As the war in Asia was still raging on, King promised a voluntary force to fight in Operation Downfall, the planned invasion of Japan, while Progressive Conservative Party (PC Party) leader John Bracken promised conscription, which was an unpopular proposal and led to the PCs' third consecutive defeat.

However, they also lost about a third of their seats; this stark decline in support was partly attributed to their introduction of conscription in 1944 (which was unpopular in Quebec, paving the rise of the Bloc Populaire)[2] as well as the breakthrough of the democratic socialist Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), which campaigned on an even bigger expansion of the welfare state than the Liberals.

The King government's success in combatting the Great Depression led to their second landslide majority victory in the 1940 election.

Many predicted a major breakthrough for the CCF nationally and the party was expected to win 70 to 100 seats, possibly even enough to form a minority government.

In 1942, members of the Conservative Party held the Port Hope Conference, which established several Conservative goals including support for free enterprise and conscription, and more radical policies such as full-employment, low-cost housing, trade union rights, as well as a whole range of social security measures, including a government financed medicare system.

Mackenzie King threatened to call a new election if he was not given a majority: "We would have confusion to deal with at a time when the world will be in a very disturbed situation.

Another Liberal slogan encouraged voters to "Build a New Social Order" by endorsing the Liberal platform, which included The Progressive Conservatives tried to capitalize on the massive mid-campaign victory by the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party in the 1945 Ontario provincial election.

", and suggesting that it would be impossible to form a majority government in the country without a plurality of seats in Ontario, which only the Tories could win.

Bennett's government was ousted in a landslide a decade previously, Bracken was widely held responsible for their failure to make a better showing – aside from the conscription issue, many believed that his western populism was a futile approach, and that the Tories could not hope to compete with the CCF and Socreds in the west – and the party grandees immediately began pressuring him to resign in favour of George A.

Referring to social credit monetary theories, the party encouraged voters to "Vote for the National Dividend".