CANADA: Liberal Sweeps

Ontario farmers have lately been saving their rottenest eggs, their ripest tomatoes for Conservative Premier George Henry. Campaigning spunkily in his sand-colored sedan he has braved ugly crowds throughout the province, often getting an egg in the neck or a tomato broadside-on and never running for cover. Obviously his Conservative Government, returned to power in 1929 and on the defensive all through Depression, was in a hopeless fix. The Liberals had not won Ontario for 29 years but they were going to win now with a young dirt farmer named Mitchell ("Mitch") Hepburn as their New Dealer.

Without descending to particulars, "Mitch" Hepburn took over from below Canada's frontier a few Roosevelt catch phrases such as "We are for the forgotten man!", but the bulk of his campaigning was sheer Canadian hayseed vituperation. Across from his farmhouse "Mitch" Hepburn had established a 15-acre car park and on big nights as many as 20,000 farmer constituents arrived to roar "Good boy, Mitch!" as he berated not only provincial Conservatives but the Dominion Government of rich and pious Conservative Premier Richard Bedford Bennett.

In the same breath doughty "Mitch" promised drastic economy and costly relief. While raising widows' pensions and payments to the unemployed, he would "cut expenses in half." Coming out against the St. Lawrence seaway development he threatened to break Ontario's agreement with the Dominion to purchase St. Lawrence electric power developed on the Canadian site. "I promise a new deal," he cried, "and clean government!" On polling day Canadians cocked one eye upon Ontario, cocked the other upon Saskatchewan. Too grimly wrathful to throw eggs and tomatoes at their Conservative Premier J. T. M. Anderson, the smoldering sons of Saskatchewan were danged if they could see why they ever voted the Liberals out five years ago. They roared approval all through the comeback campaign of their old favorite Liberal Leader James G. Gardiner, no matter what he said. Candidate Gardiner did not omit to say vaguely that he, too, stood for a "new deal."

As ballots were counted Saskatchewan war-whooped that not a single Conservative had been elected. Liberal Gardiner had come through with 48 seats in the Saskatchewan Legislature, six going to pinko-Farmer Laborites. This landslide was all the more notable because Saskatchewan, voting also last week in a plebiscite to decide whether the Provincial Government should set up "beer parlors" and sell drinkables by the glass, instead of in bottles only, was barely able to make up its mind about beer parlors. In a narrowly split vote 128,000 Saskatchewaners were for parlors, 112,000 against.