QUEBEC ELECTION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 October 1939, Page 5

QUEBEC ELECTION

VOTING ON IMPORTANT ISSUES TODAY FEDERAL & PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENTS. STANDING SHARPLY OPPOSED. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright. MONTREAL, October 24. Outstanding questions on which Quebec Province will vote tomorrow are provincial autonomy, conscription and Canada’s participation in the war. A spirited month’s campaign has been marked by allegations of gangster methods and misrepresentation. The conscription issue followed the action of the Premier, Mr Duplessis, in calling for an election two years before the end of the flve-years term, on the ground that Federal war measures threatened the province’s autonomy. Mr Duplessis charged the Dominion with attempting centralisation and assimilation. ' This drew Federal Cabinet Ministers from Quebec into the campaign alongside the Liberal Party leader, Mr Adelard Godbout. The Federal Minister of Justice, Mr Lapointe, announced that Federal Cabinet Ministers from Quebec would resign if the Duplessis Government was re-elected, making a Federal election almost certain in that event.

In spite of repeated assurances that the Dominion would not countenance conscription and similar pledges to other party leaders, Mr Duplessis campaigned as the champion against conscription. Mr. Duplessis, closing the Montreal rally, said: “This is a battle, not for the success of one party government, but for the survival of the province and the race. The Quebec Government does not put up with imperialists. It is time it was known here and in England that we are not strangers. We are here by right of age, discovery and history, and we intend to stay.” Mr Paul Gouin, leader of Action Liberale, said that national conscription was needlessly a major issue. All parties would oppose it. If Ottawa tried to enforce conscription it would be a fight to the bitter end.