1942: Ontario

The outstanding political event of the year in Ontario was the unexpected resignation of fiery Premier Mitchell F. Hepburn on Oct. 21, 1942, after more than eight years in office. His action was a culmination of years of bitter conflict between the Ontario provincial government and the Dominion Government at Ottawa, a conflict that was in no wise lessened by the fact that both Hepburn and Prime Minister Mackenzie King were members of the Liberal party. Because of his criticisms of the Dominion Government's war policies, Premier Hepburn had been formally expelled from the Liberal party on Feb. 6, 1942, by an extraordinary caucus of Ontario Liberal members of the Dominion House of Commons. The immediate issue leading to his expulsion was his announced intention to oppose Prime Minister King's plan for a national plebiscite on sending conscripted soldiers overseas, but the ultimate issue was Dominion solidarity as against the Ontario separatist policies of Premier Hepburn. A few days after his expulsion, Hepburn aroused the ire of the United States by declaring that the American Navy was afraid of the Japanese fleet. Ironically enough, in view of Hepburn's long record of opposition to the C.I.O. and organized labor, the issue which finally forced the Premier's resignation was his urging of the lifting of the ban on the Communist party and his presence on the same platform with Tim Buck, recently released Canadian Communist leader.

Premier Hepburn was succeeded in office by Attorney General Gordon Conant. Mr. Conant also has opposed the policies of Prime Minister King, and his accession to office has done little to lessen the split between the Dominion and provincial governments.

Earlier in the year Ontario had provided another political sensation when Arthur Meighen, newly selected leader of the Conservative party, was defeated by Joseph Noseworthy, a comparatively unknown Co-operative Commonwealth Federation candidate in a Parliamentary by-election held on Feb. 9. Mr. Meighen, twice Prime Minister of Canada, had been called from retirement to the leadership of the Conservative party. Mr. Noseworthy was the first Cooperative Commonwealth Federation candidate to be elected to Parliament in the history of Ontario.

Ontario has taken a leading part in vocational training for the Dominion war effort and cadet training. The schools of Toronto admit men and women from factories and soldiers from the army for advanced technical training as well as provide vocational training for the thousands of teen-age youngsters already enrolled in the schools. More than 50,000 Ontario secondary school students are being given compulsory basic cadet training as set up by the Departments of National Defense and National Defense for Air.

Agricultural production in the province was considerably hampered by a severe shortage of farm labor, described as the greatest in Ontario's history. But the loss was minimized by the mobilization of nearly 40,000 young people, women, and other emergency workers by the Ontario Farm Service Force.

The population of Ontario gained 324,929 in the ten-year period from June, 1931 to June, 1941 according to the figures of the decennial census, released early in 1942. The population is listed as 3,756,632 in 1941, exclusive of the men in the armed forces. Ontario retained 82 seats in the Dominion House of Commons in the reapportionment resulting from the census.