1941: Ontario

As in many other Canadian provinces, the urgency of the war situation brought Ontario a rest from the intense political activity of the past few years. It will be recalled that in 1940 Premier Mitchell Hepburn had sought to make political capital out of what he regarded as the Dominion's laxity in pushing the war effort, but that he had suffered a rebuff when the government of Prime Minister Mackenzie King accepted the challenge and won an overwhelming victory in a special election.

Following this setback, the Ontario Premier refrained from his previous violent opposition to the Dominion Government. He confined his attacks largely to the CIO — which he told visiting American editors was 'the greatest enemy democracy has in North America' — and strikes, which he charged were directly inspired by the Axis powers. Although he did not clash openly with the Dominion Government as in previous years, the outspoken Premier did enter a violent protest against the provision in the 1941 Canadian budget imposing an increase of from 5 to 15 per cent in the income taxes derived by non-resident bondholders from investments in Ontario. Writing to J. L. Ilsley, the Dominion Minister of Finance, he declared that 'American insurance companies and American trust companies are refusing to accept the impost which is viewed as ill-timed and ungrateful.'

Although a year of relative inactivity in the political field, 1941 was a period of intense economic activity. As the most industrial of Canada's provinces, Ontario was most affected by the extraordinary war effort put forth during the year. New production records were set in practically every industry except those given over solely to the production of consumer goods. Large-scale industries such as the automobile industry have been converted almost completely to war production. Employment was at peak records, and industrial disputes were rare. A threatened shortage of coal turned attention to the very considerable peat deposits of the province. One of the largest of these deposits, the Holland peat bog, is located less than 30 miles from Toronto and is capable of turning out an estimated 8,000,000 tons.

In an effort to provide farmers with labor to replace the men drawn into the armed service or the war industries, Ontario organized a Farm Service Corps of young men and women, boys and girls. The Director of the Corps, A. Maclaren of the Ontario Labor Department, announced in July that some 10,000 young persons had been recruited in the Corps.

Ontario is vitally interested in the agreement with the United States for construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway since the waterway would make Toronto a world port. One of the sections of the treaty provides for cutting a channel in the St. Lawrence River to allow deep-draft ocean vessels to proceed to the Great Lakes. Toronto has already begun preparations for handling the sea-going traffic after the project has been completed.

A report by the Ontario Provincial Police, issued April 1, 1941, charges the Communist Party with attempting to foment labor trouble and other activity despite the fact that the party has been outlawed since the beginning of the war. Previously there had been charges that the Communists were active in Queens University despite the ban. Although these difficulties ceased with Germany's attack on the Soviet Union in June, the restrictions against Communist activities remained on the statute books.