Québécois general election of 1944

The Québécois general election of 1944 is held the August 8th 1944 in order to elect the Député S of the 22 {{E}} legislature with the legislative Assemblée of the province of the Quebec (Canada). It is about the 22e general election since the Canadian Confédération of 1867. The National union, directed by Maurice Duplessis, is carried to the capacity by demolishing the liberal government outgoing Prime Minister Adélard Godbout and forms a majority Gouvernement.

Context

The Liberal party had gained the preceding general election mainly thanks to the assistance of the federal liberal which had linked their forces to demolish the government of Maurice Duplessis. This last, opposed to the Canadian participation in the Second world war, had started the election while promising to be opposed to the effort of war of Canada. The Prime Minister of Canada, William Lyon Mackenzie King, promises that the conscription will never be imposed.

However, the April 27th 1942, King holds a national plebiscite requiring of the Canadians to enable him to reconsider its promise and to impose the conscription so necessary. The plebiscite gives a result favorable to 63,7% in the whole of Canada, but unfavourable to 71,2% in Quebec. The conscription will be applied only as from 1944, which starts a crisis of the conscription.

A new party makes its appearance on the scenes federal and provincial: the Canadian, nationalist and anti-conscriptionniste popular Block. It gains 4 seats at the time of this poll, and will égalament make égalament elect 2 deputies with the House of Commons at the time of the federal election the following year.

But the anti-conscriptionniste feeling plays especially in favor of Duplessis, which succeeds in making pass Godbout for a puppet of the federal liberal government. Although the Liberal party received more votes, the National union returns to the capacity. Duplessis will remain then with the capacity until its death in 1959, easily gaining the victory at the time of the three following general elections.

In May 1944, the number of seats passed from 86 to 91 after a long debate.

David Côté, a candidate of the Federation of the co-operative Commonwealth, Socialist, succeeds in being made elect in Rouyn-Noranda in a fight with six candidates; however, it leaves the party to sit as an independent deputy as from July 1945. Independent the Rene Chaloult is also elected.

This election is the first provincial general election in Quebec where the women have the right to vote. The government of Adélard Godbout had voted this law in April 1940, in spite of the opposition of the National union and the archbishop of Quebec, Mgr Villeneuve. Quebec was the last Canadian province to grant this right.

Important dates

June 29th, 1944: Emission of the brief of election.
August 8th, 1944: poll
February 7th, 1945: opening of the session.

Results

* did not introduce candidates at the time of the preceding election.

List deputies

Abitibi-Is : Henri Drouin (Liberal party)
Abitibi-West : Emile Lesage (National union)
Argenteuil : Georges-Etienne Dansereau (Liberal party)
Arthabaska : Pierre-Horace Plourde (Liberal party)
Bagot : Cyrille Dumaine (Liberal party)
Beauce : Edmond Lacroix (popular Block)
Beauharnois : Albert Lemieux (popular Block)
Bellechasse : Welcome Valmore (Liberal party)
Berthier : Armand Sylvestre (Liberal party)
Bonaventure : Henri Jolicoeur (National union)
Bromine : Jonathan Robinson (National union)
Chambly Dorvina-Évariste Joyal (Liberal party)
Champlain : Maurice Bellemare (National union)
Charlevoix-Saguenay : Arthur Leclerc (National union)
Châteauguay : Honore Draper III (Liberal party)
Chicoutimi Antonio Talbot (National union)
Compton : William James Duffy (Liberal party)
Two-Mountains : Paul Saved (National union)
Dorchester : Joseph-damask Bégin (National union)
Drummond : Robert Bernard (National union)
Frontenac : Late Patrice (National union)
Gaspé-North : Alphonse Pelletier (National union)
Gaspé-South : Camille-Eugene Pouliot (National union)
Gatineau : Célestin Nadon (Liberal party)
Hull : Alexandre Taché (National union)
Huntingdon : Refusals James O' Connor (Liberal party)
Iberville : Yvon Thuot (National union)
Iles-de-la-Madeleine : Hormisdas Langlois (National union)
Jacques-Cartier : Charles-Aime Kirkland (Liberal party)
Jeanne-Mance : Joseph-Emile Dubreuil (Liberal party)
Joliette : Antonio Barrette (National union)
Kamouraska : Louis-Philippe Lizotte (Liberal party)
Labelle : Henri-Albini Parcels up (National union)
Lac Midsummer's Day : Joseph-Ludger Filion (Liberal party)
the Assumption : Victor-Stanislas Chartrand (National union)
Bay-tree : Andre Laurendeau (popular Block)
Laval : François Leduc (Liberal party)
Laviolette : Charles-Romulus Ducharme (National union)
Lévis : Theophilus Larochelle (National union)
Islet : Adélard Godbout (Liberal party)
Lotbinière : Guy Roberge (Liberal party)
Maisonneuve : François-Albert Gatien (National union)
Maskinongé : Germain Charon (National union)
Matane : Onésime Gagnon (National union)
Matapédia : Philippe Cossette (National union)
Mégantic : Tancrède Labbé (National union)
Draper : Joseph-Achilles Francoeur (Liberal party)
Missisquoi : Henri-HAVe. Gosselin (Liberal party)
Montcalm : Maurice Tellier (National union)
Montmagny : Fernand Choquette (Liberal party)
Montmorency : Jacques Dumoulin (Liberal party)
Napierville-Laprairie : Hercules Riendeau (National union)
Nicolet : Émery Fleury (National union)
Our-Lady-of-Grace : James Arthur Mathewson (Liberal party)
Outremont : Henri Groulx (Liberal party)
Papineau : Lorraine Romeo (National union)
Pontiac : Edward Charles Lawn (Liberal party)
Portneuf : Bona Dusseault (National union)
Quebec-Center : Joseph William Morin (Liberal party)
Quebec-County : Rene Chaloult (Independent)
Quebec-Is : Henri-Paul Drouin (Liberal party)
Quebec-West : Wilfrid Samson (Liberal party)
Richelieu : Joseph-Willie Robidoux (Liberal party)
Richmond : Albert Goudreau (National union)
Rimouski : Alfred Dubé (National union)
River-of-Wolf : Leon Casgrain (Liberal party)
Roberval : Antoine Marcotte (National union)
Rouville : Laurent Barred (National union)
Rouyn-Noranda : David Côté (Federation of the Co-operative Commonwealth)
Holy-Anne : Thomas Guerin (Liberal party)
Sainte-Marie : Camille Side (National union)
Saint-Henri : Joseph-Hormisdas Delisle (National union)
Saint-Hyacinthe : Ernest-Joseph Chartier (National union)
Saint-Jacob : Omer Side (National union)
Midsummer's Day : Jean-Paul Beaulieu (National union)
Saint-Louis : Maurice Hartt (Liberal party)
Saint-Maurice : Marc Trudel (National union)
Saint-Saver : Wilfrid Hamel (Liberal party)
Shefford : Hector Choquette (National union)
Sherbrooke : John Samuel Bourque (National union)
Stanstead : Ovila Bergeron (popular Block)
Témiscamingue : The Nile-Élie Larivière (National union)
Témiscouata : Andre Pelletier (National union)
Terrebonne : Joseph-Léonard Blanchard (National union)
Three-Rivers : Maurice Duplessis (National union)
Vaudreuil-Soulanges : Alphide Sabourin (Liberal party)
Verchères : Arthur Dupre (Liberal party)
Verdun : Lionel-Alfred Ross (Liberal party)
Westmount-Saint-Georges : George Marler (Liberal party)
Wolfe : Henri Vachon (National union)
Yamaska : Antonio Élie (National union)

Sources

historical Section of the site of the National Assembly of Quebec
Jacques Lacoursière, popular History of Quebec , volume 4, editions of North, Sillery (Quebec), 1997

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