THE FRENCH-CANADIAN ISSUE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 20, 18 October 1917, Page 5

THE FRENCH-CANADIAN ISSUE

Canada faces to-dy a serious political crisis (sayß the "Outlook" in a recent issue). The Premier has called for conscription to support her armies on the Western front, but against such a policy decided opposition has developed, especially in the French-Canadian Province of Quebec. Sir Bobert Borden . owes his position to an unofficial coalition between the Conservatives and the Nationalist! Party. How shaky a foundation such a combination supplies for the Premier may be realised from the statement of Honri Bourassa, leader of the Nationalist Party in Quebec, who says, "It is useless to disguise the truth; two million French-Canadians in a block are opposed to conscription." To understand the attitude of Quebec toward conscription and the significance of anti-conscription demonstrations on tho part of FrenchCanadians it is necessary to go back to the year 1909, when, acting upon a unanimous resolution of the House of Commons, Sir Wilfrid Laurier undertook, as part of the Liberal policy, the formation of a Canadian naval service, which was to 1m so formed ns to co-operate readily with naval forces, of other parts of the British Empire in time of war. This policy of Sir Wilfrid's was attacked by a group of men in Quebec calling themselves Nationalists on the score that it meant participation by Canada in European wars. So successfully did the Nationalists conduct their, campaign in the first- by-election in the province of Quebec after the inauguration of the naval policy that Sir Wilfrid's was defeated and the Nationalists' candidate returned. The Conservative party in Quebec refrained from placing a candidate in the field at the timo of this clcc'tion, and gave tacit assistance to tho Nationalists. When the Federal elections of 1911 were held, the Conservative party made a secret alliance with the Nationalists. It was agreed that Liberal candidates should be opposed by Nationalist candidates in a number of constituencies, and by Conservatives in others, and that where the Nationalists were opposing the Liberals they should be assisted by Conservative funds and electoral support. The attack against Laurier was to be not on reciprocity, which was popular in Quebec, but on the naval policy, which, it was urged.meant conscription. Conscription was pictured in hideous terms. So successfully was this campaign of prejudice conducted against Sir Wilfrid that, with Conservative aid, the Nationalists carried soma seventeen 6eats, and received in recognition of their services three of the portfolios in Sir Robert Borden's Cabinet. The Nationalist party, instead of vanishing after tho election of 1911, gained a consciousness of its power, which it theretofore had not had, and tho present campaign in the province of Quebec against conscription is the logical sequence of these events. This is tho political history of tho present situation. Combined with these recent political difficulties are the historic differences between the Canadians of English ancestry and thoso of French ancestry—a difference of race, religion, and attitudo towards life. The sons of English Canadians who have volunteered so readily for the war, and who havo seen the slow process of recruiting in the French provinces, are naturally turning to conscription in an attempt to make their FrenchCanadian compatriots carry their share of the burden of war. Tho French-Cana-dians, on the other hand, with no mark, ed love for England, and with a senti- • ment towards France broken because of religious differences, and with no great understanding of the causes for which the Allies havo taken up their arms, are j naturally to be found in opjrosition to ( any plan for conscription. . j