Canada: Out in the Open

For the first time, a Liberal M.P. said it out loud: Prime Minister King was worn out and ready to retire before long.

The speaker was a chipper, chubby French Canadian named Antoine Phileas Coté, a freshman M.P. but an old hand at politics. Over radio station CJBR at Rimouski, Que., Coté said flatly that the Prime Minister, after his severe bout with a cold, looked "old and worn out." "Mr. King," he said, "wants a [Liberal Party] convention before his retirement," so that a successor may be chosen. "I believe that this convention will take place in 1948, probably in Montreal."

Quebecker Coté, onetime political reporter (Montreal's La Patrie and Le Canada), ticked off the men he thought most likely to succeed: 1) Defense Minister Brooke Claxton, 48, who is the "heir presumptive"; 2) Finance Minister Douglas Abbott, 47, "whose affability makes him the most popular of ministers"; 3) Health Minister Paul Martin, 43, "whose . . . eloquence and ambition make him a candidate"; 4) Agriculture Minister James G. Gardiner, 63, "a first-class organizer"; 5) External Affairs Under Secretary Lester ("Mike") Pearson, 49, who "leads all the dark horses by manylengths."

What of External Affairs Minister Louis S. St. Laurent, 65? Maybe, said Coté—"if he were ten years younger or if he wanted the job." And what of Justice Minister (and ex-Finance Minister) James L. Ilsley, 53? Coté's answer: "His goose is cooked. ... He was the wartime taxer."