Paige Jasmine Gilmar

On May 18, 1917, Prime Minister Robert Borden dropped a bombshell when he introduced the Military Service Act, a conscription law that would require all male citizens between the ages of 20 to 45 to enlist.Little did Borden know just how severe the impact would be.   “Borden had implemented conscription because he believed the war had to be won and that Canada must play its full part,” J.L. Granatstein wrote in Maclean’s. “To achieve these ends, he almost broke the nation.”