Prime Minister: Sixth Parliament, Post-war Canada
With the War winding down, King held the Canadian federal election, 1945, and won the election, with a minority, but formed a functioning coalition to continue governing. The main opposition party Conservatives were weak for most of the two decades after R.B. Bennett lost the 1935 election, and King had virtually unchallenged power for much of his later years; this expanded still further during the War. He promoted American-born engineer C.D. Howe into positions of great power and influence during the War, but was hit hard by the 1940 air-crash death of key minister and protege Norman McLeod Rogers. After this setback, and the 1941 death of his Quebec lieutenant Ernest Lapointe, King sought out the reluctant Louis St. Laurent, a leading Quebec lawyer, to take over Lapointe's role, and eventually persuaded St. Laurent to serve in government.
King helped found the United Nations in 1945 and attended the opening meetings in San Francisco. However, he became pessimistic about the organization's future possibilities. After the war, King quickly dismantled wartime controls. Unlike World War I, press censorship ended with the hostilities. He began an ambitious program of social programs and laid the groundwork for Newfoundland and Labrador's entry into Canada; however, this did not take place until 1949, the year after King retired.
King moved Canada into the deepening Cold War in alliance with the U.S. and Britain. He dealt with the espionage revelations of Soviet cipher clerk Igor Gouzenko, who defected in Ottawa in September, 1945, by quickly appointing a Royal Commission to investigate Gouzenko's allegations of a Canadian Communist spy-ring transmitting top-secret documents to the Soviet Union. External Affairs minister Louis St. Laurent dealt decisively with this crisis, the first of its type in Canada's history. St. Laurent's leadership deepened King's respect, and helped make St. Laurent the next Canadian Prime Minister three years later.
On January 20, 1948, King called on the Liberal Party to hold its first national convention since 1919 to choose a leader. The August convention chose Louis St. Laurent as the new leader of the Liberal Party. Three months later, King retired after 22 years as prime minister. King also had the most terms (six) as Prime Minister. Sir John A. Macdonald was second-in-line, with 19 years, as the longest-serving Prime Minister in Canadian history (1867–1873, 1878–1891). King was not charismatic and did not have a large personal following. Only eight Canadians in 100 picked him when the Canadian Gallup (CIPO) poll asked in September, 1946, "What person living in any part of the world today do you admire?" Nevertheless, his Liberal Party was easily re-elected in the election of 1945.
Read more about this topic: William Lyon Mackenzie King
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