1942: Quebec

The conscription issue continued to overshadow all others in Quebec during 1942. Opposition to conscription in Quebec is traditional. It provoked serious political difficulties in World War I and has constantly plagued the Dominion Government of Prime Minister Mackenzie King. In fact, it was largely because of Quebec's opposition that the Prime Minister promised before the 1940 general elections that he would never resort to conscription for overseas service in this war. In the plebìscite held on Apr. 27, 1942 on the Prime Minister's request for release from this commitment, Quebec alone of Canada's provinces voted against the proposal. Whereas the vote in Canada as a whole was better than three to two in favor of releasing Mr. King from his promise, Quebec voted against conscription by nearly three to one. In Montreal the vote was fairly even: 191,000 voting 'yes' and 202,000 'no.' But in the city of Quebec there were only 12,000 votes in favor of conscription as against 41,000 opposed. In some of the rural parliamentary districts the 'no' majority was as high as 30 to 1 and 40 to 1.

The rift between Quebec and the remainder of the country over the conscription issue was widened on May 11 by the resignation from the Cabinet of P. J. A. Cardin, Minister of Public Works and Transportation and leader of the French-Canadian Liberals. Although previously only eleven of Quebec's sixty-four Liberal members had openly opposed conscription, it was feared that the majority of the province's representatives would follow Cardin's lead. By the end of July, however, when the conscription measure came up for a vote in Parliament, Cardin went a long way toward healing the breach that had developed by declaring that when the overseas military service law was passed, Quebec would obey it. Although opposition has persisted, the law has generally been accepted. An undoubted factor in tempering the opposition was the naming, on Oct. 7, of three prominent French-Canadians — Maj. Gen. L. R. LaFlèche, Ernest Bertrand, and Alphonse Fournier — to represent Quebec in the Dominion Government. At the same time Thomas Vien, Liberal member of the House from Montreal Outremont, was appointed to the Senate.

Liberals captured both Quebec seats contested in the Parliamentary by-elections held on Feb. 9. In Quebec, Louis St. Laurent, newly appointed Minister of Justice, won by a 3,873 majority from Paul Bouchard of the Canada party. In St. Mary, Montreal, Gaspard Fauteux won easily. Two other by-elections were contested on Nov. 30. In the Outremont district of Montreal, Major General LaFlèche, the new Minister of War Services, won easily on an all-out war platform, but in Charlevoix-Saguenay the Liberal candidate was defeated by an independent.

In one of several prosecutions of prominent leaders under the Defense of Canada regulations, Rene Chaloult, a Liberal member of the Quebec Legislative Assembly, was released on Aug. 3 after trial for a bitter attack against the Government contained in a speech delivered in Montreal on May 19. In rendering the decision, Judge Archambault condemned the speech as a clear violation of the law but pointed out that there was 'possible doubt as to the lack of good faith.'

Figures issued early in 1942 showed the population of Quebec to be 3,319,640 in 1941 as against 2,874,774 in 1931, a gain of 442,986. Under Section 51 of the British North America Act, Quebec retains sixty-five seats in the House of Commons, and the size of the House was adjusted downward because the population growth of the country as a whole was less than that of Quebec.