HOLD OF LIBERALISM

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 81, 2 October 1931, Page 7

HOLD OF LIBERALISM

ISOLATED QUEBEC

(From "The Post's" Representative.) VANCOUVEK, Ist September.

Quebec, in its General Election, rotained its Liberalism, under which its provincial destinies have been administered for 34 years. The only province in Canada to have a Liberal Government, it gloried in its splendid isolation, to the extent of adding ten members to the Liberal fold, returning Tascliereau to power with 79 members in a Legislative Assembly of 90 members, "Like the Kock of Quebec, Liberalism refused to give way before the storms of Conjervatism," observed the Premier of the oldeat province.

The election was stormy, especially in. relation to Montreal, the stronghold of the Conservatives, led by Camillien Houde, its Mayor. Houde conducted a whirlwind campaign, similar to that of Bennett in j the Federal Elections. Seventy speeches in the last ten days was the notable record he achieved. Personal bitterness toward Taschereau was their salient note. He charged Tasehereau with having decided to arrest a hundred Conservatives as murderers. He proved wrong only in the nature of the charge. In all, 232 Conservatives were arrested in Montreal alone, charged with being in possession of "illegal election documents,'? which proved to be cards giving full details regarding dead voters. They were arrested before the polling booths opened. ./■ There wcre-'inany ugly incidents in the campaign which, in the words of the Premier, "besmirched the fair name of Quebec." The Government found it necessary to place 300 special constables on duty in Montreal on election day. Persons were apprehended throwing ballot papers out of windows. A missing ballot box was traced to an automobile in a quiet part of the city. Three men were wounded in the legs when, on nomination day, a policeman said he was forced to defend himself against assault at a Conservative meeting, which thereupon broke up in circumstances resembling a panic.