Because he served during wartime and dealt with Dominion (federal) politicians who believed in a strong Dominion government, Godbout was pressuredforced intoto abandoningabandon a number of thetraditional provincial jurisdictions. The most notable prerogatives that he surrendered to the [[Government of Canada]] include:
#the opportunity to create and oversight a provincial [[unemployment insurance]] system (a nationwide program was put into action in 1940);
#the power to tax the income of individuals and corporations, in exchange for a much more modest financial compensation from the federal government.
(Almost simultaneously, the federal government of Australia usurped state governments' tax powers.)
In a [[Conscription Crisis of 1944|1942 plebiscite]], Canadian voters were asked to release the Governmentfederal government from its commitment made to the Québec voters not to declare military conscription. Even thoughWhile the majority of predominantly French-speaking Québec refused to support such a release, English-speakers throughout Canada acceptedmostly did support it. Even though not that many people were forced to serve until the end of the war, the decision made by Mackenzie King to allow conscription (when both he and Godbout had specifically ruled out conscription earlier) was very unpopular in Québec. Opposition Leader Maurice Duplessis, whose criticism of the federal encroachments toupon the constitutional autonomy of the provinces capitalized on the Québec population’s general mistrust of the federal government, had a field day.
