However, upon his return from London on May 1917, Borden met with his cabinet and announced that he would be imposing conscription. ... He was convinced that Canada's war effort was weak and only conscription could make it respectable. All of his English-speaking ministers supported the idea.
the federal government decided in 1917 to conscript young men for overseas military service. Voluntary recruitment was failing to maintain troop numbers, and Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden believed in the military value, and potential postwar influence, of a strong Canadian contribution to the war.
