THE CHIPS ARE DOWN IN QUEBEC
McMillin, Miles
The Chios Are Down In Quebec By MILES McMILLIN EVERYWHERE but in the United States, it seems, even the most conservative political leaders have come to recognize that public ownership of...
...The Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, Canada's phenomenally successful progressive party, has brilliantly dramatized the issue of public versus private ownership in its fight against power trust abuses...
...The devastating manner in which it presented its exposure of the Shipshaw scandal in the Canadian Parliament was a splendid demonstration of what a political party, when it has the determination to fight the people's battles, can do...
...CCF Forces The Issue "When, in a given field of activity, private enterprise becomes an injurious monopoly, it is the duty of the state to take proper measures and, if there is no other effective remedy, to resort to expropriation in the case of public utilities...
...Answering criticisms aimed at him by his erstwhile conservative friends, Godbout denied that his proposal was opposed to free enterprise...
...Lawrence project...
...On the contrary," he said, "we consider private enterprise as inseparably linked up with our democratic institutions and we intend to aid it and foster it by freeing it from the control of monopolies...
...Primarily, however, his decisi»n came as result of recent investigations by the Quebec Public Service Board into the affairs of the Quebec monopoly...
...This sudden conversion of Godbout to public ownership is not without its political aspects, however...
...Would Affect Shipshaw Enactment of the expropriation measure would have far-reaching effects on the public development of hydro-electric facilities of the St...
...He added that his "radical measure had become necessary because Quebec consumers have been forced for years to pay a return on fictitious values...
...The Board disclosed that the company's capitalization was some $44,000,000 in excess of investment and about $73,000,000 higher than the net value after deducting accrued depreciation...
...The legislation which will be introduced by Premier Adelard Godbout, conservative leader of the Quebec government, will seek to make public ownership of the Canadian utility the basis of a government owned system similar to the much publicized development in the sister Province of Ontario...
...Lawrence River...
...Godbout's conversion can be put down as another indication that CCF's growing popularity is forcing both old-line parties to reexamine their do-nothing programs...
...The Chios Are Down In Quebec By MILES McMILLIN EVERYWHERE but in the United States, it seems, even the most conservative political leaders have come to recognize that public ownership of utilities is a cornerstone for the effective functioning of modern technological society...
...The latest indication of this trend is seen in the announcement that the extremely conservative government of the Canadian Province of Quebec will consider legislation in the forthcoming session of the legislature to expropriate the Montreal Light, Heat, and Power Company...
...Power trust forces in this country and Canada have counted heavily on the political influence of the Montreal company to block the St...
...It also serves to remind us here in the United States what we could expect from a political realignment that would give our voters more than a choice between tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum...
...Godbout's move, it is thought, is a result, at least in part, of the scandals growing out of the Shipshaw deal and will ultimately have an effect on the future status of Shipshaw...
...In addition, expropriation will break up the alliance of the Montreal company with the aluminum interests—an alliance which, with the connivance of our own Jesse Jones, helped make possible the aluminum bloc's gigantic Shipshaw power development on the Saguenay River...
Vol. 7 • December 1943 • No. 51
