Canadian Elections Diefenbaker Set Back In Provincial Polling

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29245, 1 July 1960, Page 15

Canadian Elections Diefenbaker Set Back In Provincial Polling

[From CLYDE BLACKBURN, Special Correspondent OTTAWA, June 29. Four of Canada’s 10 provinces have just finished a senes of elections this month with significant results. They have proved that promises of generous health and hospital benefits are great vote-getters, also that there is no truth in any belief that the existence of a strongly-entrenched party in the r ederal Government means support for the same party in the provincial field.

Even the most astute and experienced student of politics was astounded by the results in two of the four contests.

Nova Scotia had the first elections on June 7, and its Conservative Government was returned as confidently expected. The old Atlantic' Province had been Conservative since 1956 under the Premier, Mr Robert Stanfield, a rich member of a knitting mill family. He came back with an increased majority and his opponent, the former Liberal Premier. Mr Henry Hicks, was personally defeated. Liberals form the Opposition and there is one Socialist member. Some 30 Socialists ran but most lost their deposits. That election was true to form.

Next day in Saskatchewan, on the prairies, the first and only Socialist Government in Canada was handsomely returned with an increased following, as everyone predicted. It has been in power since 1944 and in this contest the appeal was made on an almost complete State medicine programme which the medical fraternity fought bitterly. Saskatchewan is the home base of the Conservative Prime Minister (Mr Diefen baker), but the Province has not done anything for the Conservatives since 1934. The Opposition is Liberal and the group gained some ground but not a Conservative was elected, although the party increased its popular vote. Last week came the first of the amazing upsets. Quebec, which had its last Liberal admlnistration in 1944, went back to that fold when the Liberals, led by young Jean Lesage, a former Liberal Federal Cabinet Minister, won 55 of the 95 seats.

The loser was Mr Antonio Barette. Premier only a few months, and leader of the Union Nationale Party created from Conservative materials by the late Maurice Duplessis in 1944. Mr Duplessis died suddenly a year ago and was succeeded by one of his popular young Ministers, Mr Arthur Suave, who himself died suddenly last New Year’s Day. Most observers expected to see the Liberals make some gains because they had only a tiny group in the Legislature and had made a determined drive to improve their position, but probably nobody expected them to get g majority. Health and education benefits and a general promise of 10 dollars a month extra for all who are on old age and security pensions were the main lures held out by the Liberals. There were no Socialist candidates and that party has never made any gains in the Province. Nor were there any Conservatives as such. Some 50 Conservatives in the Federal Parliament from Quebec were supported by the Union Nationale and that party had the support of most Federal Conservatives in the provincial camr>aign so the Liberal victory in Quebec is not only a boost for the little official Opposition group in the Federal Parliament but a setback for the Diefenbaker Government and its supporters who must soon decide when to schedule the next General Election.

This week came the final Conservative disaster when New Brunswick, sandwiched between Quebec and Nova Scotia, and with probably a sixth of its population (about 600,000) French Canadian, defeated the eight-year-old Administration of Premier Hugh

John Fleming. Illis was undoubtedly as big an upset as Quebec and as impressive. Indeed possibly the result was influenced by Quebec’s swing to the Liberals the week before. Here too the people were promised more generous health and hospitalisation benefits, a rebate in fact of the 50-odd dollars a year citizens pay for hospitalisation benefits. Conservatives form the Opposition in New Brunswick and there are no Socialists. The new Premier will be 35-year-old Mr Louis Robichaud, a French Canadian who speaks English with a heavy accent. Of the other provinces, British Columbia and Alberta are Social Credit, Manitoba, Ontario and Prince Edward Island Conservative, and Newfoundland Liberal.