~5 Quebec Liberal MPs oppose conscription

In late 1944, when Mackenzie King finally implemented limited conscription for overseas service (the "Zombies" crisis), several Quebec Liberal MPs broke with the party to sit as Independent Liberals or voted against the government. Wilfrid Lacroix (MP for Québec-Montmorency), Charles Eugène Parent, Jean-François Pouliot, and at least two others physically crossed the floor or announced they could no longer support the government. The conscription crisis of 1944 was smaller than 1917 because King had worked assiduously to limit the damage, but it still fractured the Quebec Liberal caucus. Pierre-Joseph-Arthur Cardin, a former senior cabinet minister, resigned from caucus in protest.

Most of the rebel Quebec Liberals eventually returned to the Liberal fold, either before or after the June 1945 election. King's political genius was in managing the conscription crisis so that it caused minimal lasting damage to Liberal support in Quebec — unlike the 1917 crisis, which had permanently destroyed the Conservatives in Quebec. A few of the dissenters, like Cardin, retired rather than seek re-election.