 During the conscription crisis of 1917 , Sifton supported the Conservative Prime Minister , Robert Borden , in his attempt to impose conscription to help win the First World War . He backed the creation of a Union government composed of Conservatives and pro @-@ conscription Liberals . In 1917 he left provincial politics and became a minister in this government . Over the next three and a half years he served briefly in four different ministries and was a delegate to the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 . He died in Ottawa in January 1921 after a brief illness . 
