size and Canada's largest ever standing army was created, largely through the vision of General G. G. Simonds, the Chief of the General Staff. The reason for this expansion was the need to maintain a presence in Germany as part of NATO, while simultaneously providing forces for the Korean War. Simonds stated that the shipping to transport large armies to Europe was not available, any Canadian soldiers wanting to fight in World War Three in Europe should it begin best be there when the war began. From 1950 to 1953, the Canadian military ballooned from having 47,000 personnel to 104,000 personnel by 1953. Despite the increasing size, General Guy Simonds complained that the Army was not attracting enough men with the necessary specialized skills and spoke of peacetime conscription, only to be silenced by the Defence minister Brooke Claxton, who warned him that with public opinion polls showing that 83% of Québécois opposed to conscription, that this was too politically risky. Initially, six new regular infantry battalions were raised by regiments of the Militia – two were raised from ordinary line infantry regiments, two from regiments of rifles and two from regiments of Highlanders. When the decision was made to make this arrangement permanent, it was decided that the battalions would become regular battalions of regiments. The decision was taken to make the rifles and highland battalions part of two of the senior existing militia regiments, while the infantry battalions were organised into a new national regiment: 1st and 2nd Canadian Infantry Battalions – 3rd and 4th Battalions, Canadian Guards (Raised by the Carleton and York Regiment, the Algonquin Regiment, the Loyal Edmonton Regiment, les Fusiliers Mont-Royal and the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment.) 1st and 2nd Canadian Rifle Battalions – 1st and 2nd Battalions, The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada (Raised by the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada, the Victoria Rifles of Canada, the Royal Winnipeg Rifles, the Regina Rifle Regiment and the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry (Wentworth Regiment).) 1st and 2nd Canadian Highland Battalions – 1st and 2nd Battalions, The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada (Raised by the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada, the North Nova Scotia Highlanders, 48th Highlanders of Canada, The Seaforth Highlanders of Canada and the Canadian Scottish Regiment (Princess Mary's).) Simonds was a great believer in esprit de corps as a way of motivating soldiers to fight, and he quite