A Liberal , he was the dominant politician in Canada from the early s to the late s. In August , he ordered the displacement of Japanese Canadians out of the British Columbia Interior, mandating that they either resettle east of the Rocky Mountains or face deportation to Japan after the war.
He played a major role in laying the foundations of the Canadian welfare state and establishing Canada's international position as a middle power. King studied law and political economy in the s and later obtained a PhD β the only Canadian prime minister to have done so.
In , he became deputy minister of the Canadian government's new Department of Labour. He entered the House of Commons in before becoming the federal minister of labour in under Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier.
After losing his seat in the federal election , King worked for the Rockefeller Foundation before briefly working as an industrial consultant. Following the death of Laurier in , King acceded to the leadership of the Liberal Party.
Taking the helm of a party torn apart by the Conscription Crisis of , he unified both the pro- conscription and anti-conscription factions of the party, leading it to victory in the federal election. King established a post-war agenda that lowered wartime taxes and tariffs. He strengthened Canadian autonomy by refusing to support Britain in the Chanak Crisis without Parliament 's consent and negotiating the Halibut Treaty with the United States without British interference.
