CANADIAN ELECTION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23602, 11 March 1940, Page 6

CANADIAN ELECTION

"Whether the Canadian Prime Minister, Mr. Mackenzie King, was well advised to precipitate a general election at the present critical juncture is open to question. He seeks an endorsement from the electors of his war administration, which had been criticised as lacking in vigour and adequacy. The charge came with special pungency from a fellow Liberal, but bitter personal opponent, Mr. Mitchell Hepburn, the Premier of Ontario. Mr. King has gone to the electors for a verdict that will deliver him from the charge and free his Government for the effective prosecution of the war. Unfortunately political issues can seldom be kept clear cut and, from a report published to-day, it appears that cross-currents of opinion have set in. In the end, therefore, Mr. King may get no clear answer to the questions put to the electorate, questions that reduce themselves to the single query: "Is Canada doing enough in the war?" Except the electors have a clear idea of what is being done in every sphere, and of what the country's resources would permit of being done, it is hard to see how they can bring in a true verdict. There is the further consideration that what may be physically possible might be politically inadvisable. Ontario, British Columbia and the Maritime Provinces may wish to set a pace that Quebec and the prairie Provinces are unwilling to keep. The die has been cast, however, and voting by the troops overseas will begin on Thursday and by the general electorate on March 26. It is to be hoped that the result will be to return a strong Government to Ottawa, capable pf bringing Canada's whole force into the struggle.