Can-Challenge: PM Maurice Duplessis

Make Maurice Duplessis Conservative PM of Canada with POD of 1935. Bonus points for King staying till 1948 as per OTL. Make his PM-ship as long as possible.
 
Make Maurice Duplessis Conservative PM of Canada with POD of 1935. Bonus points for King staying till 1948 as per OTL. Make his PM-ship as long as possible.

Having one of the most vocal opponents of Canada's involvement in WWII as PM during WWII? Having the closest we've had to an out and out Fascist (Quebec was effectively under one-party rule from about 1935/1940 to Duplessis' death in 1959, and his Union Nationale was very similar to most clerical fascist movements in it's behavior) running the country in WWII or the immediate aftermath? Those would be "interesting times" for sure. A neutral Canada in 1939/40, especially in the summer and fall of 1940 would be very interesting. WWII could come to a darker end in 1940 if Britain sees that even one of the most loyal nations in the Commonwealth is abandoning them.

A Duplessis/Manning government in the late 1940s and into the fifties would be interesting because the US would now have a neighbour that is even more anti-communist than they are. I wonder what kind of an influence that would have on 1950s America?

And just think, with someone like Ernest Manning (the Social Credit premier of Alberta from 1942 to about 1970) succeeding Duplessis when he dies, the 'Duplessist' style government could last well into the 1970s or 1980s. (Manning himself lived until about 1997 or so. His son (Preston Manning) led the Reform Party from 1988 to 2000, and sat in Parliament from 1993 to 2004) Imagine what sort of influence that would have on Canadian and North American politics right up to the present day. Hell, I can even imagine that under these circumstances, Pierre Trudeau could well end up being a "Duplessis Tory"... Especially if Duplessis managed to live up to his personal beliefs ca. 1940 and kept Canada out of the Second World War.
 
Let's switch it to after 1948. Even as a Blue Tory, the thought of Duplessis at 24 Sussex during the war makes me queasy. Manning as DPM. A King/Duplessis match would be similar to LBJ vs. Marcos. Masters of Rovian politicking and unchallenged legislative gurus
 
Though I do have a very real interest in Canadian politics, I must admit that, is spite of a great deal of reading on the (admittedly limited) texts available, I still have yet to fully under stand what "Social Credit" actually is beyond a consumerist democracy with evangelical Christian elements.

Strange really as it was proposed by an Englishman.
 
Let's switch it to after 1948. Even as a Blue Tory, the thought of Duplessis at 24 Sussex during the war makes me queasy. Manning as DPM. A King/Duplessis match would be similar to LBJ vs. Marcos. Masters of Rovian politicking and unchallenged legislative gurus

It (a Duplissis government during WWII) would make for an interesting TL, if you like your AH to be very dark, a la 'For All Time'...

Duplessis in power for the 1950s Red Scare would be just about perfect, for the same reasons as above. But with fewer Nazis.

If it were to be 1948/9, it would Duplessis vs Louis St. Laurent, another native son of Quebec. (Mackenzie King had retired from politics in 1948 because his health was failing. IIRC he was about 80 years old by that point, and he died in 1950, less than two years later) That would be an interesting matchup, though by this point, Duplessis had been premier of Quebec for most of the time since 1935. And the Tories had swallowed their pride and the Progressive party to become the more familliar Progressive Conservatives.

The POD would have to include the Tories and Duplessis both being more willing to overcome past prejudices (or more likely to sweep them under the rug, at least in public) and joind forces. With the additional effect of marginalising the Progressive Party. (Or turning them into a 1940s NDP, as the third party that can occasionally toss a spanner in the works...) This can occur in say 1943/4 as the outcome of the war becomes inevitable and thus any (continued) opposition to the war becomes pointless. Duplessis and the Tories both want power. The Tories have been shut out of Quebec effectively since 1917. Duplessis more or less rules Quebec, and he doesn't like the Liberal Party much. Why not have Duplessis "take over" the Conservative Party, and lead them both into power? They'd get to be the ones who won the war. Quebec would have a voice in the government. The Tories would quietly toss universal conscription overboard, admitting that 1917 was an 'error'. Victory would be pretty much guaranteed. What could possibly go wrong?
 
It (a Duplissis government during WWII) would make for an interesting TL, if you like your AH to be very dark, a la 'For All Time'...

Duplessis in power for the 1950s Red Scare would be just about perfect, for the same reasons as above. But with fewer Nazis.

If it were to be 1948/9, it would Duplessis vs Louis St. Laurent, another native son of Quebec. (Mackenzie King had retired from politics in 1948 because his health was failing. IIRC he was about 80 years old by that point, and he died in 1950, less than two years later) That would be an interesting matchup, though by this point, Duplessis had been premier of Quebec for most of the time since 1935. And the Tories had swallowed their pride and the Progressive party to become the more familliar Progressive Conservatives.

The POD would have to include the Tories and Duplessis both being more willing to overcome past prejudices (or more likely to sweep them under the rug, at least in public) and joind forces. With the additional effect of marginalising the Progressive Party. (Or turning them into a 1940s NDP, as the third party that can occasionally toss a spanner in the works...) This can occur in say 1943/4 as the outcome of the war becomes inevitable and thus any (continued) opposition to the war becomes pointless. Duplessis and the Tories both want power. The Tories have been shut out of Quebec effectively since 1917. Duplessis more or less rules Quebec, and he doesn't like the Liberal Party much. Why not have Duplessis "take over" the Conservative Party, and lead them both into power? They'd get to be the ones who won the war. Quebec would have a voice in the government. The Tories would quietly toss universal conscription overboard, admitting that 1917 was an 'error'. Victory would be pretty much guaranteed. What could possibly go wrong?


Couple of thoughts. 1) pro-Empire Tories with anti-Empire Union Nationale would be ... interesting

2) the CCF was founded in '32 and won election in Saskatchewan in '44 (I'm proud to claim I'm from the home of the first Socialist government in North America). So the Progressives and CCF might work together/merge (staving off the 'P' of PCs and the NDP).


Personally, I just don't see Duplessis as PM. He was so focussed on Quebec (especially as his personal fiefdom), that I don't think he'd likely even be interested in the Federal stage.

Anyone know how his English was?
 
Quite poor, he rarely spoke it. Roughly the same as Bourassa, much worse than Levesque. On the federal level, he's like Daley. He owns/rules his fiefdom, and occassionally intervenes against federal opponents when in the mood (1958, 1968).
 
Couple of thoughts. 1) pro-Empire Tories with anti-Empire Union Nationale would be ... interesting

Like I said, they'd both have to sweep a lot under the rug. I'd be a cold day in hell, but the Progressives and the Tories getting together was pretty unlikely too. And like I said, (sarcastically), what could possibly go wrong? Also do remember, the PQ put Mulroney into power in 1984, and kept him there in 1988. But look at what they helped do to Campbell in 1993...

2) the CCF was founded in '32 and won election in Saskatchewan in '44 (I'm proud to claim I'm from the home of the first Socialist government in North America). So the Progressives and CCF might work together/merge (staving off the 'P' of PCs and the NDP).

I'm from one province over. Where the first Social credit government got elected. (And the NDP rarely gets more than two MLAs:)) And once in power the SoCreds found that most of their plaftorm was rather insane, so they ditched it and remained in power for more than thirty years. Like the CCF, Reform, and Social Credit, the Progressives were a Western-based party. Which is why they never got federal power on their own. No Federal party based in Western Canada ever did until the modern Tories won in 2006.

Personally, I just don't see Duplessis as PM. He was so focussed on Quebec (especially as his personal fiefdom), that I don't think he'd likely even be interested in the Federal stage.

Power might do it, but to convince a man like that you'd need to be able to sell sand in a desert.

Anyone know how his English was?

Not me. He was fairly Quebec-first, but that doesn't mean much.
 
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