Canada: POLITICS: To the Right

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The voters of two Canadian ridings this week dealt a stunning blow to the Government of Prime Minister Mackenzie King. In both constituencies, the people elected Progressive Conservatives, left the Prime Minister with only a technical Liberal Party majority.

In Toronto-Parkdale the winner was vigorous, popular Harold Timmins, 50, a Toronto alderman and a veteran campaigner. The Liberal defeat was not too surprising: Toronto-Parkdale has never elected anyone but a Conservative.

But the Liberal defeat in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, a Liberal seat since 1935, was harder to swallow. The party sent out its biggest wigs to woo the voters. They only succeeded in making it close. Winner: Calvert Charlton Miller, a 47-year-old lawyer.

There have now been three by-elections which tested political sentiment since the Dominion election of mid-1945.* Tories had won twice, a Social Crediter once (in Quebec last month). There was no longer denying the nation's surge to the right.