in the war.
The increasing worry and burden of war had directly contributed to the deaths of some of King’s nearest advisers. His chief adviser of foreign affairs, the head of the Department of External Affairs, O.D. Skelton, had died at the wheel of his car, as he suffered a fatal heart attack from a condition worsened by the large amount of work he carried out with the civil service. And the stress of all these announcements had finally made Lapointe succumb to heart problems. On November 29, 1941, a parade of mourners with their heads bowed shuffled silently down the snowy streets of Quebec City. They followed the horse-drawn hearse that carried the body of the big bear of a man who had been King’s staunchest supporter in French Canada.
King felt these losses deeply.
What most Canadians did not know was that his personal research gave him hope. It not only confirmed the Christian precept that there is life after death – it proved to him that the human personality survived after death.
After Father opened the seance, Sir Wilfrid came to speak: I have been doing all I can to get an appreciative vote in Quebec. The clergy are helping in the campaign today.
King had been forced to take action on the conscription issue. The new minister of defence, James Layton Ralston, had spent considerable time since his appointment on June 5, 1940 campaigning for this end. In fact, he had threatened to resign over what he felt was an unreasonable delay in conscripting for overseas service. King had merely held onto his resignation and as a compromise, arranged for a plebiscite, which was to occur the next day, April 27, 1942. The nation was to vote on whether or not it would release the government from its promise of no conscription. The vote would not mean the automatic adoption of the measure.
King worried what the results would be.
Lapointe informed King, Quebec will be true to you. They will give you a majority in the vote.
King: “I don’t believe that.”
Lapointe: You will see that I am right
Rogers: The vote tomorrow will be 80% over the entire nation.
King: “I don’t believe that.”
The ghosts promised he would be stronger than ever. King thought the government might win the vote, but not in Quebec.
How could he go on, he wondered, if only Quebec voted against the plebiscite and Parliament eventually found it necessary to enact such legislation?
Before the spirits said goodnight, they bade him remember that God loved him and had a special mission for him. King knew he must go on.
The next day, although French Canada remained solidly against conscription, the overall results of the plebiscite were in favour of releasing the government from its anti-conscription promise. That night King had another dream. Two stones – like pillars – were in his hands, and he was trying to hold them together. It was up to him to join the French and the English parts in one solid country, and what he was doing seemed to be working.
1. “Safe in the Arms of Jesus,” words by Frances Jane (Fanny) Crosby, 1868.
8
The Price of Peace
The Connaught Building, Ottawa
October 19, 1944
“How are you Chubby?” James Layton Ralston, the minister of defence, inquired in a low, growly voice as the maître d’ showed the minister of air defence, Charles Gavan Power, to his seat.
“Better than you, it seems!” Power replied, his blue eyes twinkling. “You sound terrible.”
“I’ve got a bad cold,” Ralston sniffled, taking out his handkerchief and applying it to his hawkish nose. Even his dark eyes behind his black-rimmed glasses seemed to be running.
Power clucked sympathetically. “Catch that overseas?”
Ralston shrugged.
Chubby ordered a drink. Ralston noted the choice. Powers notorious reputation for alcoholic consumption was strongly disapproved of by the prime minister.
“How was Europe?” Power asked in an upbeat tone. He knew the answer would be less jolly. Ralston had gone to England, Italy, and France to assess for himself the conditions of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. He had returned only yesterday and immediately called Power to request a lunch meeting. The minister of defence sounded so worried and depressed that Power agreed to cancel a previous engagement.
“Bad, things were bad,” came the reply. “What I saw was terrible.”
As Power quaffed his drink, Ralston shared the bleak picture painted by General Stuart, chief of the general staff. “The casualties are much higher than anticipated. There are just not enough reinforcements, and unless they can be found elsewhere, steps must be taken to impose conscription for overseas,” he said, shaking his head. “I’ve already told the prime minister what Stuart concluded.”
“I presume,” Power anticipated, “he expressed the view that at this time he would not support any move toward conscription.”
The minister of defence gave a disgusted shudder. “What is the man waiting for? He’s got his plebiscite, the people think they voted for conscription. But what does it mean to King? ‘Conscription if necessary, not necessarily conscription’ – that’s the new motto King’s adopted. Plebiscite – schmebiscite – that’s what I think! The Canadian people want action. Well,” Ralston added disapprovingly, “except those in Quebec.”
A Quebec MP, Power shot Ralston a look, but did not speak except to place another drink order with the waiter. The 1940 National Resource Mobilization Act had created a body of men, the NRMA, sometimes called the Zombies, who were conscripted to serve in Canada. The national plebiscite was not about immediately changing their status. It was about freeing the King government from its promise only. However, the people of Quebec had voted very strongly against even this measure.
Ralston considered his soup uncomfortably. Then, passionately, he began a new verbal volley, “Chubby, conditions are simply unsupportable overseas. Men who have been wounded two or even three times are being sent back onto the battlefield! They are desperate for replacements, and voluntary recruitment just isn’t working. What does King propose? Still nothing. I propose that we send 15,000 NRMA troops overseas as early as December.”
Now Power took an extra long minute cooling his soup before he spoke. A lieutenant in the First World War, Power had been wounded in September 1916 and returned home, unfit for service. On the wall of his office there was a photo of six young men, including himself, in uniform. Of the six he was the only one to have returned. He summed up his experiences when he told his followers in Quebec: “I went overseas in one war. I returned. I’ll never go back, and I’ll never send anybody else.”
That promise had become very important in the 1939 provincial election in Quebec. Premier Maurice Duplessis called a provincial election to vote on federal issues of conscription and war participation. Duplessis would have tightened his
