PARTIES IN CANADA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17307, 3 November 1919, Page 7

PARTIES IN CANADA.

FIRST CABINET OF FARMERS. SUCCESS IN ONTARIO. GOVERNMENT FORMED. By Telegraph—Press Association— (Received 10.30 a.m.) A. and N.Z. MONTREAL. Oct. 31. Following its defeat at the Toronto elections on October 2f», the Government of Ontr.iio, r t which Sir William Hearst was Premier, has resigned. The United Farmers' Party has accepted office, with Mr. Drury as Premier. This is the first Farmers' Government formed in Canada.

A NEW "NATIONAL" PARTY.

STRENGTH OF ORGANISED

FARMERS.

[from OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

VANCOUVER. Oct. 14.

Dissatisfied with the representation of their interests in the Parliament of Canada, the farmers of the great prairie provinces in the West have lanuched a new political party. The movement began with the grain growers of Western Canada, and is supported strongly by the farmers in the eastern provinces.

The grain growers' movement began in 1901. in what is now the great province of Saskatchewan when an association was formed to protest against abuses in tha grain trade. Since the early eighties the settlers on the prairies had been at the mercy of the grain dealers and the ra.ilway. In self-defence the farmers began to organise associations for mutual protection. Within 12 years there were over 30QO local associations in the three prairie provinces. Based upon co-operation, the grain growers' movement has created vast business interests, and has developed a great school of political thought. The .Farmers' Party is the political expression of the co-operative movement, and the farmers' patform on which it stands is the policy which the farmers believe to be the only solution of national problems at this critical period of Canadian history.

The progressive farmers are determined to enter political action and solve their own difficulties. Westerners have studied the history of the political parties in Canada, and they feel when it comes to political principles there is little to choose between them. The Farmers' Political Party hag come into being. In Alberta the new political organisation is being fathered by Mr. H. W. Wood, president of the United Farmers of Alberta and of the Canadian Council of Agriculture, a scientific farmer who came over the international border from Missouri and became a naturalised Canadian of the best type. In Saskatchewan the outstanding figures are Mr. 3. A. Maharg, M.P., president of the Saskatchewan Grain Growers* Association, and Mr. J. B. Musselman. the association's secretary. In Manitoba, Mr. X. A. Crerar, formerly Minister for Agri- , culture, is to the fore. In Ontario, the fourth lighting unit in this independent political movement, there are such weilknown men as l>rury, Morrison, and others.

The Farmers* Party movement, has been confined so far to provincial boundaries in its organisation activities.. The final step will be taken when an inter-provin-cial convention is held to bring together these provincial units and unite them in a national organisation. When that time comes it may be found that the farmer*' patform, which is really a new national policy for Canada rather than a farmers' platform at all, has gathered supporters from so many different classes that the movement will broaden out under the new name, '.' National Party of Canada."