During WWII who was Prime Minister of Canada?

Both Sir Winston Churchill (1940 to 1945) and Neville Chamberlain (1937 to 1940) served as Prime Minister of Britain during WWII. Louis Stephen St-Laurent was not Prime Minister of Canada until 1948.

William Lyon Mackenzie King served as Prime Minister of Canada in three separate terms: 1921 to 1926 (June), 1926 (September) to 1930, and 1935 to 1948. He led Canada through half the Depression and all of the Second World War.

After the stock market crash of 1929 many people were out of work. Canadians didn’t want new immigrants to take jobs away from them. The King government took steps to reduce immigration and deported unemployed immigrants.

When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Canada declared war against the Axis Powers (Germany, Italy and Japan). During the war, more than a million Canadians served in the armed forces.

After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Canadians of Japanese descent were sent to forced-labour internment camps and had their property and businesses confiscated. Similarly, when fascist Italy entered the WWII the government designated Italian Canadians and fascist sympathizers as enemy aliens, sent them to internment camps, and confiscated their properties.

More Info: www.bac-lac.gc.ca

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38 Comments

Claudia Heilke

Only a little racist that Italians and Japanese were sent to camps and had their property confiscated while Germans were not. I didn't know that Canada was guilty of this abomination as well.

Shelley Krantz

Didn’t know about the internments and confiscations. Wow. No fairer than what U.S. did to the Japanese.

Lynn Ridenour

If Japanese and Italian Canadians were sent to internment camps, why weren't German Canadians?

Marguerite LaHaye

One of Canada’s darker pieces of history, right up there with the abuse of First Nation children at residential schools.

Douglas Blakeley

It was believed that the Japanese citizens helped in the attack on Pearl Harbour by spying on the naval base. Fear of more invasions caused the Canadian and US governments to move the Japanese people away from the west coast. There was NO forced labour and the people were not starved or beaten. Most Italians were left alone as were Germans living in Canada but they were watched by the police. The fact that Japan attacked us by surprise and also that they murdered Canadian troops in the Hong Kong hospital and raped our nurses there didn’t do the Japanese here any good.

Ilias Tsiabardas

Wrong word on internment (Incremented)

Ilias Tsiabardas

I knew All that , I am wondering why the Germans didn't get Incremented like the Italians and Japanese and Confiscated their property?

Chris Braid

Not a name to easily forget really!

Caroline Cannon

Got it right.

Shirley Dutt

The FBI came to our small town in northern California and questioned the Italian immigrants. My grandmother told him to get lost. He asked if she wanted to return to Italy, if she intended to send and money or gold there. She laughed at him. Told him she had two sons serving in Europe and to get the he'll off her front porch and out of bed neighborhood!

Joanne Serin

Val Wilkinson, I never understood that either, about the Germans.

Elaine Warner Laxton

King was quite the character! After his death, it was discovered that he communicated with his dead mother!! And he collected bits of bombed buildings in Europe and had them erected north of Ottawa in Gatineau Park. I don't know if they are still there, but I remember seeing them as a child as my family and I walked the trails in the park and a random bit of wall or building would appear...

Ed Taber

pykim, It would have been interesting for the US to try to put about 30% of its population in interment camps. Warren and his buddies made a land grab as old Earl despised Orientals. All my school friends of Japanese extraction were born in those camps. I doubt the government would have had much luck locking up the Mafia as they controlled the ports.

David Imrie

Claudia Heilke, Unfortunately, we were.

joan musicmasters

Never heard of him.

Cari G.

50/50 had one of the options as Nevil Chamberlain....no contest there...

John McLardie

The UK was not so different. We 'interned' people of Italian extraction on the Isle of Man (middle of the Irish Sea). No work and no redress against a land they had called home since the turn of the 19th to 20th centuries.

weathernco

Shelley Krantz, War is hell ...deal with it ...

Elizabeth Stephens Smith

Val Wilkinson, once again you're ignorance about America and your obvious hate is almost frightening. Maybe you forgot that Japan bombed Pearl Harbour and then America became involved.

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During WWII who was Prime Minister of Canada?

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