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  - The War Economy and Controls
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  - Women and the War on the Home Front
  - The Family Allowances
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  - Hamilton, Ont.; a City at War
  - Montréal, Quebec; a City at War
  - Axis Prisoners in Canada
  - The Canadian Armed Forces
  - The Royal Canadian Navy
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  - The Royal Canadian Air Force
  -Francophone Units
  - The Air Training Plan
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  - The Halifax Riots
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Post-War Planning
 
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Canada and the War
The House of Commons on September 7, 1939, the first day of the special session in which Canada's Parliament decided to declare war on Germany - AN20000034-018
The House of Commons on September 7, 1939, the first day of the special session in which Canada's Parliament decided to declare war on Germany

Politics and Government: Parliament

For Canada and Canadians, the Second World War began in Parliament, which was called into special session on September 7. After a brief debate, and at the request of the national Parliament and government, King George VI declared war on Germany, in the name of Canada, on September 10, 1939. Unlike 1914, Canada had made its own separate declaration of war, exactly a week after Britain went to war.

The March 1940 federal election gave the Liberals an overwhelming majority in the House of Commons. All the opposition parties suffered badly, and the Conservative leader lost his seat. In two 1942 conferences, the Conservatives adopted a "New National Policy" which emphasized social security; at the same time, they chose as their new leader John Bracken, then Premier of Manitoba. Bracken added the word Progressive to the name of the Conservative Party in an attempt to capture the appeal of the farmers' Progressive Party, which once had been very successful, particularly in Western Canada. The social platforms of the resurgent Co-operative Commonwealth Federation party (a predecessor of today's New Democratic Party) and the Progressive Conservatives pushed the Liberals to adopt their own people-centred policies in early 1944 ( see Post-War Planning ).

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