I don’t realize Red was serious with this thread when I originally responded as I can’t see it ever happening. Even in wartime, politicians have been reluctant to impose conscription as yychobbiest's quotation shows (I forget, was that Borden or Mackenzie King?).
I know that some European countries make arguments such as DQ’s in support of conscription. I agree that there are strong benefits to society from having people from many different backgrounds mixed together something during their life. However, I am still against it for three reasons. One is that forcing people to serve is a infringement on their basic rights that my classical liberal values can’t support. For the same reason, I could not support OTM’s suggested alternative. The second reason is the argument economists make. By forcing people to serve, the true cost of the military does not appear on the government books. The military is paying people less than the market value of their labour. While, I agree that Canada should devote more resources to the military, I think that it should be a decision based on an honest statement of the costs.
My third reason has to do with the quality implications on the military. I spent some time in the Canadian military and I think that I benefited from it. However, much of basic training and later leadership courses involved lot of physical and psychological stress in order to weed people out. The idea was that if people could not take that type of stress in training situations, you did not want them beside you in combat. With conscription, I really don’t see how you could weed anyone out.