Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1925. CANADIAN ELECTION

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 109, 4 November 1925, Page 4

Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1925. CANADIAN ELECTION

By a remarkable coincidence, three of the four principal Dominions have been, busy with General Elections at the same time. The Canadian electors went to the polls last week. Before the exact effect, of their vote has been determined, the electors of New Zealand are following ■ suit to-day. Australia's turn will come , before the month is out. But, except in point of time, the three contests have "hardly anything in common. In New Zealand alone has the General Election taken place .in accordance with a statutory timetable, and. in circumstances which, do not entirely baffle prophecy. In; Australia the menace of Red Labour, the threat of a general strike if the deportation proceedings against its ringleaders are carried through, and the desire to get n> creased authority and increased legal power for coping with the danger induced Mr. Bruce to appeal to the country. In Canada the weak Government of Mr. Mackenzie King, which had held on too long, decided to take the same step, because it could hold on no longer.. The,troubles of Mr. Mackenzie King are further .distinguished from those of Mr. Bruce and Mr. Coates by the nature of his opponents. Mr. Mackenzie King is a Liberal Prime Minister confronted by a Conservative Opposition and dependent» upon a small body of Progressives and Independents who hold the balaribe 'of power. Mr; Bruce and Mr. Coates are Liberal Prime Ministers whose only formidable opponents . are Labourites. They may well envy the Canadian Leader, \who in a House of nearly 250 memberjs has a Labour Party of only two to deal with. >

But in other respects the position of Mr. Mackenzie King is not !an enviable one. To an outsider it appears ipdeed, on the face of 1 the' figures, to be so weak that it is surprising to 1 hear of the reversal of his original intention to resign.. If he was weak in the last Parliament, he will apparently be weaker still . now. The figures cabled yesterday, though apparently not final, enable one <to make the following comparison with the results of the previous General Eledtion, and the comparison is. not'likely to be materially altered by the returns still in doubt:— ,' 1921.' 1925. . ' . Liberals 118/ 100 Conservatives ,51 116 Progressives 64 23 Labour: ..;.. , '2 " 2 Independent ...... — 2 ; Doubtful — .3 The Conservatives have avenged in a remarkable but not unexpected manner their crushing defeat of four years ago. A striking point about that defeat was that it was almost entirely the work of the French Province of Quebec. Every one of the 65 members elected for the* Province in 1921 was a XibI eral, yet the' Liberal majority over the Conservatives in the House was only 67. On the present occasion the "Conservatives have captured three seats in Montreal and one in a rural constituency, but the Liberals still retain 61 seats 'in the French Province. As their total strength in the new Parliament is 100, they have only won 39 seats in all the rest of, Canada, against the Opposition's 112.

In increasing their total from 51 to 116, the Conservatives have made a great advance, but, though they have now a majority of 16 over the Liberals, they are short of an absolute majority. The Liborals were in an analogous position in the late House, but their Government was enabled to eke out a precarious existence by the support 'of the Progressives. Mr. Mackenzie King is relying on the support of the Progressives again, but after electing a Speaker the Liberals and Progressives combined would find themselves in a minority of one. With the help of the two' Labourites and the two Independents they'would have a majority of ten, which the three results still doubtful might increase or reduce. In these circuni-' stances, Mr. Mackenzie King' is said to be determined not merely to hold on till ho is pushed out, but "to go before Parliament with a demand for a vote of confidence on the high Protection issue." This surely ca.nnot mean that he (proposes to steal the Conservatives' high tariff. In any case Mr. Mackenzie King evidently intends to die hard.