Canada election 'a surprise'

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34045, 8 January 1976, Page 6

Canada election 'a surprise'

The swing back to middle-of-the-road politics in the British Columbia provincial elections late last month was “a complete surprise," the Canadian High Commissioner (Mr C. E. Glover) said in Christchurch. But it did not necessarily ; indicate a national trend away from liberal policies. In Ontario two months earlier, the Progressive Con-; servative Party kept its hold,; but with a minority Govern-1 ment. British Columbia’s New Democratic Party (socialist) was thrown out after only one term, and the long- ; governing Social Credit Party [ was voted back into power. “It was very much the ’ middle-class vote; the people ‘who don’t want a radical I rush into the twenty-first century,” said Mr Glover. The Socialists had “produced without a doubt the; most dynamic government in [ a province in many years. Perhaps it was too dynamic.”

The British Columbia Social Credit Party had not pursued its radical monetary policies in power, he added, but had played on them only [when it was building its strength. National Canadian political trends were difficult to predict. since the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario had been in power for 35 years before it had a close race with the Liberal and New Democratic parties in , September. | “So there was not a national rejection of reform-; ing politics,” Mr Glover said. 1 “But the British Columbia result certainly shows a disenchantment with radical reform.”