HI. sweeping victories scor-

ed by Mayor- elect Fred
Hume and Alderman Archie
Proctor, both running as in-
dependents, in last week’s
Vancouver civic election, clearly
indicated a sharp revolt against
the machine control and policies
of the Non-Partisan Association.
The fact that voters readily ap-
proved extension of the civic
franchise to spouses and rolled
up an impressive “yes” vote for
the trick plebiscite offering them
@ wide-open Sunday as the alter-
native to present restrictive blue
laws were further indications of
the strength of the revolt. Every
faction, including the Civic Re-
form Association, under-estimat-
ed the strength of this revolt,
although the CRA can point to
the campaigns it has conducted
_ as having a decisive influence in
exposing the Non-Partisans’ tory
Policies in the city hall,

How is it possible to explain
this remarkable upset and at
the same time account for the
fact that the NPA succeeded in
electing eleven of its fourteen
candidates? ’

_ This can only be explained by

understanding the Coalition cha-
racter of the NPA. It is a poli-
tical front of the Liberal and
Conservative parties which in re-
cent years has been dominated
by the Tories. This has been a
sore point with the Liberals for
Some time, particularly because
of the developments under way
on the provincial level.

It is becoming increasingly clear
that the Liberal forces around
and supporting Gordon Wismer
are endeavoring to engineer a
Liberal convention this coming
year. The aims of this conven-
tion are three-fold: to replace
Johnson by Wismer; to adopt the
single transferable vote and to
call for a provincial election on
a Liberal go-it-alone basis.

The fact that the civic: govern-
ment of such an important cen-
ter as Vancouver was dominated

. by the Tories when the Liberals
held three of the city’s five fed-
eral seats and the Tories held
only one, wag bound to be resen-
ted by Liberal bigwigs,

These Liberal forces now are
becoming increasingly bold be-
cause of the dissension within
and the organizational disinteg-
ration of the CCF and because
of the partial immobilization of
the trade union movement brought; -
about by the old-line party hur
eaucrats and CCF trade union of-
ficials Sipbing: on to the em-

Revolt |

against the
Non-.Partisans

By ELGIN RUDDELL

'

ployers’ anti-communist band-

wagon,

e

Two things touched off the Li-
berals’ independent effort in the
elections. One was the dropping
of Proctor from the NPA slate
and the other and more impor-
tant development was Thompson’s
preparations to carry through a
city-wide reassessment.

The purpose of the re-assess-
ment was to raise the total city
assessment substantially as a
means of increasing the city’s
borrowing powers. Certain - big
downtown property owners be-
came alarmed. If the re-assess-
ments were carried out public in-

‘Slate.

ported the balance of the NPA.

Even this partial, disguised
split and the big publicity cam-
paign to elect Hume wag enough
to crystallize the revolt against
the NPA, permitting the Liberals
to cash in on the progressive
sentiments of the electors with-
out destroying the coalition but
establishing the dominant posi-
tion of the Liberals in that coa-
lition,

“The strength of the Liberal
machine and the financial resour-
ces of its backers was revealed
in the extensive publicity cam-
paign during the election and

ELGIN RUDDELL
Civil Reform candidate for mayor

; of the ‘CCF can best be seen in

“open: split and they limited their

particularly on election day when
upwards of 550 cars were put on
the streets to bring in the vote.
Moreover, on election night the
radio stations had to switch from
NPA headquarters to Hume's
headquarters to get the reports
from the polls.

Now that the election is over
the NPA coalition will be under
greater pressure than ever be-
fore because of the appeal that
Hume made to labor and pro-
gressive sentiment. No

terest might be focussed on their
special privileged treatment in
the form of tax gifts and they |
might lose out,

’

The first move was the public
announcement that a downtown
group was looking for a candi-
date for mayor and was consi-
dering Dudley McGeer, A little
later, Fred Hume, a former may-
or of New Westminster and un-
successful Coalition candidate in
the last provincial election, came
forward as an independent with
McGeer as his campaign mana-
ger. Vital to this whole move
was the public withdrawal of the
Vancouver Center Liberal Associ-
ation from the NPA.

reforms and concessions implied
in Hume's election, which must
either promote further division
within the coalition or unmask
the Liberals’ promise as false.

e \
The weak effort made in the
elections by the CCF was a direct
product of the betrayal policies
put over at the last CCF national
convention, The disillusionment
of socialist and progressive-mind-
ed CCF supporters with the pro-
war convention decisions résul-
action to support of Hume and ted in wide-spread passivity.

Proctor. Beyond that they sup- The extent of the weakening

be i -

The Liberal strategy was to
risk splitting the NPA to re-
assert its. dominant position in
the coalition and to gain public
leadership in the chief city of:
the province. However, the
Liberals did not desire a wide

{

‘ time |
should be fost in demanding the

home

the fact that it was able to put
only eight candidates in the

‘ field. Of these only two had any

record apart from elections of
partidipation in community or
civic work.

The Civic Reform Besnciation;
in face of the sharpest smear
campaign thus far conducted

against it by the daily press, did

inject into the election campaign
the main issues confronting the
people. ‘

The CRA emphasized the need
for civic action to prevent war
and extend peaceful trade rela-
tions as the only means of de-
veloping our city and assuring
its people of a better future. It
also showed the need for major
reforms within the scope of city
authority to shift the burden of
taxation and so relieve small
owners and tenants, to
bring about democratic reforms
by introducing a new ward sys-

tem to extend the franchise and

eliminate the. backward features
of the proposed new city charter.
and for public ieee y of the
BCElectric,

~

Over a period of years the ORA
has been the main force in op-
posing NPA policies and has at-
tively campaigned for progres-
sive policies. The weakness in
the CRA campaign was in not
‘discerning the Liberal maneuver
in good time and finding a way’
to advance its policies in the
new conditions so that some of —
its candidates would be elected,

or at least come close to elec-
tion. As the election results —
show, the CRA increased both —

its total vote and its percentage ~
vote over 1949. The two inde
pendent candidates, Mrs. Viola
Bianco and Mrs, Florence “Dor-
land, campaigning on a progres-
sive program, also made a re-
markable showing in their first
bid for office.

One disappointing feature of
the election was the return by a _
narrow margin of Birt Showler
to the council. He hag long —
since forfeited any right to claim
Support from or representation
of labor. He owes his support
and.votes in the main to, em-
ployer influence, as an analysis
of the areas which gave him his
biggest votes clearly reveals, His
supporters in the TLC did not
dare seek endorsation for his can-
didacy this year—but neither was
the endorsation given two years
ago withdrawn, as it should have
been, :

One other feature of the elec-—
tion which should be noted is
that only about one-third of eli-
gible voters in the predominant-
ly labor polls voted. This is in
sharp contrast to the majority
turn-out at polls predominantly
non-labor.

This places a serious responsi-
‘bility on organized labor and
progressive organizations to fight
for labor to register for the voters’
list and to turn out on election
day to give expression to their ©
desires. No longer can we re-
main indifferent to the need for
setting up “Get out the Vote’
committees and to removing the.
obstacles to labor voting such as
the restricted franchise, closing
of the polls and an inadequate
number of polling stations,

The mandate given to Hume
by the progressive voters of our
city must be followed up by ac- —
tion in the. new year to secure
progressive policies at the city
hall in line with the citizens’
needs for peaceful construction
and civic ‘betterment in order to
provide that fuller life to which
We all aspire.

@ mR
Elgin Ruddell, candidate for |
mayor in the recent Vancouver —
civic election, is president of
the Civic Reform Association.

\

How

 EFFIE JONES
As Civic Reform candidate for
council she poiled 8,410 votes.

MANE Lorne Aggett (CNPA) ......0..00.00. ite 43,429
Prat ume a oe ae 33,161 Charles Atchison (CNPA) .............. AL, 774
Mayor Thompson (ONPA) .............. DL ee abae ean S36 RE RN age ibang
dagk Price (inden) 2S... isk 3,352 PARK BOARD
El Ruddells (CRA) ies oe. 2s ban on eee 2,718 Robert Maitland (CNPA) ................ 33,547
oan : : ‘ Arnold Webster (OE ORot  eho ineey 32, 516
COUNCIL Mrs. Buda Brown iGNPA)S = Ci 31,331
Fred “Cyclone” Taylor (CNPA) ........ 27,198
Ald. J. D. Cornett (CNPA) Pele aes Bon Thomas; Ore (GNPA Me ee ee ie 6 ee
. Ald. Archie Proctor (Indep.) ............. 30,025 George Greenaway (CCF)
Ald. George Miller (CNPA) ............ 28,929, Knut Hedquist (CCF) ..................
Ald: Birt Showler (CNPA) .............. 26,359 Rhomas spe Koen ~
; é : v ederic ‘aylor ( ndep.
Laura Jamieson (CCE) Se eae Seats 24,654 Maurice Rush ( ORA) ge ee cae
EH. FE. W. Rhodes (CNPA) .....0.....0... « 28,324
Magnus Eliason (CCF) ....-...... iene 10,160 OPEN SUNDAYS
Nathan Sadler (CCF) ........ as ety eb irs DABON ok FOB rig Foeulgs e% 25,051. Nove ier 34,571
Duncan A. per eaeiaen (indep:)) 45 31, _ ‘SPOUSE FRANCHISE — :
‘Kenneth K. ‘Spragg (CCF) .............. 25 See eS ae RN Fe ng Rats: “10,154
Effie Jones (CRA) SMG Cs ee : Sere
Mrs. Florence Dorland (indep.) -........., 5,090: POINT GREY COMMUNITY CENTER BYLAW
Albert Dunn’ (Mmdep.) 2408 si a 6,016, °, Yes." e-, /b676 (carried) “Noy 43... .. 2007
‘ KITSILANO WAR MEMORIAL COMMUNITY
_ SCHOOL BOARD Lien gas
soni Henderson (CNPA) ................ 48,664 CENTER BYLAW
Mrs. Jessie Hollis (CNPA) 46,222 Wes 20.2, :. 2846 (carried) | INO ts ohne, 926,

Mrs, Pearl Steen (CNPA)

Phi vote 16,355 —: Percentage vote 48.6 ae

uy:

ancouver citizens cast their ballots.

d

FLORENCE. DORLAND eels
She received 5,,090 potes as an
aaconegion: aldermanic candi- —

gre

a

nag eS
[| |

Y

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — DECEMBER 22, 1950—|PAGE 4