Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-09-10

OTTAWA. September 9.-In the Cana
dian general election to be held Septem-
| Der q the voters of the Dominion will
select men to represent them in the
house of commons of the federal parlia-
ment but will not be called upon to
select any other officers whatever. In the
United States, where presidential or
congressional election always is affected
to some extent by the selection of other
officers on the same day, and indeed on
the same ballot, 1t Is difficult to under
stand the clear-cut distinctions OF Cana
dian elections. No man in Canada in the
general election may vote for more than
one man. He votes for his choice of a
member of parliament to represent his
| own district or riding as it Is called.
The result of the election depends entire
ly upon the party allegiance of the
majority of members elected
Sir Wilfrid Laurier is the leader of the
liberal party, and r. l.. Borden is the
leader of the conservative party. If the
liberals win in this election Sir Wifrid
will be continued in the office of prime
Borden will become premier. The prime
minister in the cabinet of the Dominion
| of Canada yields vast power and is, as
long as he can retain the support of a
majority In the house of commons, the
actual ruler of the land
Yet in neither party has one word beer
said as to making party nominations fol
this high office. The machinery of party
government in Canada works so smooth
~ that without a dissenting voice. ever!
liberal in the Dominion recognizes Sir
Wilfrid Laurier the leader of his
party, and every conservative in Canada
owns Mr. Borden as his political captain
When the election Is over there will be
no question as to who shall take the
premiership. and there will be no fac
| tional chickering's within the party. anC
perhaps the only possible contest viii
come in the event of a conservative vic
tory, as Sir Wifrid Laurier has an
nounced that if the liberals are defeated
he will retire from active work and viii
not take the leadership of the opposi
ton.
The political history of the Dominion Of
Canada falls naturally into two parts
From 1867, the
Liberal Party year of the fedora
Long in Power enms.r until as" the
was nearly always in power, and the
political affairs Of the country were domi
mated by the great conservative leader
Sir John A. Macdonald. and after his
death by his indomtable spirit.
Since 1896 the liberal party bias beer
continuously in power and it. in turn
has been dominated absolutely by ST,
Wilfrid Laurier who is now engaged in
his fifth electoral contest as the leader
of a victorious party. In 1896 the lib
erals won their first great victory undes
the Laurier leadership. the issue being
made up on the tariff question. The con
servatives had supported consistently the
tariff doctrines of Sir John A. MacDon
aid, who. in 1871, promulgated what was
known as 1.-The national policy" This
was, in fact, protective tariff policy, anG
Sir John in giving it the name of ma
tional policy followed in the footsteps
of Henry Clay, who introduced the frank
~ protective tariff into the American
fiscal system under the title of 1.-THE
American policy" The liberals had op
posed the national policy, many of then
| being academic free traders. 1t remained
for Laurier and his lieutenantS to draw
| up scheme of tariff reform, based or
| the doctrine of a tariff for revenue only
| with frank recognition of incidental pro
| lection. In 1895 the liberals adopted Thu
scheme and rallied to the cry of "Lau
| cipal planks in the Laurier platform o
/ 1895 was a pledge to attempt to secur
| a reciprocal trade agreement with tn
| United States that would permit the fire.
1
| the markets of the United States.
|
| In 1900 another general election wa
held with the result that the liberal ma
| jority was Increase
Tariff Again and Sir Wilfrid wa
| rono given a pleasing vot
Issue IN ISUV. of confidence by tn
/ ,oo,>lo T. ,bic ho tariff
again the issue In the four years sine
taking power the government had beer
| repulsed by the United States in it's eff
| forts to obtain a satisfactory reciprocit.
agreement. 1t had reduced the genera
! tariffs to some extent, but hardly SO muci
as had been promised in the campaign o
| 1896 1t had however, injected a neV
| feature into the Canadian tariff system
that of a tariff preference to the mothe
country of Great Britain. 1t was on thi
question of the British preferential tina
the campaign of 1900 was fought an
won by the liberals The result of Thu
| four years of tariff tinkerng was gen
| orally satisfactory that the tariff droppet
out of sight as political issue, not t
emerge again until the present campaign
| In 1904 Laurier again went to the coun
| try in a general election on the issue o
| giving state aid to the construction of ;
| new transcontnental railway. This tim
| the liberals were successful. and WOI
again by an increased majority. Fou
| years later, in 1908, the premier again
| appealed to the voters, and was again
successful although the liberal jority
in the commons was somewhat reduced
| In this campaign the liberal catch phrase
was Let Laurier finish his wor r. A:
| a matter of fact, there was no real issu,
| except that of the liberals versus tn,
conservatives, grits versus tories, ms yer
sus outs.
Canada is divided into nine provinces
Three of these at the extreme east, Nova
Scotia, Prince Edwards
How Canada Island and New Bruins
| MS, wick, are in ordinary
Is DIVIDED. politica. discussion group.
ed together under the name of the mari
| time provinces" In the last parliament
the maritime provinces were overwhelm-
ingly liberal, the government having
twenty-six members as against nine on
the opposition benches. 1t is an inter-
esting fact, however, that Mr.. Borden.
| the leader of the opposition, sits for his
home constituency of Halifax, Nova
Scotia
The four western provinces of British
u