The Quebec Elections

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22851, 26 October 1939, Page 8

The Quebec Elections

The elections in Quebec have been precipitated by the provincial Premier, Mr. Duplessis, upon issues which may be called lively rather than important, Mr Duplessis challenges the Federal Government on the rights of the provinces, on conscription, and on Canada’s entry into the war. Provincial autonomy, in his view, has been infringed by the emergency regulations, covering finance, trade, and industry, rapidly promulgated by the Canadian Government on the outbreak of war; but the truth seems to be that Mr Duplessis is maintaining an old quarrel rather than protesting against new grievances. Dominion-provincial friction is real and persistent; but Mr Duplessis is apparently alone among provincial leaders in denouncing the emergency regulations as unwarrantable arrogations of power to the centre. Second, conscription was fiercely resisted by the FrenchCanadians in the Great War—a fact to which it is necessary to add that in Ontario and Nova Scotia, also, objection was so strong.that the conscription law was very tenderly enforced. It is therefore easy to understand why the Federal Minister for Justice, Mr E. Lapointe, early last month very positively pledged the Government against conscription; but it is consequently all the harder to understand why Mr Duplessis has challenged the Government on this cold issue. He can only- heat it by reviving old controversies and by insisting that Mr King and his colleagues cannot be trusted to keep their word. Third, there is the larger question of Canada’s participation in the war. Fifteen or 18 months ago, the Canadian Prime Minister made a statement which attracted wide attention because it seemed so carefully designed to hold Canada aloof, not merely frotn any commitment to the military support of Great Britain but even from consultation with Great Britain upon questions of foreign policy. But, although Mr King said that Canada “ had no commitments and should not “have any” and that the decisions of London were “not binding on Canada,” it is clearer how than it was then that Mr King’s care was

to 'state a position correctly, not to disengage tire Dominion from any cause that might carry Great Britain into war. Mr King had said that Canada would not “ join the Empire in war “except by Parliament’s’decision he fulfilled his word, and Canada entered the war by the decision of Parliament in special session. Mr King stated the reason which won the support of Parliament and of the country:

It is to prevent chaos becoming the fate of this as it may of other lands that it becomes our duty as citizens of Canada to stand to a man in the defence of this country and at the side of Great Britain in the defence her citizens are making with their lives in the cause of freedom. To this decision and this justification, which can be irresistibly amplified, Mr Duplessis is able to oppose only separatist and isolationist arguments which are as old-fashioned as they are empty. Henri Bourassa, most vigorous of French-Canadian leaders, thought in 1914 that there was no obligation on Canada to fight in Europe “as a "British possession”; but, he went on, “as a nation, as a human community,” Canada could not remain indifferent. “ Bound “ to England and to France by a thousand ties, “ ethnic, social, intellectual, economic, Canada “ has a vital interest in the preservation of England and France, in the maintenance of their “ prestige, of their power, of their world “ action.” The patriotic views of Bourassa, Olivar Asselin, and Papineau prevailed against older but narrower ones; and the Empire the “ union of . . . independent and sovereign “ States.” in Papineau’s words—to which Canada adheres is what it is partly because French-Canadians thought and felt their way to its conception. Mr Duplessis stands for an obsolete French-Canadianism. He may win his election, though it seems improbable; but if he does it will not be because he is “ fighting for “ the life and survival of French-Canadians," but for reasons that briefly agitate a community and blind it. The cause that he claims to defend is not in danger. It was better pleaded and better upheld by others and reached secure victory before him.