Canada Dry
Boddington, Ernest F.
CANADA DRY By ERNEST F. BODDINGTON WITHIN two days the electors of two widely separated provinces of Canada administered two very smashing blows to those reformers who, with a singular lack of...
...Yet there it stands, in singular significance under the circumstances which exist: "Ut incepit fidelis sic permanet...
...The alternatives presenting themselves to the Ontario voter were clear and distinct...
...Ferguson hardly realized it, but in making this appeal he was uttering the prayer which is voiced in the motto of Ontario itself...
...The only result of his active campaign was that Mr...
...Perhaps Mr...
...The Premier, the Honorable G. Howard Ferguson, declared in the first of his campaign speeches that he was prepared to stand or fall by the verdict of the province on whether it wished "to maintain and strengthen the legislation which had been enacted in the interests of temperance and sobriety...
...CANADA DRY By ERNEST F. BODDINGTON WITHIN two days the electors of two widely separated provinces of Canada administered two very smashing blows to those reformers who, with a singular lack of humor and a total disregard for truth, arrogate to themselves the title of guardians of temperance...
...he had the opportunity, after having seen the system of government sale and regulation in operation for a couple of years, to say that it was good and should be continued...
...On October 30, at Ontario's general election for members of the Legislature, the party committed to a continuance of the policy of government sale and supervision of liquor permits which it inaugurated two years ago, was sustained by majorities astounding to even its most sanguine supporters...
...He might register his approval of the courageous, if extreme, platform of Mr...
...2) Are you in favor of the sale of alcoholic liquors under a government control act ? Some confusion must have been caused, because while a majority of 5,000 was registered as approving the continuance of the prohibitory Temperance Act, the vote on the second question was 89,757 in favor of sale under government control to only 41,180 against...
...The furthest he would travel in this direction was to say he favored a plebiscite "if the people of the province showed that a plebiscite was what they wanted...
...Ferguson's plurality, which in 1926 had been 1,247, was increased to over 2,000...
...Lethbridge stood not merely for a bone-dry Ontario but for the prohibition of the manufacture as well as the sale of intoxicating liquors within the province...
...On the other hand, the Liberal leader, Mr...
...The following day, a plebiscite taken in Nova Scotia on the question of sale under government control resulted in a vote of more than two to one in favor of such sale under government control...
...Lethbridge...
...Progressives, n; Independent Liberals, 4; Farmers' Union, 3; total, 112...
...Liberals, 17...
...The Conservative Premier who had 77 votes in the last Legislature, now has 91...
...Ferguson would be left without a seat on election night...
...He could not advance the excuse that he was voting for any policy as a compromise or "faute de mieux...
...the Progressives, who under the leadership of Mr...
...Sinclair...
...Thereupon, the prohibitionists, knowing that the Premier would have to spend much time during the campaign outside his own constituency of Grenville, nominated for that seat the strongest candidate they could find, in the person of the Reverend T. H. Bradley, with the hope that Mr...
...But if you believe it was a policy conceived in honesty, that has been nurtured and developed in fairness to the benefit of the province, give me and my associate ministers an increased vote to strengthen our hands in maintaining and expanding it...
...Lethbridge advocated a return to the policy of prohibition, now have only three representatives instead of eleven and no leader...
...Bradley was concerned, he but shared the fate of the half-dozen other candidates who ran as out-and-out prohibitionists, for not one of the seven was elected...
...if you do not think it is an honest and fair policy, turn me out of office...
...The Conservatives made the issue clear early in the campaign that has just ended: every individual candidate of the party warmly supported the policy of the government sale and regulation, and made his appeal to the voters as a defender of the manner in which that policy had been carried out from the day of its inception...
...Two questions were then submitted to the electorate which were to be answered at the same time: (1) Are you in favor of continuing the Nova Scotia Temperance Act...
...the valiant champion of the bone-dry cause having been among those who failed of reelection...
...The plebiscite in Nova Scotia was taken the day following the general election in Ontario...
...It is necessary to study in detail the conditions under which the vote in Ontario was taken in conjunction with the result recorded, to appreciate the full significance of that result...
...Another prohibitionist leader who was clearly shown what the people of Ontario think of the contrast between the operation of government control and prohibition was the Reverend T. H. Bradley, who had contested Grenville with Premier Ferguson...
...H. R. Grant, who had been most prominent in the fight to retain the Temperance Act, agreed with J. H. Winfield, the outstanding champion of government control that the prohibitory law had been very badly defeated...
...He aroused the ire of the so-called temperance leaders by saying boldly that the ten years from 1916 to 1926, during which the province had lived under prohibition, had shown that prohibition was a farce, since it was unenforceable...
...Sinclair, who was reflected in Ontario South, retained his seat with a former plurality of over 2,000 cut to less than 1,000...
...But there was no question in the minds of those who had led the opposing forces concerning the verdict that had been rendered...
...So far as Mr...
...The sweep was unprecedented in Ontario politics...
...Here the issue was not presented as clearly as in the sister province...
...the Liberals who mustered (with those listed as Independent Liberals) 21, now have 11...
...he might express his faith in the Liberal leader by accepting the vague promises of some kind of "reform" made by Mr...
...W. E. N. Sinclair, did not respond so readily to the proddings of his supporters among the extreme prohibitionists as they might have wished...
...But there was no mistake possible concerning the stand of the leader of the Progressive party, which only a few years ago was a dominant factor in Ontario politics, and which now had its great chance to become all-powerful if the voters were really scared by the alleged depredations of the Demon Rum under any system of government control of the sale of liquor...
...He went to the polls with the challenge of the Conservative Premier ringing in his ears: "I am responsible for this policy of government control...
...The Opposition leader, Mr...
...He was willing that they should draw pictures of the Demon Rum on the rampage on the chance of turning a few Conservative voters from their party allegiance, but he was chary of committing himself to the return of prohibition if he were elected...
...How that appeal was answered can only be fully understood when the result of the balloting is considered in detail...
...The composition of the last Legislature, by parties, was as follows: Conservatives, 77...
...Every one of the members of the Cabinet-a round dozen including three without portfolios-was returned...
Vol. 11 • December 1929 • No. 6
