Howe was impatient with parliamentary debates for his proposals, causing him to struggle with gaining popularity amongst parliamentarians; he was often accused of dictatorial conduct by the Opposition.

"[7] In addition to his work, Howe found time for an active social life in Halifax, and considered marrying the sister of one of his students, but she had another husband in mind.

[12] In late 1915, Howe traveled back to Massachusetts to court Alice Worcester, daughter of the head of the company he had worked for in the summer at MIT.

When Howe turned over the completed elevator to the owner, the Saskatchewan Grain Growers Association, he was asked how badly he had done on the contract, and stated, "I lost my shirt."

[33] Howe also worked to increase airline coverage in Canada; in 1936, many Canadians wishing to fly long distances by air would journey through the United States.

[36] For the rest of his political career, Howe kept Trans-Canada Air Lines in his ministerial portfolio,[37] considering it his "progeny and generally promoted its interests".

[41] According to historian and author Michael Bliss, "[f]or Howe and other entrepreneurial spirits interested in the creative uses of government power, the war was a kind of ultimate megaproject, a great development job.

[46] Howe's department was assisted by "dollar-a-year men", top managers in Canadian business[47] loaned to the government by their companies for a token payment of one dollar a year while their firms maintained them on their payrolls.

[48] During the Second World War, Howe established 28 Crown Corporations of various responsibilities including secret projects and manufacturing the machine tools the rest of Canadian industry needed to continue operations.

[49] With Canadian industry reorganized to supply the British war effort, Howe decided he needed to journey to Britain to discuss matters with the customers.

Howe professed coolness in the incident, but later told the Manchester Guardian that he considered every hour that he lived from that day onwards to be borrowed time.

[50] While on tour of British industrial plants, Howe was shown the Avro Lancaster four-engined heavy bomber, which he subsequently championed for Canadian production.

[59] Howe had an excellent reputation for his successful overhaul of the Canadian economy, and Mackenzie King feared he would return to the private sector to amass another fortune in business.

He was easily returned in Port Arthur, taking just over half of all votes cast, with the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (the predecessor of the New Democratic Party) a distant second.

"[64] In disposing of redundant government property, Howe found that saddles and harnesses had been stored since the end of the Boer War and men had been employed to safeguard and polish them for over 40 years.

After the talk, the Prime Minister decided that he should retire within a year and that St. Laurent, who had recently threatened to leave Cabinet and return home to Quebec, should be the successor.

Drew had used Howe's record as an election issue, accusing him of being power-mad and selling off Crown Corporations for bargain prices, but the allegations got little traction.

St. Laurent scheduled an election for 10 August; Drew attempted to exploit a Defence Ministry scandal at the Petawawa, Ontario army base, where an investigation earlier in the year had found frauds which included placing horses on the payroll.

There were US-backed proposals to build pipelines directly to the United States; Howe wanted a route passing north of the Great Lakes which could supply Toronto and Montreal.

By 1956, however, further difficulties had arisen: until the US government granted formal approval for a part of the route which connected to US pipelines, Trans-Canada could not raise enough money to build its portion.

[100] The issue was attractive to the Tories and CCF with an election due within two years; it would allow them to portray Howe as an arrogant dictator, and play to those citizens who disliked the American involvement in the pipeline project.

[103] He told the Commons that waiting a year would be imprudent, given the worldwide shortage of steel pipe, and unfair to those who owned natural gas wells in western Canada, which were presently capped.

[104] Social Credit, with many members from Alberta, supported the bill, while the Tories and CCF engaged in weeks of bitter debate and parliamentary wrangling.

[106] This culminated on 1 June, dubbed by the Tories "Black Friday", when Speaker René Beaudoin reversed a ruling he had made the previous evening which would have allowed the Opposition to continue the debate past the deadline.

When asked why he did not answer Mackenzie's question, Howe replied, "Look here, my good man, when the election comes, why don't you go away and vote for the party you support?

Fisher's campaign was well financed, with support from his party, the unions, and a number of corporate enemies Howe had made throughout his political career.

Called back to his riding after the remainder of his disastrous Prairie tour was canceled, Howe found that Fisher's appeals had caused defections among Liberals.

[123] After St. Laurent announced his retirement in September, Howe wrote to the former Prime Minister, "The young men of the party must take on the job of reorganising and rebuilding, and perhaps the sooner they get at it the better.

He gave his great ability, indomitable courage and energy to his country in a manner that has earned for him and will assure him of a large place in the history of Canada's war effort.

Among the eulogies delivered by friends and colleagues at Christ Church Cathedral in Montreal, it was remarked that Howe often stated proudly that he was "an American by birth but Canadian by choice".