This is Part Six of a multipart series. You can read Part One , Part Two, Part Three , Part Four , and Part Five
William Lyon Mackenzie King retired as Primer Minister due to his failing health in late 1948 (and died two years later of pneumonia) replaced by Louis St. Laurent.
St. Laurent served as King's minister of justice and secretary of staff for external affairs before becoming the country's twelfth prime minister on Nov. 15, 1948, and the second French Canadian to hold the office since Wilfrid Laurier. He was also the first prime minister to live at 24 Sussex Drive after the federal government purchased the residence in 1943.
A snap election was called for June 27, 1949, with St. Laurent aiming to win a majority government. He did, winning 191 seats, an increase of 73. St. Laurent won his seat of Quebec East, while George A. Drew, the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party (who had won the leadership race in a landslide against John Diefenbaker), won his seat in Carleton, just one of the 41 seats the party won. Major James Coldwell of the Co-operative Commonwealth won his seat as well as 13 seats. Solon Earl Low and the Social Credit Party won 10.
The 1949 election was the first time the people of Newfoundland and Labrador voted in a Canadian election, having joined the country in March 1949.
John Lambert Gibson, an Independent MP representing the Comox-Alberni riding was reelected. Like previous MPs in the area, Gibson had an anti-Japanese immigration to British Columbia, even well after the Second World War., he called for the federal government to "proceed with the repatriation of all persons of Japanese origin; and, in the alternative, should be such be impossible, that the lower mainland and the coastal regions of British Columbia be forthwith declared a defence area, from which all persons of Japanese origin shall be totally excluded for a period of at least ten years ensuing."
In the same speech, he called the Japanese in Canada "fascist-minded, easily regimented, closely integrated group of foreigners, wholly unassimilable, and always a threat to our Canadian way of living," whether they were born in Canada or naturalized.
Gibson concluded it was always wrong but still wanted to limit immigration of Chinese and other minorities limited, to "keep Canada white and British."
The Canadian government increased immigration in 1948 to rebuild the labour base and the tax base, which St. Laurent hoped would help pay social welfare programs, like pensions, funding for post-secondary education and an early form of healthcare, which inspired universal healthcare in the future.
St. Laurent wanted to lead Canada into expanding its influence on the global stage post-Second World War. He was one of the figureheads behind the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949.
The Korean War kicked off on June 25, 1950. After the Second World War, the United States and the Soviet Union split Korea up into two occupation zones. After being occupied by the Japanese Empire for 35 years, the United States and the Soviet Union planned to create an independent Korean state. However, in 1948, the zones formed their own governments. The North was influenced by the Soviet Union's communist ideals, while the South was influenced by the United States and democracy. North Korea launched an invasion after small border clashes.
Avoiding another conscription crisis, St. Laurent sent a 26,000-strong voluntary force.
The also happened under St. Laurent, which saw 92 Inuit forcibly removed from northern Quebec to Ellesmere Island and Cornwallis Island in the Northwest Territories (now Nunavut) in the 1950s. This move was done to reinforce , essentially using the 92 Inuit as "human flagpoles." The Canadian government officially apologized for the forced relocation on Aug. 18, 2010.
St. Laurent won another election in 1953. It was a snap election St. Laurent called a year before the scheduled election due to the Liberal Party's strong popularity. However, the Liberal party had lost 22 seats, but still won St. Laurent's consecutive majority government.
In the Comox-Alberni riding, Gibson was replaced by Thomas Speakman Barnett. Barnett was originally from Red Deer, Alta, eventually making his way to the Island, settling in Alberni (now part of Port Alberni), where he served as an alderman before joining federal politics as a member of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation.
After the election, St. Laurent and the Liberals amended the National Housing Act and unemployment assistance, as well as the Fisheries Improvement Loan Act, and also banned discrimination in the 1953 Fair Employment Practices Act. The Canada Council for the Arts was also created in 1957, using $100 in death taxes.
St. Laurent also introduced , redistributing taxation revenues between provinces to assist the poorer ones. It did not, and still does not, include the territories. The plan was originally to give each province the same per-capita revenue as Ontario and British Columbia, the two wealthiest provinces in the country at the time, using personal income taxes, corporate income taxes and inheritance taxes (succession duties). The registered retirement savings plan was also introduced in 1957.
The Liberal Party led Canada from 1935, but their leadership came to an end on June 10, 1957.
St. Laurent panned to allow TransCanada Pipelines, LP to build a pipeline but wanted it to be built entirely in Canadian territory, a longer and more expansive route, rather than cut through the United States. This caused a heated debate in 1956, mostly concerned with American interests in the project. The debate took two weeks, with the Liberal Party attempting to force the debate to end to push the plan for the pipeline through, which the Progressive Conservative Party and the Co-Operative Commonwealth Federation both opposed to the idea. The debate erupted into chaos the day of the deadline after Ren茅 Beaudoin, the Liberal Speaker of the House, reversed a decision from the day before on whether the debate would continue. The Opposition claimed St. Laurent and the Minister of Trade and Commerce, C.D. Howe, convinced Beaudoin to change his mind to push through with the pipeline, which ended up being delayed for a full year after the factories went on strike. John Lorne MacDougall, a Liberal MP for the Vancouver - Burrard riding, collapsed on Parliament's Centre Block during the chaos, dying of a heart attack. Three other Members of Parliament were also admitted to a hospital due to the chaotic and stressful debate.
The Progressive Conservatives used this incident as a way to discredit the Liberal Party in their campaign for the 1957 election. With the loud and engaging Diefenbaker in charge, the Progressive Conservatives won a minority government, winning 112 seats, while the Liberals only won 105. The two other major parties, Co-Operative Commonwealth and Social Credit, won 25 and 19 seats.
One of the two Co-Operative Commonwealth seats remained Barnett's.
Diefenbaker appointed Ellen Fairclough as the Secretary of State for Canada, making her the first woman appointed to a Cabinet post.
He then waited nine months to call for another election after the Liberals appointed a new leader in Lester B. Pearson, who was not popular in Quebec, and the collapse of the Social Credit Party, another right-wing party.
The election was the right call for Diefenbaker, who won the highest majority in Canadian history, with 208 seats. The Liberals won 48 seats, losing 57. The two other major parties did poorly. The Co-operative Commonwealth shrank to eight seats, while the Social Credit Party failed to be elected in any riding. Both party leaders lost their seats.
Barnett survived the first election, but Henry McQuillan took his sport in the 1958 election. The Progressive Conservative logger was born in Courtenay and was a contractor and logger before becoming a politician.
