Page "William Lyon Mackenzie King" Paragraph 51

King — and Canada — were largely ignored by Winston Churchill, despite Canada's major role in supplying food, raw materials, munitions and money to the hard-pressed British economy, training airmen for the Commonwealth, guarding the western half of the North Atlantic Ocean against German U-boats, and providing combat troops for the invasions of Italy, France and Germany in 1943-45.

King proved highly successful in mobilizing the economy for war, with impressive results in industrial and agricultural output.

The depression ended, prosperity returned, and Canada's economy expanded significantly.

On the political side, King rejected any notion of a government of national unity.

He held the Canadian federal election, 1940 as normally scheduled, despite the ongoing World War, unlike Britain, which formed a government of national unity and did not hold a wartime election.