Evening star., 1935-10-13
BY STEPHEN LEACOCK.

l.
BY STEPHEN LEACOCK.
Head OF the Department OF Political
Economy. McGW University.
~ HE real issue in the general
election in Canada, due to take
place tomorrow, is whether the
L country will follow its tradi-
tional policies of the past under the
guidance of one or the other of the
great parties, Conservative and Liberal,
or break away under the lead of vari-
Gus Socialistic groups, hurrying 1t
toward an unknown future.
That the elections will be followed
by certain measure of social re-
construction, whoever wins, is beyond
a doubt. All the parties are pledged
to make at least an effort toward
greater social justice and more even
distribution of wealth. But anything
done by a Conservative government
under the Right Hon. r. B. Bennett,
or by Liberal government under the
equally Right Hon. Mackenzie King,
will be kept within the existing frame
work of individual property and in
dividual freedom. For these things, at
least in the older sense of the words,
the new parties care nothing. They
envisage a solid society in which the
individual fits into his place, with
nothing to complain of, having ex-
changed liberty to starve for freedom
to live. Property they accept only
IN, ciyfforonrc thof
Time Has Run Out.
The present Parliament at Ottawa
was elected in 1880. Its time has run
out. In Canada as under the British
system everywhere, the prime minister
may ask the crown to dissolve the
Parliament at any time after it is
elected. But if he does not do so it
expires by the clock after a fixed
period; in Canada, five years. Prime
ministers, as rule, like to dissolve
so to speak-while the dissolving Is
good. They take advantage of
bountiful harvest or a rising trade
and float out of Office and in again
on tidal wave of prosperity. For
Mr.. Bennett the dissolving never "got
good" Elected just as the boom began
to crack, to replace Mr.. Mackenzie
King, who was said by the ConServa-
tives to have cracked it, Mr.. Bennett
soon found himself engaged in a
titanic struggle with hard times, newly
christened the depression. OF his
courage shown in the struggle no one
has doubts-the outcome remains to
be seen.
The party led by Mr.. Bennett num-
bered after the 1880 election 1877
members in a House of Commons OF
245. Its history goes back a hundred
years. It was fabricated out of the
old-fashioned Tories. who stood for
King and country. property and privi-
lege, and only very grudgingly took on
the coloring of modern democracy. An
alliance with the more moderate Lib
erals in 1854 gave the party the incon-
slStent name which it bears as the
Liberal Conservative" party of Can
ada. This party, and its opposite
number" the Liberal party, have gov
erned Canada, as province and Do
mion. turn and turn about since re-
sponsibile government first began in
1849. Till recently the same could be
said of the government of the nine
provinces which make up the Domin-
ion-but of late years Farmers gov
ernments, and now a Social Credit"
government, have broken through the
older precedents.
Liberals Grow Conservative.
The Liberals of the past, rendered
serious when in Office, grew more and
more conservative. The Conservatives
of the past, rendered progressive when
in opposition, grew more and more
liberal. In plain truth, and apart from
the denunciaticns of the hustings,
there was very little to choose between
them. The Conservatives first gave
the lead tc high protective tariff du-
ties in 1879. But the Liberals. after
denouncing the policy for 18 years in
opposition, took it over as their own
when Sir Wilfred Laurier came into
office in 1916 and have kept it ever
since.
1t is true that Mr.. Mackenzie King
in his election speeches of this cam
paign has declared that his party is
opposed to all inordinate and excessive
duties. But who isn't? Mr.. King will
never smash up the tariff with an ak.
The big industries of Central Canada
steel and textiles and motor cars-are
built on it. Cut it down and the roof
falls in on everybody. The Maritime
Provinces might crawl out sideways
and make for England; the West
might wiggle out of the wreck into
Minnesota; British Columbia could live
by itself on Winter golf and japanese
silk and the Panama Canal. But there
couldn't be any Canada. As we have
built it, so it must stand. What is
more, both the parties know it. and
everybody else knows it-outside of an
Alberta farmers meeting.
The two big parties have shared also
the insolvable problem of the transcon-
tinental railway system. Sir Wilfred
Laurier got it away to a good start
when he built a railway in 1908 from
nowhere to nowhere and called it a
transcontinental. But the Conserva-
tives also kept adding line to line .
til now the country lies tangled.
bound and helpless in a net that no
one can. or no one dares. cut asunder.
But the real difference between Mr.
Bennett and Mr.. King is that Mr..
Bennett is in Office and Mr.. King is
not. Mr.. King can wait till the ripe
fruit Of Office falls into his mouth;
Mr.. Bennett must climb up and get
it-and the climbing is hards Mr..
BENNETT haS shown his colIrame and