The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1926. CANADIAN POLITICAL SITUATION.

Hokitika Guardian, 11 September 1926, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1926. CANADIAN POLITICAL SITUATION.

The Dominion of Canada is to hold' a highly important general election on Tuesday next. The situation is the more interesting because for some time past the political plight ol Canada has been rather mixed—there being no pronounced party dominance—and tho reigning party depending for the time on other partisan help which was not always certain and never assured. In the contest to take place next week the pregnant issue is whether the Liberal or Conservative party shall be handed control of the Government. The Liberal party lias been in power for something like four and one-half years, one election having been held in tile meantime. At this election last Fall the Liberals under the leadership of Premier Mackenzie King suffered a serious setback, and tlie Conservatives enjoyed a proportionate gain. When Parliament convened, following tiie election, it was found that neither the Liberals nor tbe Conservatives bad a working majority, hut through a coalition with the Western Progressives the King ministry was kept in office, although the fact was plainly indicated from time to time that the Government was

iii danger of being upset on any important issue. The occasion arose when a vote of censure was offered in Parliament growing out of revelations of customs irregu la rides, the responsibility for which laid at the door of the dominant party. When it became apparent that the ministry was about to fall, Premier King asked the GovernorGeneral, Lord Byng, for a dissolution. This the Governor-General did • not accept and the .King ministry immediately resigned. Then followed one of the most peculiar incidents in Canadian history, or for that matter in the history of British Umpire politics, j The Governor-General, like the King, is supposed by custom always to follow the advice of the Ministry on matters of Government dissolution. The precedent set bv Lord Byng is still agitating the legalistic minds of the Commonwealth of Nations, and in no less a sense is agitating the Dominion, or at least the Liberal party. Following the resignation of he Mackenzie King minisry, Arthur Meighen. Conservative leader, announced Jr is willingness to form a new ministry and proceeded to do so. He held power in Parliament for a few days, but his fall came on the test vote, growing out of the alleged illegality of his Government. Then Mr Meighen asked the Governor-Gen-eral to accept his resignation and dissolve Parliament, both of which the Governor-General did. The Liberal party seems to he willing to make a constitutional issue of the GovernorGeneral’s action, but it is doubtful whether the thinking electorate of Canada can Ik? aroused any great extent over a matter that interests lawyers more than laymen. Canadians possessed of a normal amount of common sense know that their liberties are not at stake, even though the Liberal party may insist that such is the case. What is reallv important is the tariff issue, on which there is a sharp and close divison. Naturally the tariff issue is mixed up with policies of Imperial preference. When it comes to that the whole matter of the standing and responsibility of the Dominions in the British Commonwealth of Nations might be dragged into tbe controversy. Stripped of all ambiquities, however. Canadians in voting this Fall will put into power men who will favor closer economic alliance or who on the contrary will aim at a broader degree of economic independence for the Dominion. Liberal success will mean that things will drift along much as they have been doing for the past four or

five vein's. Conservative success may mean that the tariff lines will ho tightened. with the idea, of increasing the manufacturing and producing industries of the Dominion. That the election will bring aliout any consequences of startling economic character is doubtful. Sentiment in the Western agricultural provinces favors n lowering of tariff walls. This is natural, since the farmers of that section of Canada want cheaper machinery and equipment. They are represented in Parliament by the so-called Progressives who arc nearer the Liberal party than the Conservatives, as shown by the fact that they really kept- the Liberal party in power of a period of years. The Conservatives on the other hand are more closely allied with the manufacturing interests. They might he called the business man’s party. The Conservative party will swing a big vote in the manufacturing Province of Ontario. Were it not that racial questions enlei into polities in the province of Quebec, they would not doubt win in that province also. The outcome in any case is going to he decided by a very narrow margin.