Aberhart, Douglas and Federal Credit
Mr. Aberhart, the Social Credit Premier of Alberta, will soon have no credit left with either orthodox or unorthodox financiers. He has quarrelled with the Federal Government because he demands its assistance in refunding the provincial debt while refusing the guarantees which the Government properly demands. He has quarrelled with his bondholders because they do not see the value of a voluntary conversion to a lower rate of interest without any increase in security. And now he has finally broken with Major Douglas himself. Mr. Aberhart on Tuesday rejected the Douglas " ultimatum," imposing on him a " subordinate adviser " and demanding the repeal of the new provincial taxes. Major Douglas, says Mr. Aberhart, is a theorist rather than a practical man. It is no rash prophecy that Mr. Aberhart's next quarrel will be with his own supporters, for it is difficult to see what he can offer them when he has neither Douglas nor Federal credit behind him ; yet he may still become an Imperial problem owing to the deter- mined opposition of Alberta, with other impoverished Provinces, to the amendments desired by the Federal Government in the North America Act.
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