The crisis began on 19 September 1944 when Major Conn Smythe, the owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs, who had been invalided out of the Army following the wounds he had taken in France, issued a statement that was published on the front page in "The Globe and Mail" newspaper charging that infantry replacements in the First Canadian Army were "green, inexperienced and poorly trained" as the Army hastily sent up cooks and clerks to replace men who had been killed and wounded who were usually swiftly killed or wounded in their turn owing to their inexperience. Smythe stated the solution was to send the Zombies overseas as they had been training for the last four years or so. Smythe's status as the owner of the Maple Leafs (who with the Montreal Canadiens were the only Canadian NHL teams at the time) meant he was a celebrity in Canada and his letter attracted much media attention. George Drew, the Conservative Premier of Ontario who was already was looking forward to becoming Prime Minister, endorsed Smythe's claims.