This is Part Five of a multipart series. Part One can be read , Part Two , Part Three , and Part Four .
W.L. Mackenzie was reelected as Canada's national leader in 1935 after the Liberal Party won an overwhelming majority after the Conservative government handled the Great Depression.
R.B. Bennett, who was the Prime Minister during the depression, thought the best position was remaining in the sphere of the British Empire, but decided in 1935 to reverse course, inspired by American President Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal. The New Deal focused on relief for the unemployed and poor, recovery of the economy to pre-Great Depression levels, and reforms to financial systems.
The Conservative Party had more trouble than voters' confidence. Infighting was rife, with Bennett's last-minute decision to ditch the plan on high tariffs and trade with the British in favour of interventionism made party loyalists and cabinet ministers rethink. Henry Herbert Stevens, former minister of trade and commerce, left the party to found the short-lived Reconstruction Party of Canada. Others supported the Liberals.
The Progressive Party of Canada also dissolved in the aftermath of the 1935 election, due to members joining the Liberal Party or joining the new Co-Operative Commonwealth, a social-democratic party founded in Alberta by socialist, agrarian, co-operative, and labour groups. The new party, led by James Shaver Charleston Woodsworth, won seven seats.
The Social Credit Party of Canada also emerged, winning 17 seats under the unofficial leader, William Aberhart.
The federal party grew out of a provincial party in Alberta. Aberhart, a Baptist evangelist, added strong fundamentalist Christian views to the party's social credit values.
Alan Webster Neill retained his seat as an Independent in the Comox-Alberni riding.
Prime Minister King promised a trade treaty with the U.S., passing the 1935 Reciprocal Trade Agreement. In 1936, his government introduced the National Employment Commission and set up Canada's first compulsory national unemployment insurance program in 1940.
While King's government created the National Film Board of Canada, replaced the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, created the Trans-Canada Air Lines, and nationalized the Bank of Canada, Europe was diverging into chaos.
Nazi Germany remilitarized the Rhineland in March 1936. King informed the British Government that if they declared war, Canada would not join them. In 1937, he again informed them that Canada would only join a war if the United Kingdom was directly attacked. In 1937, King also met with Adolf Hitler. .
A year later, Nazi Germany annexed Austria and then Czechoslovakia's Sudentenland, with the threat of a second world war looming. The Francophones, again, insisted on staying out of the conflict. The majority of Anglophones were willing to join the fight if war was declared. However, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's appeasement policy allowed for the Munich Agreement, giving Czechoslovakia to the Germans, and leaving them to fight the Germans on their own. Eventually, Germany forced the country to give land to Hungary. Poland also annexed a region of Czechoslovakia. In 1939, the Nazis invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia, and Italy annexed Albania, forcing the UK and France to finally draw a line in the sand on appeasement and guarantee Poland's independence. However, Germany and the Soviet Union agreed on splitting Poland and invaded on Sep. 1, 1939, starting the Second World War.
On the home front, King's government refused immigration opportunities to Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany. Famously, Canada, the United States and Cuba rejected the MS St. Louis, an ocean liner carrying 900 Jewish refugees from disembarking. The ship, captained by German Gustav Shr枚der, was forced to return to Europe. . A quarter of the passengers may have died in death camps during the Holocaust.
Canada decided to declare war on the Axis nations on Sep. 9 and made it official by asking King George VI to declare war the next day.
The Conservative Party, under the leadership of Robert Manion, was rebranded as the National Government and ran against conscription and campaigned for a wartime coalition national unity government. The Liberals also promised not to use conscription, but were under pressure from the armed forces and those who wanted Canada to be more involved in the war.
Election day was March 26, 1940, and resulted in another landslide victory for the Liberals, actually extending the lead from 173 seats to 179. The National Government retained 39 seats. King retained his position as prime minister and started strengthening the relationship with the United States despite the latter's neutrality. In June, the government presented the budget. Along with other expenses, the budget was the first in Canada's history to exceed $1 billion.
During the war, Canada began acting on the War Measures Act and interned German immigrants and Canadians with German heritage. In December 1941, Japanese and Japanese Canadians were also subject to the act in the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Japanese Canadians were banned from fishing and owning shortwave radios, and around 1,200 fishing vessels were impounded. Those living in coastal areas of BC were moved to road camps in Alberta.
In 1944, the conscription question resulted in a crisis. Despite conscription already being adopted in 1940 as part of the National Resources Mobilization Act (NRMA). The NRMA was for production or defence at home, as opposed to fighting, which was still voluntary. However, conscription was becoming a popular notion. Ontario and New Brunswick Premiers Mitchell Hepburn and John B. McNair demanded it, as did former Prime Minister Arthur Meighen, who returned to lead the Conservative party.
Before 1944, King did his best to keep Canadian soldiers from fighting in the European Theatre, especially after the Battle of Hong Kong disaster. The Royal Canadian Air Force was the only Canadian force participating in the European theatre. However, King decided to send the I Canadian Corps to Italy. The Canadian Forces were also active in the Normandy invasion.
The two European campaigns resulted in manpower shortages, and new volunteer recruits were not enough to replenish units on the front lines. Conn Smythe, the owner of the NHL team Toronto Maple Leafs, returned from France injured and published a statement on the front page of The Globe and Mail. His statement bashed the government for sending "green, inexperienced and poorly trained" soldiers as replacements, calling for NRMA conscripts to be sent instead, as they had been trained for the last four years since NRMA. An investigation into his claims revealed the situation was much more dire.
King had no choice after several cabinet members threatened to resign and agreed to send 17,000 NRMA conscripts. It led to a motion of no-confidence but was defeated 143 to 70 (34 from Quebec), ending the crisis. The War in Europe also ended a few months later.
King called for an election on June 11, 1945. He promised to commit one division of volunteers to fight in a planned invasion of Japan (which never happened; instead, the Americans dropped two nuclear bombs on the country). King's platform also focused on social security.
A new party, the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, emerged in 1942 and became the Liberals' biggest challenger. It was led by John Bracken, who promised conscription, an unpopular proposal, for the war against Japan.
The Liberals still won the election, but no longer carried a majority. They won 118 seats, dropping 61, while the Progressive Conservatives won 67. The Co-operative Commonwealth won 20 seats, with the Social Credit Party winning 13.
Neill, however, was replaced by in Comox-Alberni. A logger and lumber merchant, Gibson ran as an Independent Liberal. Gibson and seven other Independent Liberal MPS helped prop up the Liberal Party to have a working majority.
