ELECTIONS IN CANADA

Southland Times, Issue 20014, 30 October 1926, Page 21

ELECTIONS IN CANADA

RETURN OF THE LIBERALS. ASPECT OF THE CAMPAIGN. THE CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUE. Toronto, September 18. After less than 10 weeks in the wilderness of opposition the Canadian Liberal" Party, under the leadership of Mr Mackenzie King, returns to power as a result of Tuesday’s voting. The episode of the summer of 1926 will be recorded in Canada’s political history as an exceedingly interesting and dramatic “double shuffle.” Mr King, in June, finding his Parliamentary majority wavering, asked for a dissolution. The Governor-General refused. Mr King resigned. The ex-Governor-General, Lord Byng, called on Mr Meighen to form a Government. Within 63 hours Mr Meighen’s Government was defeated—declared by Parliament to be unconstitutional. Mr Meighen asked for a dissolution and got it. An election was called for the earliest convenient moment. And now Mr King returns to power. Behind this bald recital of events lies one of the tensest struggles in Canada’s political history, whose result will profoundly affect the fortunes of individuals and parties and have a far-reaching effect on policies perhaps in parts of the British Empire other than Canada. Mr Mackenzie King’s victory at the polls was decisive. Without recording here the various groups into which anti-Conservative forces had been divided it may be said that whereas in the last Parliament Mr King’s majority in divisions in the House varied from one to ten, he is expected to muster in the new House on most divisions a majority of between 50 and 60 in a total membership of 245. STABLE GOVERNMENT ASSURED. Straight Liberals—at least, with the help of Progressives who were officially endorsed by Liberals—will have a clear majority over all other parties. As far as numbers are concerned, stable government is assured. For the first time since the war there is no threat of a new election hanging in the offing. Barring accidents, Canada may forget about Federal elections for the next four or five years. Mr King’s most striking gains were in Ontario. Here Liberal representation was doubled and stands higher than in any election since 1908. Ontario with its antiQuebec and its Protectionist sentiment has been swinging overwhelmingly to the Conservative Party, and Liberals have feared the total and permanent estrangement of the most important Province in the Confederation. But this year Ontario goes 35 per cent. Liberal Progressive. Quebec remained solidly Liberal—6l members out of 65. Between the Great Lakes and the Rockies, that is in the three Provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, only a single Conservative was elected, as against more than 50 Liberals, Progressives .and Labour. Only Nova Scotia and British Columbia remained true to the. Conservatives without wavering. It is argued by the Liberals that the outstanding significance of the result is that Canada has declared that the basic principle of responsible government as accepted under the British form of government must not be tampered with; in other words, that all acts of the Crown or the Crown’s representative affecting parties or policies must be taken by the Crown, not on its own initiative, but on the advice *of Ministers who are responsible to the people. Liberal candidates in some cases reported that they could not interest their audiences in this so-called constitutional issue; others feared that if they pressed the issue they would be charged with being anti-British. LORD BYNG’S ACTION. The constitutional issue, as advanced by Mr Mackenzie King and the Liberals, is, however, declared to be in no sense antiBritish. When Lord Byng took the responsibility last June of»refusing Mr King’s advice, he caused the fall of one Government and raised up another in its place. Mr King in one of his speeches stated that Lord Byng took the view that Mr King had had his chance to govern the country, and that he thought Mr Meighen should have a chance. Apparently Lord Byng did not appreciate the Liberal view that it was not for him to say which leader should have a chance, but that was a prerogative of the electors. It is contended by the Liberal Party that had Lord Byng’s action passed without challenge, it, no doubt, would have been quoted as a precedent everywhere in British dominions, perhaps in Great Britain itself, and might some day have involved a sovereign in embarrassment. The two other leading issues in the campaign were the “Customs Scandal” and the tariff. The customs scandal was to the Liberals an undoubted handicap which under other circumstances would have invited defeat. The tariff also is ordinarily a handicap to Liberals in Eastern Canada, though this time its injurious inflqence was counteracted by returning prosperity and the reduction in taxation effected by the Robb Budget of last spring. .The one issue that was clean cut was the constitutional issue. .While some candidates avoided it, Mr King, Liberal papers and other exponents of Liberalism kept it pressed to the front throughout the campaign. There has .been little discussion of Lord Byng personally. His great popularity is unimpaired. The result of the election shoqld be accepted not as a rebuke to him, but as vindication of a principle.