1940: Quebec

Quebec threw its resources behind Great Britain's war effort with surprising unanimity in 1940, considering what many felt to be its pro-Axis sympathies of a few years back. Following the defeat of the Duplessis Government in October, 1939, on the issue of conscription, the province readily accepted compulsory military service when it was put into effect in the early fall of 1940. The one important exception was Mayor Camillien Houde of Montreal. Mayor Houde, who had previously created a sensation by giving a pro-Fascist speech while in office, announced that he would defy the national registration law which called for general registration on August 19, 20, and 21. Acting with unusual vigor, the Canadian Government took him into custody on August 5 and hustled him off to an internment camp where he will presumably be held for the duration of the war. Leading French-Canadian newspapers and officials almost unanimously commended the Dominion Government's action, and no further important opposition to conscription was encountered. A new mayor was elected on December 9.

In the March national parliamentary elections, Liberals obtained 61 out of the Province's 64 seats, and candidates favorable to the Liberals won the remaining three seats. By action of the provincial legislature, all Quebec by-elections were postponed until the next legislative session because of the war. Royal assent was given to the bill postponing the elections when the first session of the legislature was prorogued on June 22 by the new Lieutenant Governor Sir Eugene Fiset. The legislature also passed by a large majority a bill introduced by Premier Adelard Godbout granting women for the first time the right to vote in provincial elections. Woman suffrage had been one of the secondary issues in the 1939 provincial elections.

Gold production for the first ten months of 1940 at the Siscoe Gold Mines amounted to $1,628,279 from 180,528 tons of ore, as compared with $1,987,692 from 179,114 tons of ore in the corresponding period of 1939. The McWatters Gold Mines produced $136,267 in the third quarter of 1940. Most of the gold mines failed to keep up with their 1939 record.