AN UNDESIRABLE PRECEDENT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 47, 25 January 1926, Page 6

AN UNDESIRABLE PRECEDENT.

Mr King has created a precedent in politics which in the interests of stable government it is to be hoped will not be followed. Under no similar circumstances has a defeated Prime Minister ever attempted to hold on to office. Rejected by his own constituents, with no claim to call himself 1 a representative of the people during the last three months, and with eight of his former colleagues swept out of political existence, his -duty was clear. He should have tendered his resignation and that of his colleagues to the Governor-Gen-eral, and have permitted Mr Meiglian, as leader of the Opposition, to form a Ministry to meet the House. Any other Prime Minister would have done so. Mr King’s failure to adopt what is the correct constitutional procedure is not easily understandable. To have allowed two or three months to elapse, during which he remained at the head of the Government with absolutely no mandate from the country and without making any attempt to re-qualify himself for the position as a representative of the people, would seem to indicate, on. Mr King’s part, the desire to test the strength of his opponents in the new House of Commons before he induced one of liis supporters to resign his seat in his favour. That scarcely redounds ,to the Canadian Prime Minister’s credit, either as a Liberal or a supporter of democratic institutions. The Canadian political situation, in the immediate future, remains obscure. It may clarify if Mr King secures election for the Prince Albert seat, but his return for that constituency will not increase the strength of his party numerically, and he will remain at the mercy of the 26 free-lance members comprising the Progressives, the Independents and Labourites. The two main political parties in Canada have much in common, the Liberals, however, inclining rather more to free trade principles than the Conservatives. But, as _ a London journalist who was in Ottawa during the elections (quoted by a southern contemporary) says: “The Liberals arc zealous devotees of political nationalism,” to which the Conservatives are opposed, although the latter “cling to the rigid economic nationalism which the manufacturers demand.” The Liberals, again, “profess varying shades of antagonism to the economic nationalism known as local Protectionism. But” (as the journalist quoted goes on to point out) “political and economic nationalism are, if not twin sisters, first cousins and must eventually go hand in hand. There will never be a real political cleavage in Canada; with issues that intelligent men think worth fighting for, until there exists on the one side a party preaching local nationalism and protectionism together, and another advocating close co-operation with the other units of the Commonwealth and moving towards free trade between them.”