would be delivered into the hands of Henri BOURASSA and his nationalistes.
As a military measure conscription was a failure; as a political measure it had largely been responsible for the re-election of the Borden government, but it left the Conservative Party with a heavy liability in Québec and in the agricultural West.
Québec's BLOC POPULAIRE continued to fight against conscription by presenting candidates for the Aug 1944 provincial elections and the June 1945 federal elections.
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