The General Election of December 1917, passed quietly, making no change in the political situation, although there was a strong feeling in Quebec against conscription, which was the dominant issue in that province. On that question the Hon. W. L. Mackenzie King supported Sir Wilfrid Laurier in his opposition to compulsory service, being one of the few English Canadian Liberals to do so. In fact several of them had already joined Sir Robert Borden so that a Coalition Government could be formed. It was largely owing to Mr. King's support of Sir Wilfrid on this issue that the former was chosen to { 468} succeed the latter as leader of the Liberal Party in the Convention held at Ottawa August 5-7, 1919. The country, however, was too intent on the struggle before it to worry about politics. If it did anything it placed Sir Robert Borden more firmly in power to carry on the task before him, especially endorsing the Military Service Act (Conscription) which had been passed on August 29, previously.
It is true that the people were stunned by the disasters which occurred in 1916 and 1917 when the Parliament Building at Ottawa was burned and Halifax was almost razed to the ground by the explosion resulting from the ramming of an ammunition ship. But outside of the great toll of life these losses could be repaired and were speedily made up in the erection of new Parliament Buildings and the creation of a more modern city of Halifax to dominate the entrance of the great highway from the East.
Early in the autumn of 1914, the Bank of England, realizing that it would be impossible for American firms to ship gold to London in payment of maturing indebtedness there, announced that deposits of gold by such firms with the Receiver-General at Ottawa would be regarded as if received by the Bank at London. Under this arrangement many million dollars of the precious metal were shipped to the Dominion Capital, where a Branch of the Royal Mint had already been established in January, 1908. The amount in the vaults at Ottawa during the war became almost twice the total amount held by British financial institutions in 1913. As part of it was raw gold, the Ottawa Branch of the Royal Mint { 469} had to construct a new refinery in 1917 which had a refining capacity of one million ounces of fine gold per month. The Branch Mint had thus a larger capacity than any other Mint or gold refinery in the world. Shilling blanks were also produced for the Royal Mint in London as well as silver and bronze pieces for Newfoundland and nickel-copper pieces for Jamaica.