William Lyon Mackenzie King

:Not to be confused with William Lyon Mackenzie, Mackenzie King's grandfather.

Depression and war

In his second term, King introduced old-age pensions. In February 1930, he appointed Cairine Wilson, whom he knew personally, as the first female senator in Canadian history.

Related Topics:
Pension - Cairine Wilson - Senator

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His government was in power during the beginning of the Great Depression, but lost the election of 1930 to the Conservative Party, now led by Richard Bedford Bennett.

Related Topics:
Great Depression - Election of 1930 - Richard Bedford Bennett

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King's Liberals were returned to power once more in the 1935 election. The worst of the Depression had passed, and King implemented relief programs such as the National Housing Act and National Employment Commission. His government also created the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1936, Trans-Canada Airlines (the precursor to Air Canada) in 1937, and the National Film Board of Canada in 1939.

Related Topics:
1935 election - Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - 1936 - Air Canada - 1937 - National Film Board of Canada - 1939

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King hoped an outbreak of war in the 1930s could be avoided. He had met with Hermann Göring and Adolf Hitler, whom he said was a reasonable man who cared for his fellow man, working to improve his country in the midst of the Depression. He confided in his diary that he thought Hitler "might come to be thought of as one of the saviours of the world" and told a Jewish delegation that "Kristallnacht might turn out to be a blessing."

Related Topics:
1930s - Hermann Göring - Adolf Hitler - Kristallnacht

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King realized the necessity of World War II before Hitler invaded Poland in 1939, but unlike World War I when Canada was automatically at war as soon as Britain joined, King asserted Canadian autonomy by waiting until September 10, when a vote in the House of Commons took place, to support the government's decision to declare war.

Related Topics:
World War II - Poland - 1939 - World War I - September 10

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King's promise not to impose conscription contributed to the Liberals' re-election in the 1940 election. But after the fall of France in 1940, Canada introduced conscription for home service, and only volunteers were to be sent overseas. King wanted to avoid a repeat of the Conscription Crisis of 1917. By 1942, the military was pressing King hard to send conscripts to Europe. In 1942, King held a national plebiscite on the issue asking the nation to relieve him of the commitment he had made during the election campaign. He said that his policy was "conscription if necessary, but not necessarily conscription."

Related Topics:
1940 election - France - 1940 - Conscription Crisis of 1917 - 1942 - Plebiscite

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French Canadians voted overwhelmingly against conscription, but the majority of English Canada supported it. For the next two years, King tried to avoid the issue with a massive campaign to recruit volunteers, despite heavy losses in the Dieppe Raid in 1942, in Italy in 1943, and after the Battle of Normandy in 1944. At the end of 1944, he finally decided it was necessary to send conscripts to Europe. This led to a brief political crisis (see Conscription Crisis of 1944), but the war ended just a few months later. Few of the conscripts ever saw combat.

Related Topics:
Dieppe Raid - Italy - 1943 - Battle of Normandy - 1944 - Conscription Crisis of 1944

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King was extremely unpopular among Canadian servicemen and women during the war. His appearances at Canadian Army installations in Britain (and, after 6 June 1944, in Europe) were invariably greeted with boos and catcalls.

Related Topics:
Canadian Army - 6 June - 1944

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King's treatment of Japanese Canadians during the war would come under fire in later years. In the midst of World War II, thousands of Japanese Canadians were moved from the Pacific Coastal areas where they had lived into internment camps and shantyvilles farther east, ostensibly to avoid the danger of spies living in Canada. Similar precautions were not taken against German Canadians, however. King was not alone in his forced emigration of Japanese Canadians, as the United States government had a similar plan in effect during the war years. However, Japanese Canadians were unable to return to their home on the Pacific Coast, unlike Japanese Americans. Additionally, the property of Japanese Canadians was sold at public auctions during their exile, leaving them with little to stay for in Canada. As a result, Japanese Canadians were offered the option of "repatriation" to Japan at the expense of the King government, instead of being moved back to the west coast.

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