Timeline of Quebec history (1931 to 1959) - Definition

This section of the Timeline of Quebec history concerns the events between the Westminster statute and the Quiet Revolution.

1930s

• 1931 - The Statute of Westminster removes the legislating power of British over the Dominion of Canada.
• 1931 - Quebec general election: Liberals win.
• 1935 - Quebec general election: Liberals win.
• 1936 - The Vimy Ridge Memorial opens in honour of the thousands of Canadians who died on the battlefields of France.
• 1936 - The federal government of Canada starts printing bilingual currency.
• 1936 - Quebec general election: Union Nationale wins.
• 1937 - Death of Brother André on January 6. He promoted the construction of St. Joseph's Oratory.
• 1938 - The Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society raised a petition of 128,000 names, demanding further restrictions on Jews in Canada. (See Anti-Semitism in Canada).
• 1939 - Canada's participation in World War II begins: Canada declares war on Germany on September 10.
• 1939 - Quebec general election: Liberals win.
• 1939 - Quebec adopts the motto Je me souviens (I remember).
• 1939 to 1945 - Volunteer army and air force units from Quebec -- some francophone, some anglophone -- fight with merit in Europe.

1940s

• The 1940s brings the era of the Duplessis Orphans.
• 1940 - After many years of battle by suffragettes, Quebec women are allowed to vote and run for office in provincial elections.
• 1940 - Camillien Houde, mayor of Montreal, is arrested for outspoken opposition to conscription. He is interned until 1944.
• 1940 - France falls to Germany.
• 1942 - Referendum on conscription. Quebec votes against conscription a second time; the rest of Canada votes in favour (see Conscription Crisis of 1944).
• 1942 - On May 18, President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, writes a private letter to Mackenzie King, Prime Minister of Canada, in which he discusses that the USA and Canada agree on an unwritten plan aiming to disperse French Canadians in order to assimilate them more quickly.
• 1943 - Compulsory education law is adopted.
• 1943 - Quebec City conference between Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill on August 14.
• 1944 - April 14 - Creation of Hydro-Québec from the nationalization of Montreal Light, Heat and Power.
• 1944 - June 6 - Canadian soldiers land at Juno Beach on D-Day, marking the beginning of the liberation of France.
• 1944 - Quebec general election: Union Nationale wins.
• 1947 - July 23: Mae O'Connor, widow of Liberal Member of the Legislative Assembly Dennis James O'Connor, unsuccessfully runs as the first female candidate in a Quebec election (by-election in her late husband's riding of Huntingdon).
• 1948 - Adoption of a new Flag of Quebec on January 21. Until this time, the Union Jack had flown over the Legislative Assembly.
• 1948 - Quebec general election: Union Nationale wins.
• 1948 - Paul-Émile Borduas, Jean-Paul Riopelle and other Quebec artists publish the Refus global which denounces artistic and moral conformity in Québec.
• 1948 - Louis St. Laurent, born in Compton, Quebec, becomes Prime Minister of Canada.
• 1949 - Decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada can no longer be appealed to the Privy Council of Britain.
• 1949 - Asbestos strike in the towns of Asbestos and Thetford Mines, a turning point in labor relations.

1950s

• 1952 - January 23: from now on, a candidate can no longer run simultaneously in more than one riding in the same general election.
• 1952 - Quebec general election: Union Nationale wins.
• 1952 - Radio-Canada (television station) begins broadcasting.
• 1954 - A separate provincial income tax is introduced, independent of the federal income tax.
• 1955 - Rioting at the Montreal Forum (hockey arena) during a Montreal Canadiens hockey game. Protesting the treatment of Maurice Richard, the event had political overtones.
• 1956 - Quebec general election: Union Nationale wins.
• 1957 - John Diefenbaker becomes Conservative Prime Minister of Canada.
• 1958 - Diefenbaker wins re-election with a strong majority, winning many seats in Quebec for the first time.
• 1958 - Radio-Canada producers go on strike, a hint of the coming Quiet Revolution.
• 1959 - Longtime Premier of Quebec Maurice Duplessis dies in office on September 7.
• 1959 - Tramways stop running in Montreal.