Canada and the First World War

Recruiting Street Car
Recruiting Street Car
A Toronto street car, headed "to Berlin," is used to recruit for the No. 1 Construction Battalion. The message, "We go Overseas Quickly," was important as some of the battalions took several months to raise their necessary allotment. This left early recruits bored and increasingly frustrated at not being able to go overseas.

George Metcalf Archival Collection
CWM 19940081-004

Recruitment and Conscription

Hundreds of thousands of Canadians enlisted in the first three years of the war but, in 1916, voluntary recruitment began to decline. Learn about the enactment of conscription in 1917 and its consequences.


Voluntary Recruitment
Conscription, 1917