POLITICS IN CANADA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19221, 9 January 1926, Page 9

POLITICS IN CANADA.

NEW PARLIAMENT MEETS. CABINET'S UNCERTAIN FATE. AN INTERESTING POSITION. By Telegrnph—Press Association —Copyright. (Received 8.25 p.m.) A. and N.Z. OTTAWA. Jan. 7. The first session of the fifteenth 1 ederal Parliament of Canada was opened to-day, when the Hon. Rudolphe Lemieux, 'who was the Speaker of the House of Commons in the late Parliament, was re-elected to that position. The Governor-General's Speech will bo delivered by Lord Byng to-morrow. It is expected that the Speech will contain an outline of the proposals in regard to the reduction of taxation and the rural credit and immigration schemes. At the Canadian general elections held on October 29 last, the Liberal Government, which had obtained a dissolution and appealed to the country, secured about a 100 seats in a House composed of 245 members. The Conservatives obtained about 116 seats and the Progressives 23. It was pointed out that the Liberals could only retain office with the support of the Progressives and two or three Independent and Labour members. Tho Prime Minister, Mr. W. L. Mackenzie King, lost his seat, but although not a member of Parliament, he remained the head of the Government. About half a dozen of his colleagues also lost their seats. An anouncement shortly after the elections by Mr. Mackenzie King that he would continue in office until he had met 'Parliament and challenged a vote of confidence was characterised by Mr. Arthur Meiglian, the Conservative Leader, as "usurpation of power and contempt of popular will." Mr. Meighen issued a statement in which he said there had never been a case in Canada and none for three centuries in Britain, where tho leader of a minority group had refused to resign immediately the will of tho people was known. The Liberals claimed that Mr. King had no other course than to retain power, while the Conservatives asserted that Mr. Meighan should have been asked to form a Government, as leader of tho largest individual party. The Toronto correspondent of the New Zealand Herald, writing on November 21, remarked that the situation gave the approaching session a piquancy, unprecedented in Canadian Parliamentary history. He added: "The unusualness of the situation is accentuated by Mr. King's strategy in meeting it. The Prime Minister is himself without a seat in the new House. So are six or seven of his Ministers. The Ministers, with the exception of Mr. George P. Graham," Minister for Railways, are immediately relinquishing their portfolios, not an .unusual course in the case of Ministers who lose their constituencies. But' in tho case of a Prime Minister or party leader, it has been the practice to open 'rip a'riding at, once and hold a by-election .so that the leader may return to Parliament. This was done by Mr. Meighen in 1921. In the present instance, a seat was providentially opened when, a few days' after polling, the newlyelected Liberal member for Bagot, in Quebec, died. But King has indicated that he may- not- accept, this or any seat in Parliament until after Parliament has met, and has decided by a vote of confidence or otherwise] whether it wishes the present Government to carry on. If Mr. King persists in this attitude the Govvernment will moot Parliament with tho head of the Government nd> nearer the Speaker's chair than the visitors' gallery."