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

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, Canada. The , 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 govern ...

Maurice Duplessis, defeated the incumbent

Quebec Liberal Party The Quebec Liberal Party (QLP; , PLQ) is a provincial political party in Quebec. It has been independent of the federal Liberal Party of Canada since 1955. The QLP has traditionally supported a form of Quebec federalist ideology with nuance ...

, led by Adélard Godbout. This was the first Quebec provincial election in which women were allowed to vote, having been granted suffrage at the provincial level in 1941 (much later than what had been fully attained 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 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 f ...

. 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.Knowles, Valerie ''Strangers at Our Gates: Canadian Immigration and Immigration Policy, 1540-2006'', Toronto: Dundun Press, 2007 page 149. 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-British writer and former politician, Publishing, newspaper publisher, Investor, financier, and Fraudster, convicted fraudster. Black's father was businessma ...

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 in the Conscription Crisis of 1944 may have contributed to his defeat. The '' Bloc Populaire'' won four seats on an anti-conscription platform. More importantly, they siphoned off enough votes from the Liberals to deny them a second term. Even though the Liberals narrowly won the popular vote, massive vote-splitting with the Bloc Populaire allowed the Union Nationals to win a narrow majority of seats. The

Co-operative Commonwealth Federation The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF; , FCC) was a federal democratic socialism, democratic socialistThe following sources describe the CCF as a democratic socialist political party: * * * * * * and social democracy, social-democ ...

(predecessor of the

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) 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:

Campaign

Results

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

1939 This year also marks the start of the World War II, Second World War, the largest and deadliest conflict in human history. Events Events related to World War II have a "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 ** Coming into effect in Nazi Ger ...

!1944 !± !# ! ± !% ! ± (pp) , - 1939 includes Joseph-Philias Morin ( Champlain), who was elected under the Conservative banner and served only one term , style="text-align:left;", Maurice Duplessis , 91 , 15 , 48 , 33 , 505,661 , 285,259 , 38.02 , 1.11 , - , style="text-align:left;", Adélard Godbout , 90 , 69 , 37 , 32 , 523,316 , 221,934 , 39.35 , 14.15 , - , style="text-align:left;", André Laurendeau , 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 (; Canada 2021 Census, 2021 population 42,313) is a city on Osisko Lake in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region of Quebec, Canada. The city of Rouyn-Noranda is coextensive with a territory equivalent to a regional county municipalit ...

. , 24 , – , 1 , 1 , 33,986 , 31,473 , 2.56 , 2.11 , - , style="text-align:left;", , 12 , – , – , – , 16,542 , , 1.24 , , - , style="background-color:#D9B2FF;" , , style="text-align:left;" , '' Action libérale nationale'' , 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 was elected in Québec-Comtéresults compared against performance under the ''

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. ...

'' banner in 1939 , style="text-align:left;", – , 2 , 1 , 1 , , 8,711 , 5,637 , 0.65 , 0.10 , - , 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",

Synopsis of results

: = open seat : = turnout is above provincial average : = winning candidate was in previous Legislature : = incumbent had switched allegiance : = not incumbent; was previously elected to the Legislature : = incumbency arose from byelection gain : = previously incumbent in another riding : = other incumbents renominated : = previously an MP in the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada () is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Monarchy of Canada#Parliament (King-in-Parliament), Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of Ca ...

Redistribution of ridings

Campaign

Results

Synopsis of results

Effect of redistribution

Analysis

References

See also