I doubt that North American life is any more disrupted today than it was in 1917,  when Canada was divided over conscription and the US entered WWI. Over 60,000 members of the Canadian military died during WWI and about 2,000 civilians died in 1917 alone in the Halifax harbor explosion. Canada lost more troops in WWI than the US did in Viet Nam over 50 years later and with a much larger population.