EXIT THE LIBERALS

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 68, 17 September 1936, Page 8

EXIT THE LIBERALS

QUEBEC POLITICS

ALLEGED SCANDALS

CONSERVATIVES IN POWER

(From "The Post's" Representative.^ VANCOUVER, August 26. After holding office for thirty-nine years, the longest period in the history of Canada, federally or provincially, Liberalism retires into Opposition in Quebec. Its defeat, was not sudden. Less than a year ago a split developed. A dissident faction, known as Action Liberale Nationale, captured forty seats in the Legislature. Mr. Tascherau attempted to carry on with a bare majority. The new group, forcing unsavoury disclosures to be made regarding the administration of the finances, quickly brought about the resignation and retirement from public life of the veteran Premier. Mr. Godbout, whom Mr. Tascherau appointed to succeed him, although unable to carry on, Was responsible for a change in leadership in the opposing forces. Mr. Paul Gouin, son of a famous Quebec leader, declared that his quarrel was with Mr. Tascherau, and not with Mr. Godbout, whom he refused to oppose. His party immediately fell under the banner of the Conservative leader, Mr. Maurice Duplessis, K.C., at whose instance it was renamed Union Nationale. At the ensuing election, the Premier, Speaker, and five members of the Cabinet lost their seats, and the National Unionists captured seventyfive of the ninety seats in the House. The election vindicates Mr. Duplessis in his charges of maladministration and his expressed determination to appoint a Royal Commission, with a wide order of reference, regarding acts of Ministers, which, he said, extended back for many years. When the first of these disclosures was made public, reflecting on Mr. Tascherau's brother, who was Accountant to the Legislature, the Premier retired. Mr. Duplessis charged that such action was aimed at crushing further investigation. The official charged refunded 100,000 dollars, which he had credited to himself as interest on public moneys passling, through his hands. In doing so, he demanded that an inquiry be held as | to his right to retain this interest, which, he said, had been collected by his predecessors for thirty years. In such circumstances, it is likely that the Public Accounts Committee will be ordered to trace all moneys handled by public officers. ' THE FEDERAL ASPECT. This is the second setback Liberalism has suffered this year. At the recent elections in Manitoba, Mr. Bracken, who had been in power for fourteen years, was,returned without a majority. Negotiations ho subsequently made with the Social Credit Party, of five members, with the object of forming a Coalition Government, were repudiated by the latter, who said they would not consider any alliance unless a guarantee were given-that legislation be ■passed introducing Social Credit in Manitoba.

The debacle in Quebec is not without Federal significance, in view of the iact that Mr. Mackenzie King has the support ,of a solid'bloc ofVfifty Quebec Liberal seats. Mr. Duplessis strongly supports Mr. Bennett's policies, and, with the reinvigoration the latter's ,tour of the British Empire is likely to cause, it is anticipated that the Conservatives will reap a dual benefit. Already1 there is a growing feeling that, though Mr. Bennett drove a hard bargain at the Empire Trade Conference at Ottawa in 1932, he drove a harder one in his negotiations with the United States, much of 'whose trade with Canada was, as a result, diverted to British countries. Under the present Liberal regime, the position 'is reversed, with the United States benefiting far more than Canada does from Mr. Mackenzie King's reciprocity treaty. When he reopens the Empire , trade treaties, shortly, the benefits he i will be able to offer to the Motherland and the rest of the Empire will be ininnitesimal. ;