Within Canada itself, the "Naval Service Act" was very controversial. The Act was strongly criticized by both the French Canadian nationalists and the English Canadians. Imperialistic minded Canadians claimed that Canada was doing too little and/or was not showing enough loyalty to Britain. Conservatives famously dubbed Laurier's new policy as the “Tin Pot Navy”. The Act was highly criticized by the French Canadian Nationalists, led by Henri Bourassa. Bourassa felt that the establishment of a Canadian navy that could be placed under British control was even worse than transferring cash to the British Admiralty, and that Canada risked being dragged into every single British war. In addition, the French nationalists were concerned that the navy would mean conscription for the Canadian people. The loss of French-Canadian support for Laurier's Liberals played a key role in his party's defeat in the 1911 election. He was replaced by the Conservatives, led by Robert Borden. In 1913, Borden replaced the "Naval Service Act" with the Naval Aid Bill, under which, instead of building or supplying ships, Canada would give the British Royal Navy cash instead. The Naval Aid Bill was defeated by the Liberal-dominated Senate of Canada. With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Canada found itself automatically at war with the Central Powers and the question of naval assistance quickly became a moot point. Any ships would have been built in British shipyards and with the onset of war, Britain was building all that it could. Canada thus became focused upon its own war effort. Even without a Canadian contribution, the Royal Navy remained significantly larger and more powerful than their German opponent. Even before the outbreak of war, Germany had essentially abandoned its effort to match the Royal Navy and redirected the bulk of its resources to strengthening the army. The strength of the British navy, combined with the strength of the French Navy and later bolstered by the entry of Italy and the United States on the Allied side, ensured that Allied control of the Atlantic sea lanes was never seriously threatened and compelled Germany to pursue less costly alternatives, submarines, in particular, to project a measure of power on the high seas. In the Pacific, British and Canadian interests were assisted by having Japan as an ally. During World War I, the Imperial Japanese Navy had a North American Task Force.