It wasn't popular during either world war for a lot of people (from what i remember from my [canadian] high school history, quebec in particular wasn't thrilled about conscription)

Thanks for your comment. In ww1 about 25,000 conscripted Canadians were sent over seas, in ww2 12,000. Many more were conscripted but didn’t leave the country. I didn’t realize Canada had conscription at all, or the divide between French and English.

That's a good point..

But my impression was that it was more tolerated.. with an attitude like: "this is my war", as if every generation has a war to fight.

At the end of the day, war is pretty different when its a plausible existential threat, instead of just going violent adventuring in some back water that had no realistic chance of ever hitting back.