<P> Following the plebiscite, Public Works minister Pierre Joseph Arthur Cardin quit the King cabinet to protest the possibility that the "Zombies" might go overseas . A number of other Quebec Liberal MPs also left the party in 1942 over the conscription issue, many of whom joined the Bloc populaire canadien when it was formed in the fall of 1942 to campaign against the government . The Defense Minister, Colonel James Ralston resigned in protest over King's unwillingness to send the Zombies overseas, but King refused to accept his resignation . </P> <P> In his Christmas broadcast in 1942, the former Conservative prime Robert Bennett sarcastically noted that this was the fourth Christmas in a row that the Canadian Army was sitting in Britain doing nothing, and that the only battles on land that Canada had fought to date were Hong Kong and Dieppe, both of which were defeats . In March 1943, during the Operation Spartan war game, General Andrew McNaughton, commanding the 1st Canadian Army, had been badly defeated, and was judged unfit to command an army in the field with the war game's umpires criticizing McNaughton for leaving his HQ to supervise the building of a bridge while his supply lines were caught up in a huge traffic jam . After Operation Spartan, the British had been strongly pressuring the Canadians to remove McNaughton before he led the 1st Canadian Army into a real defeat in a battle . King had tried to keep the Canadian Army out of action to avoid casualties that might require a difficult decision on overseas conscription, but in the spring of 1943 with the Allies clearly winning the war, he was seized with the fear that the war might end with Canada winning no battles on land, something that was certain to hurt the Liberals in post-war elections . Accordingly, King demanded that the 1st Canadian Infantry Division, which had been sent to Britain in 1939 being included in Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily . General McNaughton was not keen on having a division being taken from his command, but was promised that 1st Division would return to Britain after Sicily was taken . </P> <P> A brigade from one of the three "home defence" divisions in Canada was sent to the Aleutian Islands Campaign in 1943 (the islands were technically North American soil and thus deployment there was not considered "overseas"). By this time, there were 34, 000 soldiers, mostly Zombies guarding the coast of British Columbia against a possible Japanese invasion, and to dispel criticism that such a huge force could be more profitably deployed to Europe, King wanted the Zombies to see action . These divisions in British Columbia were made up largely of conscripts, other than officers and NCOs, and desertions before embarkation were noted . Canadian conscripts deployed in the Aleutian Islands Campaign were pointedly issued American helmets . When the 13th Brigade landed on Kiska on 15 August 1943, they discovered that the Japanese had already left, and the island was empty . The major battle that the men of the 13th Brigade had to fight during their six - month stay on Kiska was with the taxmen over the question if they were overseas or not, as the former meant exemption from paying taxes under the grounds that they were west of the International Date Line, which they used to argue that were in fact in Asia, making them overseas . The Revenue department won . </P> <P> Believing in Winston Churchill's repeated statements that Italy was the "soft underbelly of Europe" and the Italian campaign would be easy, King in the fall of 1943 decided to keep the 1st Division, which was operating as part of the British 8th Army in Italy . Furthermore, King decided to send the 5th Canadian Armored Division and the 1st Independent Armored Brigade to Italy, which now formed the 1st Canadian Corps of the 8th Army . Contrary to Churchill's promises and King's hopes, the Italian campaign proved to be anything, but the "soft underbelly of Europe" as the mountains favored the defensive, and the Germans made expert use of the mountains of Italy to fight a bitter defensive campaigns that took a heavy toll on the Allies . McNaughton for his part had protested strongly against losing the 1st Canadian Corps to the 8th Army, as much preferred to keep both 1st and 2nd Canadian corps together in the 1st Canadian Army, and protested furiously against losing the 1st corps . The Defense Minister, Colonel Ralston had McNaughton removed on the spurious grounds of ill - health in December 1943 . </P>

Did canada have the draft in world war 2