The 1944 Quebec general election was held on August 8, 1944 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Quebec, Canada. The , led by former premier Maurice Duplessis, defeated the incumbent Quebec Liberal Party, 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, coming into force on January 1, 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 1942–1943, 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.
Another reason Duplessis won the election was by appealing to antisemitic 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 racist and stereotypical depiction of a Jewish person handing bags of money to Godbout while in the background other stereotypically-depicted refugees were ready to descend on la belle province.Abella, Irving & Troper, Harold None is too many: Canada and the Jews of Europe, 1933–1948, Toronto: L & O Denny, 1986 page 162. 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 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.Black, Conrad Duplesisis, Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1977 page 719 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 (predecessor of the New Democratic Party) 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:
Abolished ridings New ridingsDrawn from parts of other ridingsRouyn-Norandataken from part of TémiscamingueReorganization of ridingsChâteauguay-Laprairie Saint-Jean–NapiervilleChâteauguay Napierville-Laprairie Saint-JeanDivision of ridingsAbitibiAbitibi-Est Abitibi-OuestKamouraska–Rivière-du-LoupKamouraska Rivière-du-LoupRichelieu-VerchèresRichelieu Verchères
Campaign
+ Riding contests, by number of candidates (1944) CandidatesUNLibBPCCFUdENatIndI-LibLabLab-PrI-UNI-CCFI-BPCdPTotal25 4 1 10345 45 40 1 2 1 1 135425 25 24 10 7 5 3 1 100512 12 12 9 3 7 1 2 1 1 6061 1 1 1 1 1 672 2 2 2 1 2 1 2 1481 1 1 1 1 1 2 8Total91 90 80 24 12 2 16 7 2 3 3 1 1 1 333
Results
! colspan=2 rowspan=2 | Political party ! rowspan=2 | Party leader ! colspan=4 | MLAs ! colspan=4 | Votes |- ! Candidates !1939 !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. |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 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 | – | 1 | colspan="4"|
Vote and seat summaries
Synopsis of results