Editing C. D. Howe (section)

=== Election and prewar ===
[[File:Mackenzie King Cabinet.jpg|thumb|left|alt=A group of men pictured in two rows, with the front row seated|The 1939 Mackenzie King Cabinet; Mackenzie King in centre front row, Howe, second from the right in the rear row]]

In 1933, the Liberal Party was in opposition and considered Howe as a potential candidate for the House of Commons in the upcoming election. Howe, feeling political activism was bad for business, had not publicly expressed political views.{{sfn|Harbron|1980|pp=23–24}} [[Norman Platt Lambert]], a Liberal Party official and friend of Howe, brought him to a meeting with Liberal Party leader [[William Lyon Mackenzie King]] on 20 January 1934. The two men were impressed with each other and, according to Lambert in his diary, Howe wanted a guaranteed Cabinet position were he to run in the new [[Port Arthur (federal electoral district)|riding of Port Arthur]].{{sfn|Bothwell|Kilbourn|1979|p=55}} Mackenzie King accepted this deal{{sfn|Roberts|1957|p=10}} and on 14 October 1935, Howe was comfortably elected to the Commons from Port Arthur, amassing a majority of 3,784. Across the country, the Liberals won a landslide victory, with 173&nbsp;seats in the House of Commons to the Conservatives's 40.{{sfn|Roberts|1957|p=10}}{{sfn|Bothwell|Kilbourn|1979|p=62}} Mackenzie King appointed Howe to two [[Portfolio (government)#Canada|portfolios]]: [[Minister of Railways and Canals (Canada)|Minister of Railways and Canals]] and the first [[Minister of Marine (Canada)|Minister of Marine]]. Howe was the only engineer in Cabinet, which was dominated by lawyers,{{sfn|Harbron|1980|p=24}} and was the first engineer to serve in a Liberal government.{{sfn|Bothwell|Kilbourn|1979|p=66}}{{efn|Howe's portfolios were combined in late 1936 into the new [[Department of Transport (Canada)|Ministry of Transport]].{{sfn|Bothwell|Kilbourn|1979|p=81}}}}

After Parliament assembled in early 1936, Howe sought to have it pass legislation to reform local port authorities. Individual ports were run by Boards of Harbour Commissioners, appointments to which were often politically influenced. A [[Royal Commission]] in 1932 had recommended the positions be abolished, and Howe's bill was to establish a [[National Harbours Board]].{{sfn|Roberts|1957|pp=24–26}} The debate in the House went smoothly until Howe angered the opposition by declaring that, during Bennett's government, the Conservatives had been corrupt. Despite what became a much more bitter debate, Howe's bill carried.{{sfn|Roberts|1957|pp=27–32}} According to Leslie Roberts in his biography of Howe, "This was the Howe the country would soon come to know much better, the Howe on the rampage, the Howe who is impatient of criticism and deplores the debates and delays inherent in the parliamentary system."{{sfn|Roberts|1957|p=30}}

Howe worked to place the government-dominated [[Canadian National Railways]] (CNR) on a sound financial basis and introduced legislation to form the CNR into a [[crown corporation]].{{sfn|Smith|1986|pp=33–34}} Although the opposition complained that Howe was becoming power-mad, they had little quarrel with the proposed reorganization itself, and it was passed into law.{{sfn|Harbron|1980|p=30}} In June 1936, Howe brought in legislation to establish another crown corporation, the [[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation]], which passed into law with little debate or opposition.{{sfn|Harbron|1980|p=30}} 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. The Liberals proposed legislation to establish a government-financed corporation, with half the stock to be owned by the CNR and half by the privately owned [[Canadian Pacific Railway]] (CPR).{{sfn|Render|1999|pp=250–251}} The CPR balked at the deal, and the remaining stock was taken up by the CNR{{sfn|Harbron|1980|pp=35–36}} and [[Trans-Canada Air Lines]] was founded in May 1937.{{sfn|Roberts|1957|pp=49–50}} For the rest of his political career, Howe kept Trans-Canada Air Lines in his ministerial portfolio,{{sfn|Bothwell|Kilbourn|1979|p=113}} considering it his "progeny and generally promoted its interests".{{sfn|Stevenson|1987|p=198}}{{efn|Trans-Canada Air Lines changed its name to [[Air Canada]] in 1965, and is still in operation.<ref>''CBC News'', 14 May 2004{{fcn|date=January 2024}}</ref>}}