CANADIAN POLITICS

Evening Star, Issue 19175, 16 February 1926, Page 4

CANADIAN POLITICS

MACKENZIE KING'S DILEMMA Owing to delay in the return,of many writs, tne proposal to open Parliament on December 10 was abandoned. When the House of Commons does meet on January 7 the Liberal Ministry will have 101 followers, the Conservative Opposition 117, the Farmers' Progressives 24, and the Laborites and Independents 3, writes the Toronto correspondent of the . Melbourne ‘ Argus,’ under date December 11. The Conservative Opposition has a majority of about twelve in the Senate. The Prime Minister (Mr Mackenzie King) will be absent for want of a constituency, and, owing to the defeat of eight of his colleagues in the General Election, surviving Ministers are in charge or two or more departments apiece. It is believed that Mr Forke, the Progressive Leader, and a number of his followers, will support the Ministry on the tariff issue, though from six to ten Progressives from Alberta may be ready to vote with Mr Meighen, Conservative Leader, on some issues. The prophets are uncertain in their forecasts. If the Ministry wins the first important divisions in the House, the Prime Minister may have Parliament adjourned in order" to reconstruct his Ministry, and find constituencies for himself and the seven other .new colleagues whom he selects. If Mr Meighen defeats the Ministry on an early division, he will no doubt be asked by the GovernorGeneral (Lord Byng) to form an Administration, anti will consent on condition that he be granted an immediate dissolution. The probability is that the next six months -will see a Conservative Ministry in office, but there are many who are convinced that Mr King will be able to retain power for some time longer. If the expected General Election to break the deadlock does come, the issue will depend largely on the vote in French Canada. If the Conservative Party can break into the solid Quebec bloc "of more than sixty members, it will emerge from the contest with a handsome working majority. In an effort to win the French Canadians, Mr Meighen, on November 16, gave an undertaking that no troops should hereafter leave the country while he was in power without reference to the popular vote. He said: “If the time should ever come when the spectre of 1914 should again appear, I believe it would be best not only that Parliament should be called, but that the decision of the Government, which, of course, would have to be given promptly, should be submitted to the judgment of the people before troops should leave our shores.” He expressed no doubt that the people would vote to send the -troops. Many Conservatives have expressed disapproval of their leader’s undertaking as wholly out of keeping with the traditions of the Conservative Party. It is maintained by Conservatives and some Conservative newspapers that a General Election in the face of a grave imperial crisis would prove disastrous. It would split the country at a dangerous moment by giving the pacifists and foreign voters the very opportunity that they would desire to prevent effective military action. The Toronto ‘ Globe ’ (Liberal) says: “Let Canadians imagine for a moment what the adoptiofi of Mr Meighen’s new policy would have meant in the fateful days of 1914. I M them contemplate the time lost and the force wasted in the turmoil of a General Election. Instead, Parliament was called, action was taken immediately and unanimously, and in seven weeks more than 30,000 Canadian troops were on the ocean. Locarno gives promise that such a crisis may never again confront Canada. But the course of 1914 was the right course, and the constitutional course. Parliament—tin? responsible assembly of elected representatives of the people—is the proper court of decision.”

Mr Meighen repeated his new pledge in the Bagot (Quebec) by-election (occasioned by the death of the Liberal member since the General Election). The gesture failed to win the constituency, though the Liberal majority was reduced from 700 to 400. In the meantime the French Canadian Press is thundering against Admiral Joliicoo’s proposal that this dominion should contribute 80.000,0n0d0l (£7,200,000) annually to the British Navy. Most Eng-lish-speaking Canadians fee! that we should “pull our own weight” in defence at sea, hut French Canada fails to appreciate the need for such action, especially in view of the large war debt and heavy taxation. Many feel that it is the duty of the Conservative Party to educate Quebec regarding its obligations to the Empire. French Canadians owe their special privileges under the Constitution as regards language, religion, and civil laws to the guarantee afforded them bv a common flag. The Farmer-Progressive Party continues to disintegrate. It has largely disappeared from the _ Legislatures in Ontario and the maritime provinces, and it has suffered decimation in the west. Tts representation in the House of Commons has been reduced from 61 to 24. On November 28, Mr Herbert Greenfield, the farmer Premier of Alberta, resigned owing largely, it is said, to resentment among liis rural followers at his frequent appearance in society in evening dress. His place has been taken by his Attorney-General, Mr J. E. Brownlee, who will try to carry on the United Farmer Ministry, fn Ontario Mr Manning Doherty, who was Minister of Agriculture in the recent Farmers’ Ministry of that province, has resigned his seat in the Legislature with the avowed purpose of assisting Mr Meighen in the Federal arena. The ‘Farmers’ Sun,’ official organ of the Farmers’ Party in Ontario, is. appealing for funds to meet’ ifs deficits. Simultaneously a convention of the United Farmers of Ontario has formally resolved to withdraw from politics and devote its attention to watching legislation affecting farmers and to the prosecution of the farmers’ co-operative trading movement.