Available George

Five hours after he announced John Bracken's abrupt retirement, James Macdonnell, president of the Progressive Conservative Association, flashed urgent telegrams to organizers in all 245 ridings. The message: get cracking, pick some 1,300 delegates for the convention.

Within a few hours he had tentatively reserved alternative convention halls in Winnipeg, Montreal and Ottawa. This week the P.C.s decided to hold the convention in Ottawa's Coliseum from September 30 to October 2. There was reason for haste. In six weeks the Conservatives would have to try to do an organization job that the Liberals have spread over six months. And the P.C.s had a bigger job to do.

Under John Bracken, the P.C.s had tried to stable western progressives in the same stalls with eastern arch-Tories. It did not work. They had ended with a lacklustre program, not liberal enough to steal votes from Mackenzie King, not conservative enough for right-wingers. Last week many Conservative bigwigs were pinning their party's main hopes on a tested Tory, big, handsome Premier George Drew of Ontario. So far, the only other contender in sight was Saskatchewan's John George Diefenbaker, Tory gadfly of Parliament.

A top prairie criminal lawyer before he turned to politics, John Diefenbaker had made a name as promoter of a civil rights bill for Canada. He has a progressive label, draws his heaviest support from the prairies.