The 1944 Quebec general election was held on August 8, 1944 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, Canada. The '' Union Nationale'', led by former

premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of governm ...

Maurice Duplessis Maurice Le Noblet Duplessis (; April 20, 1890 – September 7, 1959), was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 16th premier of Quebec. A conservative, nationalist, anti-Communist, anti-unionist and fervent Catholic, he and hi ...

, defeated the incumbent

Quebec Liberal Party The Quebec Liberal Party (QLP; french: Parti libéral du Québec, PLQ) is a provincial political party in Quebec. It has been independent of the federal Liberal Party of Canada since 1955. The QLP has always been associated with the colour red; e ...

, led by

Adélard Godbout Joseph-Adélard Godbout (September 24, 1892 – September 18, 1956) was a Canadian agronomist and politician. He served as the 15th premier of Quebec briefly in 1936, and again from 1939 to 1944. He served as leader of the Parti Libéral du Qu ...

. This was the first Quebec provincial election in which women were allowed to vote, having been granted suffrage at the provincial level in 1940 and at the federal level in 1919. This election marked Duplessis's comeback after having defeated Godbout in the 1936 election and having lost to him in the 1939 election. Unlike in the 1939 election, when the alcoholic Duplessis was clearly drunk at numerous campaign rallies, ''le chef'' had benefited from the time he had spent in an American sanatorium in 1942-43, where he had sobered up, and in the 1944 election, Duplessis refrained from drinking. The biggest issue during this election was provincial autonomy. In order to appeal to nationalist voters, Duplessis attacked the incumbent premier, claiming that he was not taking a strong enough stand against Ottawa. He mainly criticized Godbout for agreeing to transfer unemployment insurance from the province to the federal government. He also criticized the Rowell-Sirois Commission for its stance on

unemployment insurance Unemployment benefits, also called unemployment insurance, unemployment payment, unemployment compensation, or simply unemployment, are payments made by authorized bodies to unemployed people. In the United States, benefits are funded by a comp ...

and

equalization payments Equalization payments are cash payments made in some federal systems of government from the federal government to subnational governments with the objective of offsetting differences in available revenue or in the cost of providing services. Many fe ...

. Another reason Duplessis won the election was by appealing to anti-Semitic prejudices in Quebec by making the false claim in a violently anti-Semitic speech that the Dominion government together with the Godbout government had made a secret deal with the "International Zionist Brotherhood" to settle 100,000 Jewish refugees left homeless by the Holocaust in Quebec after the war in exchange for Jewish campaign contributions to both the federal and provincial Liberal parties. By contrast, Duplessis claimed that he was not taking any money from the Jews, and if he were elected Premier, he would stop this plan to bring Jewish refugees to Quebec. To further push on the message, the ''Union Nationale'' handed out campaign pamphlets warning about the alleged plan to bring 100,000 Jewish refugees to Quebec, which featured a cartoon of the standard stereotype of an evil-looking, hook-nosed Jew handing bags of money to Godbout while in the background a vast horde of dirty, disreputable-looking, hook-nosed Jewish refugees were ready to descend on ''la belle province''. Through Duplessis's story about the plan to settle 100,000 Jewish refugees in Quebec was entirely false, his story was widely believed in Quebec, and ensured he won the election. Duplessis's biographer

Conrad Black Conrad Moffat Black, Baron Black of Crossharbour (born 25 August 1944), is a Canadian-born British former newspaper publisher, businessman, and writer. His father was businessman George Montegu Black II, who had significant holdings in Canadi ...

argued that Duplessis was in no way personally anti-Semitic, but because the majority of Quebecois were at the time, Duplessis had merely used antisemitism to win the 1944 election. Duplessis won another three elections in a row, for a total of five terms of office (four consecutive), before dying in office in 1959. In this wartime election, Godbout's support for Canadian Prime Minister

William Lyon Mackenzie King William Lyon Mackenzie King (December 17, 1874 – July 22, 1950) was a Canadian statesman and politician who served as the tenth prime minister of Canada for three non-consecutive terms from 1921 to 1926, 1926 to 1930, and 1935 to 1948. A Li ...

in the

Conscription Crisis of 1944 The Conscription Crisis of 1944 was a political and military crisis following the introduction of forced military service for men in Canada during World War II. It was similar to the Conscription Crisis of 1917, but not as politically damaging. ...

may have contributed to his defeat. The '' Bloc Populaire'' won four seats on an anti-conscription platform. The

Co-operative Commonwealth Federation The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF; french: Fédération du Commonwealth Coopératif, FCC); from 1955 the Social Democratic Party of Canada (''french: Parti social démocratique du Canada''), was a federal democratic socialism, democra ...

(predecessor of the

New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; french: Nouveau Parti démocratique, NPD) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * t ...

) won one seat. Party member David Côté was elected to the legislature, but in July 1945, he decided to sit as an independent.

Redistribution of ridings

An Act passed before the election increased the number of MLAs from 86 to 91 through the following changes:

Results

, - ! colspan=2 rowspan=2 , Political party ! rowspan=2 , Party leader ! colspan=4 , MPPs ! colspan=4 , Votes , - ! Candidates !

1939 This year also marks the start of the Second World War, the largest and deadliest conflict in human history. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 ** Third Reich *** Jews are forbidden to ...

!1944 !± !# ! ± !% ! ± (pp) , - 1939 includes Joseph-Philias Morin ( Champlain), who was elected under the Conservative banner and served only one term , style="text-align:left;",

, 91 , 15 , 48 , 33 , 505,661 , 285,259 , 38.02 , 1.11 , - , style="text-align:left;",

, 90 , 69 , 37 , 32 , 523,316 , 221,934 , 39.35 , 14.15 , - , style="text-align:left;",

André Laurendeau Joseph-Edmond-André Laurendeau (March 21, 1912 – June 1, 1968) was a journalist, politician, co-chair of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, and playwright in Quebec, Canada. He is usually referred to as André Lauren ...

, 80 , – , 4 , 4 , 191,564 , , 14.40 , , - , style="text-align:left;", Romuald-Joseph LamoureuxDefeated in Montréal–Saint-Henri. David Côté was elected in

Rouyn-Noranda Rouyn-Noranda ( 2021 population 42,313) is a city on Osisko Lake in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region of Quebec, Canada. The city of Rouyn-Noranda is a coextensive with a territory equivalent to a regional county municipality (TE) and census ...

. , 24 , – , 1 , 1 , 33,986 , 31,473 , 2.56 , 2.11 , - , style="text-align:left;", , 12 , – , – , – , 16,542 , , 1.24 , , - , style="background-color:#FF5555;" , , style="text-align:left;" , ''

Parti national The Parti National was the name taken by the Liberal Party of Quebec, Canada, under the premiership of Honoré Mercier. Origin and beliefs It was founded on November 17, 1885, the day following the execution of Métis Leader Louis Riel. Many ...

'' , style="text-align:left;" , , – , 1 , – , 1 , style="text-align:center;" colspan="4", ''Did not campaign'' , - , style="background-color:#D9B2FF;" , , style="text-align:left;" , ''

Action libérale nationale The Action libérale nationale (ALN)('National Liberal Action') was a short-lived provincial political party in Quebec, Canada. It was founded during the Great Depression and led by Paul Gouin. The ALN played an important role in the foundatio ...

'' , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:center;" colspan="8", ''Did not campaign'' , - , rowspan="10" , , style="text-align:left;" colspan="10", Other candidates , - , style="text-align:left;" , , style="text-align:left;", – , 16 , 1 , – , 1 , 12,766 , 6,485 , 0.96 , 0.03 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

René Chaloult René Chaloult (January 26, 1901 – December 20, 1978) was a nationalist politician in Quebec, Canada. Background He was born on January 26, 1901, in Quebec City. Political career Chaloult first won a seat to the Legislative Assembly of ...

was elected in

Québec Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...

, style="text-align:left;", – , 2 , – , 1 , 1 , 8,711 , , 0.65 , , - , style="text-align:left;" , , style="text-align:left;", – , 7 , – , – , – , 8,656 , 7,868 , 0.65 , 0.51 , - , style="text-align:left;" , , style="text-align:left;", – , 2 , – , – , – , 8,355 , 7,945 , 0.63 , 0.56 , - , style="text-align:left;" , formerly Communist , style="text-align:left;", – , 3 , – , – , – , 7,873 , 7,714 , 0.59 , 0.56 , - , style="text-align:left;" , , style="text-align:left;", – , 3 , – , – , – , 6,775 , 6,306 , 0.51 , 0.43 , - , style="text-align:left;" , , style="text-align:left;", – , 1 , – , – , – , 3,015 , , 0.23 , , - , style="text-align:left;" , , style="text-align:left;", – , 1 , – , – , – , 2,583 , , 0.19 , , - , style="text-align:left;" , , style="text-align:left;", – , 1 , – , – , – , 156 , , 0.01 , , - ! colspan="3" style="text-align:left;" , Total , 333 , 86 ! " colspan="2", 91 ! " colspan="2", 1,329,959 ! " colspan="2", 100% , - , colspan="7" style="text-align:left;" , Rejected ballots , 15,552 , 8,218 , colspan="2", , - , colspan="7" style="text-align:left;" , Voter turnout , 1,345,511 , 774,880 , 71.98 , 5.02 , - , colspan="7" style="text-align:left;" , Registered electorsElectorate expanded on adoption of , 1,869,396 , 1,128,265 , colspan="2", , - , colspan="5" style="text-align:left;" , Candidates returned by

acclamation An acclamation is a form of election that does not use a ballot. It derives from the ancient Roman word ''acclamatio'', a kind of ritual greeting and expression of approval towards imperial officials in certain social contexts. Voting Voice vot ...

, – , 1 , colspan="4",

Redistribution of ridings

Results

References

See also