The 1943 Grand Council elections were held on 15 February 1943 for the purpose of choosing the Twenty-first Grand Council of the Confederation of North America. The elections returned a People's Coalition majority of 84 seats.
The elections took place during the Global War, which involved every major power in the world with the exception of the C.N.A. While campaigning for the 1938 Grand Council elections, Coalitionist candidate Bruce Hogg had pledged that the C.N.A. would remain neutral in the event of a European war. Hogg had led the P.C. to a narrow victory in that election, and when war came the following year, he had remained true to his word.
After the war broke out, Hogg had expected it to quickly turn into a stalemate. Instead, the Germanic Confederation won a series of swift victories, conquering France and the Ottoman Empire, then invading India. Public opinion in the C.N.A. had quickly shifted from neutralism to support for Great Britain, and Hogg had responded by creating a program of covert military aid to the British. By July 1940, Hogg had invited the opposition Liberal Party to join in a wartime unity government, and the Liberals had accepted. Former Governor-General Douglas Watson, whom Hogg had narrowly defeated in 1938, accepted the post of Minister for Foreign Affairs.
At a Cabinet meeting on 18 November 1942, the members of both parties agreed that the 1943 elections should go ahead as usual, but that neither party would hold a national convention. Instead, the candidates for the Grand Council would run unpledged, and whichever party won a majority would select the next governor-general. If the P.C. won and chose Hogg for a second term, he would retain all the Liberal members of his Cabinet. If the Liberals won and chose Watson or Hugh Devenny for governor-general, Hogg would become Minister for Foreign Affairs and all the other Coalitionists in the Cabinet would be retained. News of the agreement was made public in early December.
Confederation | Liberal Party | People's Coalition |
---|---|---|
Indiana | 10 | 19 |
Manitoba | 19 | 12 |
Northern Confederation | 13 | 22 |
Northern Vandalia | 9 | 10 |
Southern Confederation | 10 | 11 |
Southern Vandalia | 5 | 10 |
TOTAL | 66 | 84 |
The result of the election was an increase in the Coalition's majority from 76 seats to 84. The Coalition caucus again selected Hogg for governor-general, and the unity government continued uninterrupted.
Sobel's source for the 1943 Grand Council elections is Charles Simonson's The Year Without Politics: The C.N.A. in 1942 (New York, 1950). Election results are from the 16 February 1943 issue of the New York Herald.
C.N.A. Grand Council Elections |
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