The bill foresees certain annual recruitment targets for the new voluntary scheme: rising from 20,000 in 2026 to 38,000 in 2030.

If these numbers are not achieved, the government could opt instead to reinstate conscription, subject to parliamentary approval, according to the latest draft of the bill.

Already the current bill contains some mandatory elements, with all young men required to fill an online questionnaire regarding their willingness and abilities for military service after turning 18, to gain a better overview of the potentially available personnel.

“The transport was so good,” said streetcar enthusiast Jay Miller. “I learned from the people I talked to about how very different the city used to be.”

Local entrepreneurs Thomas Ahearn and Warren Soper started the Ottawa Electric Railway Company in 1891, which was later purchased by the city. At its peak, the streetcar lines covered over 90 kilometres.

Not only did Ottawa have a robust streetcar network, but the capital became known for manufacturing them.

“Ottawa built streetcars for Vancouver, the prairie provinces, and some were even built for Toronto,” Dong said. “But now people don’t even know that history.”

A majority of Israelis back ending the war as part of a ceasefire deal to free all remaining hostages, a sentiment mostly driven by concerns about hostages still in Gaza and the impact of two years of war on Israeli society and its economy.

Most protests include some demonstrators calling for an end to famine and the slaughter of Palestinians, but they are usually a tiny minority. Polling this week showed that nearly three-quarters of Jewish Israelis partially or totally agree with the claim made by Israel's government that "there are no innocents in Gaza".

Earlier this month, another survey found 78% of Jewish Israelis said they were "not so troubled" or "not troubled" at all by reports of Palestinian suffering.

Internal Department of National Defence reports have warned that current operational demands have the Canadian Armed Forces stretched thin.

National Defence's annual departmental plan, published in June, cautions that the Canadian Army is "currently at its force generation sustainability limit."

Canada's military already has around 2,000 troops deployed in Latvia, Canada's largest overseas mission, but the army only has some 13,000 deployable soldiers total.

Alice Weidel, the head of the surging far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) accused Merz's conservatives of war-mongering for even considering the idea of ground troops, slamming it as "dangerous and irresponsible".

Even Merz's Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul warned sending troops to Ukraine "would probably overwhelm us".

There is unease in Germany over troop deployments given its Nazi past and more recent deployments to Afghanistan and Mali that were widely seen as failures. There is also a backlash against spending billions of euros on military aid for Ukraine when Germany's own economy is struggling.