CANADIAN POLITICS.

Southland Times, Issue 18935, 23 September 1920, Page 4

CANADIAN POLITICS.

The return of the Hon. F. B. McCurdy, the Minister of Public Works in the Meighen government, is more significant than it would at first appear. Mr McCurdy stood for re-election in Iho Colchester County of Nova Scotia, where six weeks ago two Conservative candidates for the provincial parliament were soundly defeated by the representatives of the United Farmers, an organisation (hat i> endeavouring to ally the agricultural and labour forces of the country'. In the Nova Scotian elections (he Murray government, a Liberal ministry that has been in power for over twenty years, secured a large majority, though one of its ministers was beaten by a Labour candidate. The leader of the Conservative party in the provincial parliament was also defeated by a Labourite and the group he led was practically annihilated. With these results before them, political experts in Ottawa looked on Mr McCurdy's chances as being very weak. It was generally believed that the. Murray government would he strong enough to secure to any Liberal candidate a substantial vote, and the United Farmer victory in Colchester County made the outlook black for a minister of a Conservative government seeking election. Mr McCurdy, however, must have had a strong personal following in Colchester that was not properly estimated by the, political experts. His return shows, too, that it Is possible for electors to think and vote provincially and nationally. This last view must appeal to most observers of this situation, because on paper Mr McCurdy was faced with a hopeless task in trying to win

for a Conservative government a scat in an electorate that had only a few weeks previously shown itself by a big margin to he unequivocally in favour of the parties opposed to him. The victory, in any case, will cheer the hearts of the Meighcn government, and dampen the ardour of the Farmer-Labour .Alliance. This organisation, inspired by (he success of the Non-Partisan League in North Dakotu, has been engaged for some lime in extending its sphere of operations so as to be able to challenge the national government. Early in July the party, which was not ns well organised as it should have been, raptured nineteen scats in the Manitoban elections, putting into the legislature three men who arc serving sentences in Winnipeg for “seditious conspiracy.” In every constituency they attacked, (he united parties scored, and this fact, coupler! with the high percentage of success in the provincial elections in Nova Scotia, where the fight was harder, must have made the United Farmers hopeful of success in defeating Mr McCurdy.