[Regina]

In January 1942, Canadians were told that they would be asked to release the govt from it's pledge not to impose conscription for overseas service. The vote was to take place in late April, so there was plenty of time for both sides to inflame public opinion.
The plebiscite split Canada along linguistic lines (again). In Ontario more than 80% voted "yes" while in Quebec 73% (85% of the French Canadians) voted "no". Partisan politics had dealt a deadly blow to Canadian unity.

The French-Canadian response:
The events of the late 1930's which transformed public opinion in most of Canada, provoked a very different response among French Canadians in Quebec. Their collective memories neither included identification with the British Empire not affection for the republican France. Few F.C. had volunteered to serve in the First World War and no one would have dreamed of arguing that their Canadian nation had "come of age" at the battle of Vimy Ridge. Remembrance Day, which was an important and solemn event in the rest of the country, was ignored in most of Quebec, where war memorials and Legion branches were usually signs of the presence of an English speaking minority.
French Canadian nationalist leaders including many prominent intellectuals, remained opposed to any form of Canadian involvement in a European war. Maxime Raymond, their parliamentary spokesmen, presented an anti war petition with thousands of signatures to the House of Commons. "Let us declare neutrality" which would see Canada supply food and essential materials to Britain, France and Poland.

Conscripts were kept at home for defence and never were suppose to go overseas to the combat areas. They were called Zombies by the active members of the forces. Though the "Zombies" could volunteer to go active which a lot of them ended up doing. But near the end of '44 early '45 the Army was desperately short of infantry soldiers that were trained and had to call on them from the "Zombies" in the end some 16,000 but only 2400 of them made it to the lines and were received well by the troops. This had to be done because of a severe miscalculation on the losses for the Italy and NWE campaigns that the Canadian Corps undertook.

Veterans that I've spoken to have differing opinions on the this subject. One said he "would have shot a Zombie before a German. They were fully trained but wouldn't come over and fight with us." To this day he still despises Zombies. This guy fought from D-Day all the way to Germany in the Canadian 3rd Div.

Another Veteran I know recently said this in response to my question about Zombies. "Much too late to carry the hate (or I should say, 'distaste'.) There were too many guys I knew, including a few in my own gang that were Zombies. The way I handled it when I got back was simply to tell myself that at least in one respect, and it's a major respect, I considered myself a better man than they were. I know one thing for sure; I would never have wanted to go through life knowing I wasn't man enough to fight for my country." His war was with the 5th Division in Italy, his wounds permanently removed him from the fighting there as well.