Canada’s greatest Prime Minister (along with Sir John A. Macdonald) Sir Wilfrid Laurier was on the hustings on this date in 1917 as the most divisive election campaign in Canadian history neared its end. At issue was conscription and Laurier’s Liberal party had split over the issue with many Grits supporting conscription and joining Sir Robert Borden and his Union government. Laurier, who had spent his entire political career promoting Canadian unity, was now seen as a traitor by millions in English Canada. Despite this, Laurier soldiered on.
"It never was my tactic in the many years in which I have been in public life to run away from a question and if the Government want to confine the issue in this election to conscription, I am here ready to meet them upon the ground chosen by themselves,” he told a small band of supporters gathered at Arnprior, Ontario’s town hall. “Never in my political career have I appealed to my native Province more than to any other Province in any policy I have brought forward. I stand here a Canadian and my platform is Canada and if I cannot win on that platform, I do not want to win on any platform at all.”
Days later, Laurier would go down to defeat in Canada’s wartime election.