“Mrs. Effie Jones emerged from the election as the chief Voice of progressive opposition to NPA policies . . . a tribute to her Consistent work . . .” By BERT WHYTE 'HE headlines in the daily papers all expressed the same idea: the Non-Partisan Association had scored almost a complete Sweep in the Vancouver civic elections on December 10. The headlines lie (as they so often do). The elections clearly demonstrated the declining strength of the NPA, despite the election . Of a large number of NPA candidates. Let’s, examine the facts. The most important post in any civic administration is that of mayor—yet this year the NPA machine was so badly split and rent by dissension that it found itself unable to sponsor or offi- cially endorse any candidate for the mayoralty. : Two years ago the Tory-Liberal NPA suffered a crushing defeat when Mayor Charles Thompson, its standard-bearer, was defeated by Fred Hume. Running as an independent, Hume won the sup- port of the Vancouver Centre Lib- erals, who broke with the NPA, and received the endorsation of the general public. An NPA cast- off, Alderman Archie Proctor, rode back into council on Hume’s coat-tails, winding up near the top of the aldermanic poll. cae On the eve of the 1950 elections Mayor Thompson had announced his intention to “screen” all civic employees—a move understood by everyone as an attempt to decapi- tate the progressive leadership of Vancouver Civic Employees Un- ion, Outside Workers. However, it turned out that the public screened Thompson, instead. On taking office, Mayor Hume quiet- ly scrapped his NPA predecessor's “screening” program. “For <4 he the NPA-domin- ated city council has sought to embarrass and discredit Mayor Hume, with the idea that Charles Thompson could stage a comeback this year. Hume, a veteran of countless political wars, seldom met these attacks head-on, v showed considerable ability _in weaving around them, and taking his case to the public over the heads of irate council members. When Hume announced his in- tention to seek a second term as mayor, the NPA machine found . tion to NPA policies. but: itself without a serious contender. Thompson, still smarting from his 1950 defeat, wasn’t willing to face Hume again. Everett Irwin, choice of the Liberal-Tory: diehard coali- tion group in the NPA, wasn’t strong enough to win general en- dorsation by all sections of the disintegrating NPA machine (though the Liberal Vancouver Sun scolded the NPA for its fail- ure to openly back Irwin). Alderman Archie Proctor, ap- parently failing to realize that he had landed in council in 1950 rid- ing blind baggage on Hume’s train, decided he wanted to take over the throttle. and announced his candidacy for mayor. To CCF’er Tom Alsbury, three- time loser in previous mayoralty campaigns, this set-up appeared ideal,. and he “quickly threw his hat in the ring. Although Als- bury. had not been active in cam- paigns on behalf of the people of Vancouver, he had achieved some notoriety by his union-raiding tac- tics directed against the Vancou- ver Civic Employees Union, Out- side Workers, and counted on this. to. win some support in NPA circles. In this his estimation was cor- rect—some NPA strategists backed Alsbury as a means of ditching Hume. But Alsbury underestim- ated the deep repugnance his unionzraiding had aroused among the working class, and consequent- ly overestimated the vote he would receive in the East End. Hume won by a comfortable margin over Alsbury—not so much because ‘Vancouver likes Fred Hume” as. because Vancouver doesn’t like Tom Alsbury and his red - baiting, union- raiding pro- gram. The CCF leadership should draw certain conclusions from this lesson taught them by the work- ers of Vancouver. : Hume’s victory was a bitter blow to the NPA, and, consequently, a victory for progressive voters who are trying to break the NPA’s stranglehold on the city hall. e NPA candidates won all four council seats at stake, but the big votes rolled up by opposition can- didates gives them no ground for comfort. There is a mass turning away froni the Tory-Liberal NPA candidates which can result in major break-throughs next year. Of tremendous sipnificance in this connection is the remarkable showing of Mrs. Effie Jones, who emerged from the election as the chief voice of progressive opposi- As a trib- ute to her consistent work through- out the year on behalf of the peo- ple’s interests (on such issues as housing, telephone rates, racial discrimination and transit rates and service) the voters of Van- ~ couver gave Mrs. Jones more than 17,000 votes, placing her ahead of all four CCF aldermanic candi- dates. The reason the CCF nominees failed to retain for their party its former position as the major civic. voice of protest against the reactionary policies of the NPA is to be found in the failure of these CCF candidates to engage in year-round work on_ issues, and the refusal to unite with Mrs. Jones on campaigns for people’s welfare. The right-wing; oppor- tunist policies of the CCF leader- ship are proving harmful to that party on the civie field, as well ‘as on the provincial and national fields. e The 28,500 votes polled by Dr. .Joseph Blumes for school board is a tribute to the Vancouver den- tist’s independent fight against the NPA on the question of milk for school children, while the large votes rolled up for other anti- NPA school board candidates de- monstrates the desire of a grow- ing number of citizens for new faces in civic politics and an end to NPA rule. : On the basis of consistent work by these independent school board aspirants during the coming year, there is a possibility of a consid- erable change in the composition of the board next year. The revolt against the NPA was least evident in the balloting for parks board. There Arnold Webster, for several years past the CCF’s only successful conten- der for civic office, was returned at the head of the poll. This, however, was more a tribute to the support he receives from NPA voters than the popularity of his policies with progressive citizens. Other CCF candidates for parks _board trailed Webster by 17,000 to 27,000 votes. Among the lessons which the progressive movement in Vancou- ver should draw from this year’s election results are these: @ The spouse vote is a heal- thy development, and the higher votes. received by women candi- dates this year points to the need for intensified work among wo- men to win them to the progres- sive, anti-NPA camp. @ The revolt against the NPA is growing, but the East End vot- ing percentage is still far too light, indicating the need of a strong “Get Out the Vote” campaign next year. @ The defeat of the Liberals and Tories last June 12 found some reflection in the civie voting but the Liberal-Tory NPA mach- ine, while in process of disinte- gration, is still able to retain power because the opposition forces ‘aren’t united. There is need for all progressive movements opposed té the NPA to form a loose, electoral united front to smash the machine. ee MAYOR Fred J; Hume (Ind.), 2... niceties 30,647 hom sAlsburye (CGR) aes cs keene 25,455 ; Everett Irwin: (Ind), .-......1..—--2-------sesteseeeee 9,670 2 Archie» roctor (ind: ti xc ett 7297 dR Ye bcp Seat SCN a Lae SYN 454 CITY COUNCIL (Two-year term) First four elected Earle Adams (NPA) Birt Showler (NPA) Sydney Bowman (NPA) ........----::---0----- 30,646 STOR Oe (NPA) ee Pte 30,326 Theresa Galloway (Ind-) -..ese ---.-sesceeeteees> et! Bffie Jones: Clnd, ): senccsc-cey- peas Lyle Wilcox (CCF) «....-.-..::-s:sesseceeett ene Harriette Porter (Ind.) -....--.-.--------so0* ayes F, G. Woodward (Ind.) -..-.---------1---- one Albert: Dunn. (Ind.) ....-.cess-:sesteeeettt : Arthur Riley (Ind.) Abraham Driedger (Ind.) Anne Angus (NPA) John Henderson (NPA) Jessie Hollis (NPA) Milt Owen (NPA) Lorne Aggett (NPA) Joseph Blumes (Ind-) Agnes Murphy (Ind.) Rosemary Fergusson (Ind.) Elgin Ruddell (Ind.) -.. David Rutka (Ind.) -.. Rejects Arnold Webster (CCE) Buda Brown (NPA) Robert Maitland (NPA SCHOOL BOARD (Two-year term) First five elected PARK BOARD (Two-year term) First four elected -How Vancouver voters cast their ballot 6,961 Fred Taylor (NPA) 34,550 3,372 Afred ote A) 27,370 George Greenaway (CCF) ... 25,166 Marearet #elland: (GCE) 21,398 Duncan MacDonald (Ind) -.. 15,817 Kaut Hedgquist:{GGF). .o 15,665 47,159 Rej 1571 9 jects ae’ nee MONEY BYLAWS 42,526 40,061 (Carried) 34,000 Yes No 28,540 Works bylaw (for $10,850,000) .. 41,548 11,983 Rejects 1110 (77-5% in-favor) | PNE development (for $1 million) 39,011 14,139 Total vote Total: eligible to vote Ind., Independent.) Rejects 1267 (73% in favor) B.E. Games stadium (for $750,000) 41,179 12,321 Rejects 1133 (76.9% in favor) VOTING SUMMARY (Legend—NPA, Civic Non-Partisan Associa- tion; CCF Cooperative Commonwealth Federation; ‘ PACIFIC TRIBUNE — DECEMBER 19, 1952 — PAGE 9