Evening star., 1962-05-27
By GERALD WARING
Contributing Writer


OTTAWA. - For the United
States spectator the Canadian
parliamentary elections now in
full swing are likely to be more
than a little confusing.
He will find everybody specu-
lating about whether John Diefen-
baker will be reelected Prime
Minister, or whether Mr.. Diefen-
baker will be defeated by Lester
Pearson. But he may also be
surprised by the fact that the
only people who can vote for Mr..
Diefenbaker are a few thousand
in and around a small prairie
city named Prince Albert. And
the only ones who can mark their
K for Mr.. Pearson are those who
live in a remote numbering and
mining district known as Algoma
West.
Mr.. Diefenbaker, the Conserva-
tive Party leader, is seeking re-
election to the House of Commons
in the electoral district of Prince
Albert, Saskatchewan. Mr.. Pear
son, the Liberal Party leader, is
seeking to retain his Commons
seat for Algoma West, Ontario.
Neither the voters there nor else
where in Canada cast their ballots
for Mr.. Diefenbaker or Mr.. Pear
son as a candidate for Prime
Minister. Yet when all the votes
are counted, one or another of
them will be Prime Minister.
The visitor from south Of the
49th parallel might hazard a guess
that this is achieved by a Cana
dian electoral college like the
United States institution for
choosing a President. But while
the result is similar, the mechan-
les are different. The man who
will be Prime Minister after June
l8 will simply be the one who
has the support of the largest
number of members of the House
of Commons.
The Circumstances
Under the two-party system
Mr.. Diefenbaker's reelection as
Prime Minister would follow from
the election of 1873 or more Con-
servative MPs in a House with
a total membership of 265. SINH
larly if 1873 or more Liberals won
election to the Commons, Mr..
Pearson would become Prime Min
lister and Mr.. Diefenbaker would
assume the title and role Of leader
Of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition.
While Canadians pay lip service
to the two party system, in prac-
tice they hamstring it with third,
fourth and even fifth parties. In
this election there are almost as
many New Democrat (Socialist)
and Social Credit (ultraconserva-
tive) candidates as there are Con-
servative and Liberal candidates.
The chance Of either of these
two minor parties winning the
election is remote, but they will
win a certain number of Commons
seats, and their unsuccessful can
didates will affect the outcome Of
Conservative-Lberal contests in
a great many districts.
Maybe No Majority
With these applicant upsetters
in the election picture, it Is quite
possible that the vote count on
June 18 will reveal that no party
has a majority in the Commons.
That could result in q deal in
which one or more minor parties
agree to support either Mr.. DEF
enbaker's Conservatives or Mr..
PearSon's Liberals. Or it could
result in a weak plurality gov
ernment, as happened in 1857,
with the opposition parties await
ing only a politically opportune
moment to defeat the government
in a Commons vote and force q
new election.
In political sense, almost any,
thing could happen. Mr.. Diefen-
baker could be defeated in Prince
Albert and still remain Prime
Minister. Or Mr.. Pearson could
lose in Algoma West and become
Prime Minister. AS happened in
1945, when Prime Minister Mac
kenzie King suffered personal de-
feat in Prince Albert, the routine
is for some backbench MP Of the
Prime Minister'S party to resign
his Commons seat so the Prime
Minister can run in his place in
q special by-election. The man
out Of a job is naturally well re-
warded.
Elections under the parliament
tary system are to United States
elections as Canadian football is
to American football. Both kinds
are fascinating, but to appreciate
either kind you have to know the
rules as in football, the
political rules north and south of
the border are quite different.