Grey North and After
The defeat of General McNaughton, the Canadian Defence Minister, at the Grey North by-election, considerably increases Mr. Mackenzie King's difficulties The set-back is in a sense not as bad as it looks, for the Government candidate lost on a split vote. The Conservative majority against him—on a straight conscription issue—was 1,239, and the third candidate, representing the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, secured the support of 3,316 voters, practically all of whom may be assumed to support the Government, as their party does, on conscription. But what happened at Grey North may happen again, though no doubt weaker parties, while able to concentrate it a by-election, find their strength spread thin at a General Election. The Government, moreover, is at a further disadvantage in that while Conservatives vote against it because they want more conscription, its own supporters in Quebec vote against it because they want none at all. That being so, and the Conservative Party having undoubtedly been invigorated by the Grey North result, to which the intervention of its new leader, Mr. John Bracken, is held to have made a substantial contribution, the General Election looks like being critical for the Liberals, who have now been in power for ten years (though not, like the Government in this country, without an intervening election). Under the Quinquennial Act a new Parliament must be elected within the next few weeks, and Mr. King talks of bringing existing controversies to the test as soon as possible, and without a further meeting of Parliament before the dissolution. The Government, which has proved itself an able and efficient war-time administration (and has incidentally shown remarkable financial generosity towards this country), deserves well of the Canadian people, but recognition of that will not necessarily send it back to office for a further term.
Previous page
