The Canadian Elections
O'Leary, M. Grattan
October 6, 1926 THE COMMONWEAL S23 THE CANADIAN ELECTIONS ...
...King has taken office as Prime it is the most salient fact in Canadian politics today- Minister, with a new ministry...
...But the same members, Liberals 101 members, Progressives 24 election produced a Progressive party and gave it the members...
...and Mr...
...fifth, the unde- into his cabinet...
...it labored under the additional tutional question was an important factor in the elechandicap of having been censured by Parliament for tion, it is quite certain that the part played by Lord dishonesty...
...The Liberals, on the other hand, preach low time can disclose...
...The consequence was a heavy deniable prosperity of the country...
...Meighen, following an extraordi- Byng, whether wise or otherwise, had small influence narily conciliatory course, appeared popular in French upon the electoral verdict...
...October 6, 1926 THE COMMONWEAL S23 THE CANADIAN ELECTIONS By M. GRATTAN O'LEARY AFTER six years of experimenting with groups, majority was pretty generally conceded...
...When the shades fall, and laid it down as a part of Conservative policy that Lends her a misty, henceforth Canada should take no part in foreign wars Silver-grey shawl...
...and Mr...
...cline in the Conservative vote in Ontario, with the In Canada, the Conservative party, like the Repub- loss of a number of constituencies...
...He realized, as most thoughtful students Jewels bedeck her Down to her hem, of Canadian affairs realize, that a French Canada vot- Each corner arc light ing always for one party must inevitably tend to divide Pins on a gem...
...King, who de- few obscure newspapers, and a few of the more exclined to resign, carried on under Progressive domina- treme Conservative propagandists, used the fact that tion...
...The truth is, majority...
...Out of 245 federal mood, he can afford to make enough concessions to seats, there are 8o in which the French vote either the West to keep him in office for a full term of Parholds complete control, or, if cast solidly on one side, is liament...
...The House of Commons became a theatre of Mr...
...made frequent pilgrimages to Quebec centres...
...Meighen's ministry ernment...
...things are not taken seriously by the Canadian people...
...But in vain...
...only one Conservative came back alysis, the consequence of factions and groups...
...Last year, with business de- have but to vote with fair solidarity, and as long as pressed, and an exodus of Canadians across the line, the voters of the rest of Canada divide over economic the argument for more protection was potent...
...King was graduated from Harvard and was atintrigue in which all parties shared...
...Inquiry by a parliamentary committee re- should be removed, that a number of things now somevealed gross laxity, if not downright ministerial dis- what shadowy should be definitely defined...
...sions, that Mr...
...resignation of the King to sever the imperial tie...
...French Canadians, if they desire tariff when in opposition, and practise moderate protec- it, can control the political destinies of Canada...
...King...
...Mr...
...There followed nection itself...
...It will be an adminwas the hostility of French Canada toward Conserva- istration of moderate tendencies, making certain tariff tive party leaders...
...When Parliament was dissolved, triumph into belief that their liberties had been invaded, or of the Conservative party under Mr...
...Arthur Meighen...
...Liberalism returned tion in some quarters, and a perfectly legitimate one, to but forty members from eight provinces outside Que- examine the basis upon which British connection rests, bec, and Conservatives, all but extirpated in 1921, re- there is no consequential antagonism to British conturned with the largest representation...
...In the new Parliament, Liberals will have balance of power...
...Meighen, indeed, fell heavily between two some of Mr...
...fourth, the Liberal budget of last session, did not relish his decision not to take an Orangeman which substantially reduced taxation...
...barter and log- tached to the Rockefeller Foundation during the war, rolling for votes prevailed to an unprecedented extent...
...It made hopeful feature of the results of the Dominion elec- no headway whatever in Quebec...
...There the most radical of this group-powerful publicists like followed a resolution of censure upon the King minis- John W. Dafoe of the Manitoba Fress Press, and try...
...A new election, inevitable from the first, and de- There is a school in the Dominion which believes that sired by the country, was hastened by revelations of anomalies in Canada's relationship to Great Britain scandal...
...lican party in the United States, stresses high protec- What the outcome of such a result will be, only tion...
...And he was sincere...
...A working mainated Parliament and prohibited stability in govern- jority of at least thirty is secure for Mr...
...King it, has done for the Liberal party in Quebec what the himself is a Liberal of the Gladstonian tradition...
...who are giving the matter much thought...
...refusal of Lord Byng, the Governor-General, to politicians like Henri Bourassa-want to go as far as grant Mr...
...Meighen is dominated by Ontario They were suspicious of his new war policy...
...second, an overplaying of the customs vote...
...dered by war, had seared more deeply than imagined...
...First of all, and contrary to cessively sought to fight, to conciliate, and to com- a too general assumption in the press of the United promise with them, and, all three courses failing, he States, the questions of annexation and of British conlast year appealed to the country to secure a governing nection were not factors in the result...
...vested in the crown...
...scandal, coupled with an extraordinary ineptitude by Mr...
...Meighen's lieutenants...
...The King administration had not been Britain and the United States that the so-called constipopular in the country...
...King was defeated in his own constituency...
...Meighen to form a and Quebec rejected Meighen by an overwhelming strong cabinet...
...The acts Dance in abandon and language of 1917, the folly that is always engen- Down the wet street...
...Conservative candidates returned...
...Recruited mostly from the western 118 members, Liberal-Progressives (simply a Left of prairies, the outcome of an agrarian uprising, and the Liberal party) 11 members, Progressives 19 memradical in their tendencies, the Progressives both dom- bers, and Conservatives 9o members...
...but with issues, they can easily secure enough allies to keep the returning prosperity, promoted by abundant crops and reins of government...
...loves well-rounded phrases about the larger liberty, It created a memory and a suspicion that have welded and many of his messages and addresses are remiFrench Canadians into a solid bloc of antagonism to niscent of Woodrow Wilson...
...without the sanction of a general election...
...These men, during the ministry...
...In the supported military conscription, was defeated by the Parliament elected last year, Conservatives had 117 Liberal party, led by Mackenzie King...
...confidence...
...and they Orangemen...
...to represent him as a friend of the republic...
...In from the three provinces between the Great Lakes 1921, the National Liberal and Conservative minis- and the Rockies...
...Whether such a thing would an unprecedented mineral development, resulting in be good for Canada, or good for French Canada, is increased exports and a favorable balance of trade, the another question...
...But he is a skilful polithe Conservative party, impelling them to vote re- tician, willing to compromise his principles for office, gardless of economic or other issues, and without re- and just so long as Quebec remains in her present gard to material consequences...
...There will be no more elections held in a decisive factor, and in only two of these seats were Canada for some years to come...
...That is the most significant and was decisively, almost ingloriously, defeated...
...King, the Liberal Prime Minister, suc- What of the issues...
...Canada...
...They tion when in power...
...Return of the Conservatives with a working Five things contributed to the debacle of the Con524 THE COMMONWEAL October 6, 1926 servatives : first, failure of Mr...
...sent his son to the historic French Catholic University of Night, in a frolic, Laval...
...but such vigorous administration became impossible...
...Liberals returned tions held on September 14...
...with twenty-five representatives from the Conservative Canada in recent years has had parliamentary par- fortress in Ontario...
...GERTRUDE CALLAGHAN...
...The Orangemen of Ontario, almost wholly seemingly ineffaceable suspicion, cradled in war pas- Conservative, did not like his advances to Quebec...
...that not one-tenth of one percent of the Canadian Mr...
...He mastered the French language...
...but not even honesty, in the collection of customs revenue...
...and he was willing to make large concessions Her silly old feet to avoid such a development...
...But the ver~~` 11~ Canada has returned to straight two-party gov- dict was vastly different...
...But the dominant fact in the Conservative defeat- Meanwhile, Mr...
...And while there is a disposiof his ministers were submerged...
...There are many Quebec leaders high tariff policy lost its force...
...No The result gave stark illustration of the uncertainty amount of electioneering rhetoric could stir the public of elections...
...Meighen seemed were menaced, and, contrary to seeming belief in both inevitable...
...third, Quebec's provinces...
...He Civil War did for the Democratic party in the South...
...The truth is, that military conscrip- concessions to the West, and yet always bearing in tion in Canada in 1917, plus the language by which a mind that Quebec, whence comes its chief strength, is part of English-speaking Canada sought to promote at heart conservative and protectionist...
...the nation on racial and, to some extent, on religious grounds, preventing proper consideration of economic Pit-a-pat-pat, issues...
...King dissolution...
...But to little visible avail...
...ment...
...During the course of the campaign a a near-deadlock in Parliament...
...Meighen stepped beyond the danger point in English-speaking Canada to wipe out this Quebec sus- `lain at Night picion...
...King that government in Parliament-and the recent ap- constituted an exercise of autocratic power no longer peal to the country...
...eight people favor annexation...
...But the result only heightened confusion...
...formation of a Conservative government by course of the election, declared that Lord Byng's reMr...
...A Presbyterian of Scotch-Irish descent, but Rain is a pauper with a profound respect for Catholicism, and a quite Shabby and old, sincere affection for the French-Canadian people, there Huddling her shoulders, was nothing that he did not do to win French-Canadian Trembling with cold...
...the almost immediate defeat of fusal to grant a dissolution of Parliament to Mr...
...Meighen and five of his try, made up of Liberals and Conservatives who had ministers were rejected by their constituencies...
Vol. 4 • October 1926 • No. 22
