DRAMATIC SESSION

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 105, 27 January 1940, Page 12

DRAMATIC SESSION

Opposition Attack On War Effort Prosecution (Received January 26, 11 p.m.) OTTAWA, January 20. The election is expected late in March. Parliament will meet immediately the returns are declared. The Opposition parties have agreed that the main platform will be the Government’s alleged failure to press Canada’s war effort. Bur while the Conservatives and the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation are in agreement on the Government’s alleged shortcomings in this respect there is only a slight possibility that the parties will unite in an effort, to defeat Mr. Mackenzie King. The Conservatives and Liberals will contest all 245 seats, and the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation about 150 seats. Meanwhile the Government will continue to function with extraordinary wartime powers and administrative funds provided in Orders-in-Council. The speech from the Throne remains unadopted, just one of the many precedents set in the shortest and most dramatic session in Canada’s history. What maddened the Opposition particularly was that Mr. Mackenzie King’s move hade fair to deprive them of all the political ammunition they were expecting to obtain against the Government by obtaining access to Government documents through demands on Ministers on the floor of the House. The Premier of Alberta, Mr. Aberhart, commented that the Government’s action was strategic rather than democratic, and left the people bewildered and resentful at the summary dismissal of their representatives without a chance of expressing their views. It is evident there is dissatisfaction with the Liberal Administration but the idea that there is disunity of a serious nature in Canada is questionable.