Evening star., 1962-05-27
TWO FLRsT-HAND VIEWS
The Big Issuesin ConodionRoce
By WILLIAM r. FRYE
Contributing Writer


VANCOUVER, British Colum-
bia.-Canada is coming down the
home stretch of a hot election
campaign which could affect the
solidarity of the Western Hemis-
phere, the future of the European
Common Market and indeed the
development of the whole Atlantic
community.
None of these things, of course,
depends exclusively or even pri-
marily on Canada. But Canada
can influence them-and indeed,
under Prime Minister John G..
Diefenbaker, has influenced them.
Canada has made it more diff
ficult for Britain to join the Com
mon Market, has traded with Cas-
tro despite pleas from the OAS
majority, and resisted American
views on atomic weapons and Red
China.
Some Of these attitudes are
good politics in Canada, and ex-
cept in the case Of the Common
Market, which Lester B. Pearson
would encourage, it is not clear
that the Liberal Party, if it won
June 18, would change them.
Nevertheless, any change which
did occur under a Pearson regime,
it seems clear here, would pro-
mote hemisphere and North At
lantic solidarity.
I have Just completed an in
tenSive trip across Western
Canada from Winnipeg, near the
edge Of the prairies, through the
magnificent Canadian Rockies to
this wer-decked gateway to
British Columbia.
Political BOBBY Trops
1t Is always risky to comment
on the politics Of a country not
ones own. There are too many
BOBBY traps, too much unfamiliar
territory. With full knowledge of
ones limitations, however, an
outsider can set down his i'm
pressions.
The race between Mr.. Diefen-
baker and Mr.. Pearson looks to
me like battle between Senator
Dirksen Of Illinois and Adlai E.
Stevenson - a battle which, in
cidentally, would actually have
been fought If Mr.. Stevenson had
run for the Senate this year.
"DolorouS DEF the Chief" as
both his friends and his adver-
saries call him, is a highly skillful
politician, an orator of the old
Victorian school. He shakes his
jowlS with great conviction on the
platform and rouses his audiences
to pitches of enthusiasm.
Mike" Pearson is, on the con-
trary, an egghead whose person.
ality does not particularly come
across on the hustings and who,
although he has tried to popu-
larize his appeal - too much, in
deed, to please the Liberal INTEL
lectuals-still finds himself ma
neuvered into positions which are
good logic but poor politics.
How does an egghead sell him
self to an electorate? Mr.. Steven
son tried the high road In 1852
and was defeated. He tried a
lower road in 1856 and again
was defeated.
Glittering Promises
Mr.. Pearson is working the rel
atively low road of glittering
promises and double talk-"dith-
ering," Canadians call it. But Mr..
Diefenbaker is an all-time cham
pion in these fields, and the Lib
erals argue that you have to fight
fire with fire.
Mr.. Pearson's reputation out
side Canada as a major world
figure seems to do him little good
here. and indeed may do him
harm. He himself tells the story
OF coming back to his constitu-
ency after winning the Nobel
Peace Prize and of meeting an
old friend who said, "Yes, we'll
that's all very we'll, Mike, but
what about the bridge at Four
Corners?"
Virtually no one seems to think
Mr.. Pearson will win. The best
Judgment of informed Canadians
is that Mr.. Diefenbaker will be
returned with a much-reduced
majority in Parliament-So much
reduced, some think, that he
might soon lose a vote of conf
dence and have to face the elec-
torate again. Then, with the tide
running in Mr.. Pearson's favor,
it is speculated, Mike" would
be in.
Mr.. Diefenbaker is campaigning
on the theme, Canada first, fore
most and always" Canadian ma
tionalism is not the aggressive
brand found In many countries,
but it definitely exists; the ad-