By WILLIAM STEWART The Ontario Liberal Party on a. leadership convention hatha up in late October, ho- Lrobert Nixon, who announced ' Tetirement last year, is run- ng hard to succeed himself. tragic thing for the Liberal y, is that he is likely to do ees a live alternative ap- ai between now and the con- ion, ; rape Strategists smell vic- ae or the party in the Ontario a ‘ons expected in 1975. Their steaditee 4s that Davis has been el wy in trouble since his “ction in 1971, conflieg there was a series of Volvin of interest scandals in- alto & members of the cabinet, shor Bales, then Minister of then and Darcy McKeough Real panance Minister. Mc- Dortfofi Was forced to resign his ‘d ac Then there was the Minis fiasco when the new ad ¢ €r of Finance John White 79, pa reat from leveling the eneray. tax against domestic the at Then. of course there is where €amous Moog-Hydro deal Davis. & good friend of Mr. ion pounds up with a $40-mil- Nya Ontract for the Ontario an : Wofteering indication of gross n ethieg papst recent breach of Was the the Davis Government Thier Toh ointment of ex-pre- decescon Robarts, Davis’ pre- authority to the conseryation John “sik for. Algonquin Park. ector arts, conveniently, is a has 4 Of Abitibi Paper, which Quin, e8ing interests in Algon- Regional Scheming Mobabhe ntioned as often, but 0 the» uch more damaging been it ory cause in Ontario has ) Goy S high handed Regional it porn Schemes in which Thent Fcmed Regional Govern- Major y peuee in most of the si e an areas in Ontario de- higher fe Saddle the areas with “ntro}, @xes and Queen’s Park tions Clumsy and costly ac- bro ght the Davis Tories have wtiscontent right into the and q ates of their own party icles “it through the constitu- Tory Bo &S caused a sag in Supporg pularity and growth of It ggfor the Liberals. Pattioula. this turn of events, Liberal WY the win by the tions in 7, tW° Ontario by-elec- a Nixon Ctober 1972, that caus- 0 quit 1° Feverse his decision becom: and have ‘another try at This actio Premier of Ontario. roduc has Split the Party Nore evider a battle which is hd tance ut, by the backbiting Oley Cor than by any major Westions being discussed. Uberal Squabbles ogre ©. Course of what was | lary tient to be a Liberal aes { Ctory wy Pointing straight to rshing 1975, the Liberal dirty thetic With 5 been paraded in @ p, the deputy leader of © Sargent being ) icate N because he was | etal ty ~ the Moog-Hydro } rh © tune of $25,000. > Who is | Suing Vernon Sin- Ni & Candidate Ooppos- Pare SCalleg n. Donald Deacon, t , quiet man of the oy Striving to take eyenine Ey nue, is literally | in Public € party leader’s "0 Building, without tenders’ WILLIAM STEWART , Ontario Communist Party leader race and pick up the shattered pieces. Much speculation centres on John Munro, Federal Labor Minister, who has the advan- tage of being clear of the pre- sent in-fighting, and would bring to the party the prestige of be- ing part of the ruling party of the country were he to enter the Ontario leadership. If indeed the Liberal strategists really smell power in 1975, and John Munro shares their sense of smell, he could well be the darkhorse. NDP Stuck One might well ask: with the Tories in trouble and the Libe- rals_ fighting among them- selves, where is the NDP? Well, everyone knows where Morty Shulman is, he is in the sewer, where he is most at home. But what about Lewis and the rest of the Legislative caucus? The NDP appears to be stuck and Lewis completely unable to move them. They have no posi- tion on Regional. government and find themselves hopelessly outgunned by the Liberals. They have been largely silent on the matter of prices. They lagged very badly when the budget was introduced and only when a mass movement arose did they seem to come to any kind of life. Sitting idly by and watching this scene unfold is the sleeping giant of Ontario politics, the 800,000 - strong trade union movement which has unwisely farmed out its political respon- sibilities to the NDP. This force, which if thrown into the breach could turn Ontario politics to the left and make sure that the - widespread discontent now evi- dent in Ontario was turned against both the Liberals and the Tories. It could lead towards the election of a progressive majority based on the NDP and Communist — parties, and the trade-union and farm move- ments in 1975. It is this kind of: unity in ac- tion against monopoly which is needed, not the anti-Communist witch-hunting displayed by the right wing-elements in the Ham- ilton Labor Council ‘when they blocked endorsation of the Council secretary for Board of Control in the municipal elec- tions. ’ The Tories are suffering from pork - barrellitis, the Liberals from the logical. disarray of try- ing to represent monopoly and at the same pretend to represent the people. This holds great portent for the labor movement but it can only take advantage of this situ- ation if it unites behind a pro- gram aimed against monopoly control, and sets itself the aim of "REVIEW BOARD A SMOKESCREEN' High prices, high rents It is monopoly profiteering which is responsible for high prices and high rents. This point was driven home with telling figures at a public meeting held in Bloor Collegiate last week under the auspices of the Com- _-munist Party clubs in the four western wards of the city of Tor- onto. Dealing with rising rents, Nel- son Clarke, Chairman of the Metro Toronto Committee of the Communist Party of Canada, made the point that the cost of housing is an important compo- nent of people’s income. “One out of three Canadians are pay- ing out more than 20% of their income in rent,” he said, “al- though sociologists and econo- mists agree that no _ family should have to pay above this . level for housing.” Three Corporations Apartment accommodation in Metropolitan Toronto is domi- nated by three big monopoly cor- porations — Greenwin, Cadillac and Meridian, Clarke pointed out. He said that 92% of all the land available for new housing in Metro Toronto is owned by six big companies. These com- panies can write off of their in- come tax the interest charges on the money they have borrowed to acquire. this land, the local property taxes, and any other costs involved in holding this land. “It is little wonder,” Clarke commented “that Cadillac made almost $63-million in profits over the last five years, paying only $20,500 in taxes.” The long term solution, Clarke declared, is to take housing out of the’ hands of private profit- eers, and make it a public utility. In the meantime, it is urgent, and entirely practicable to estab- lish a system of rent control to freeze and roll back rents. Report Contradictory In the part of the meeting dealing with high prices, Mag- gie Bizzell, chairman, Metro Women’s Committee of the Com- munist Party, noted that accord- ing to Mrs. Plumptre’s latest re- port, everything is rosy, But, she said, Mrs. Plumptre’s con- clusions are contradictory to what every shopper and wage earner knows. The latest report makes two major points. Board Is a Smokescreen First, prices are not skyrocket- .ing. With the exception of *ham- burger, they are levelling off. In fact we know prices are still ris- Maggie Bizzell, chairman of the Coalition to Roll Back Prices, (right) at a protest demonstration against high prices in Toronto. ing; even the Globe and Mail last week predicted more price rises. Bread, rice, canned fish and vegetables, to mention a few items, have gone up in the last few weeks. Even if prices were levelling off, the important con- sideration is, at what level is this mythical stabilization taking place. “What use is stabiliza- tion,” said Mrs. Bizzell, “if it is at a level 40.4% higher than De- cember 1965 for all items in the Consumer Price Index?” Mrs. Bizzell continued: “Mrs. Plump- tre’s second point is that profits have not been excessive (al- though she also says the Board has not examined company -books). By basing profit percent- age on a phony capital invest- ment figure it is possible to quote profits of 6-8%. What we have to look at is the percentage increase in declared profits for a given period. Why doesn’t Mrs. Plumptre study the financial sta- tements published in the daily papers? She’d see, for example Dominion Stores profits up ap- proximately 100% over a 13- week period. Compare that to Mrs. Plumptre’s assertion that wages have increased by 10.7% "2onk iT Rout) ROLL Prory BACK BA CURB N ai Price: PRE Tae - y MOMPOL IESE ‘ since the beginning of the year. That figure must include some phenomenal top income increas- es; there are very few workers who have won that much of an increase.” Mrs. Bizzell charged Mrs. Plumptre’s board with providing the smokescreen behind which the government, representing monopoly is hitting at wages. Talking about the fight-back against monopoly profitering, Mrs. Bizzell informed the meet- ing about the Coalition To Roll Back Prices which is calling on all organizations to join in the fight against inflation. Sask. aids those with low income By WILLIAM BEECHING REGINA—In a special supper time radio and TV broadcast, NDP Premier Allan Blakeney announced three measures his government would take to over- come the effects of inflation on low income. people in Sas- katchewan. Prefacing his proposals, Pre- mier Blakeney said that the most meaningful tackling of in- flation rested with the federal government. His government, he said, would support price controls and pass all necessary enabling legislation should Ot- tawa choose to act. The three proposals he an- nounced were: = 1. A two-stage increase in welfare allowance, the first to come into effect on November 1, and the 2nd on January 1. The increase: for families with children would enable them to reap the full benefits of family allowances. 2. On December 1, the mini- mum wage in Saskatchewan will be raised to $2 an hour. 3. Medical and hospital ser- vices premiums will be abolish- ed, effective immediately. These measures, said Premier Blakeney, are the first in a series of contingency measures e . : ; Set for tage Wy, developing the greatest possible Voncsuver consumers demonstrate at a superma rket_last week demanding action on food costs. 4 Stron Suld appear to be people’s movement in mass ac- Man to enter the . tion against monopoly.