George M. Abbott, "Duff Pattullo and the Coalition Controversy of 1941," BC Studies 102 (Summer 1994)

Read in full, 10 Oct 2026. The study of how Duff Pattullo lost the premiership after the election of 21 October 1941, from the Pattullo Papers, his letters to Mackenzie King, and interviews of 1977; it grew from Abbott’s MA thesis on the formation of the 1941 coalition.

• His conviction: “Pattullo believed that coalition would destroy the Liberal party and thereby heighten, rather than diminish, the threat of socialism… Pattullo was totally convinced of the dangers of coalition and had neither sympathy nor understanding for those who did not share his conviction.” Quoting Fisher: “that was not Pattullo’s way. Determination and singlemindedness had served him well in the past and he assumed they would again.”
• A plot against him: to King, 3 November 1941, “some powerful interests are trying to get me out of office”; 18 November, “This is all part of a plot… there has been a constant underground agitation against myself personally”; and “If Hart had been loyal, he would have squelched this himself.” Abbott: “Pattullo’s casting of Hart in the role of Judas was completely unjustified.” Hart had pleaded with him to talk to the other parties, and offered to stay on.
• Confiding in King: “Although Pattullo distrusted most if not all of his provincial colleagues, he confided in Mackenzie King throughout the coalition controversy.”
• Public words: coalition was wanted by “vicious and powerful minority interests”; to the convention, “I predict 66 percent of the Liberal party will go over to the C.C.F. if you have a coalition.”
• Verdict: “Pattullo combined remarkably clear vision in assessing the consequences of coalition with remarkably poor judgement in his handling of the issue… Pattullo’s suspicions led in the end to his defeat.”

See pattullo-bloody-sunday.