MAY DAY GREETINGS TO WORLD LABOR VETERANS OF THE MACKENZIE-PAPINEAU BATTALION pT Nort Narvenr Sarno aa} 7 MAY DAY GREETINGS ’ Association of United Ukrainian - Canadians See you at the Finnish Canadian National Music Festival FIRST TIME IN B.C. June 22, 23, 24 For Information Phone 456-9646 Finnish Organization of Canada MAY DAY GREETINGS Socreds continue coalition ‘deal’ to dominate politics Continued from pg. 9 and the CCF and the four LPP can- didates, might have carried a CCF victory against the odds. The other factor was Social Credit, the fundamentalist, chris- tian sect imported from Alberta. In 1945 the Socreds could win only 1.5 _ percent of the vote, barely a third of the LPP vote. But by 1952 it had been vastly strengthened with lots of Alberta campaign ‘money, regular visits by Alberta cabinet ministers and the ‘‘conversion’’ on a growing number of Tories which had abandoned the coalition: “Erstwhile Tories masquerading as Social Crediters are already mak- ing the welkin ring with promises of what they will do for this province. In rural areas, particularly, where farmers are smarting under con- tinued coalition bungling and neglect, Social Credit is presenting itself as a ‘way out’ and an ‘alter- native’,’’ the Tribune editorialized .in March, 1952, ‘‘Perhaps a lot of us in the. progressive movement whether CCF, LPP or no party af- filiation are somewhat to blame for this state of affairs by our failure to move more rapidly towards establishment of people’s unity on a constituency basis. “The advent of Social Credit in B.C. ‘with its standardized Tory underwear must serve as a warning to workers, farmers and people generally to awaken the people to the dangers implicit in this Tory- Social Credit masquerade.”’ On June 16 when the first results of the vote became. known, only one thing was clear. The. Liberals and Tories had been decimated. _ May Day Greetings —B.C° Provincial Council, vere . couver, Surrey, Burnaby, Comox-Valley Clubs, Coquitlam, Young Communist League. In 1lYC, support the United Nations’ Declaration for the Rights of the Child. Join Us In Fighting For A Charter of Youth Demands! _ MAY DAY GREETINGS to all our members, friends and supporters x Communist Party of Canada Building Trades Club Burnaby Club Campbelt River Club Coquitlam Club Creston Club ~ Delta Club Fraser Industrial Club Fraser. Valley Club Kingsway Club Nanaimo Club Niilo Makela Club North Vancouver Club South Vancouver Club Surrey Club Vancouver East Club Vernon Club OC Ie ig OD ei EE Le OS BOP Og OOO SE eT aN The worn out and discredited pro- vincial parties led in only nine ridings, the Liberals in seven of them. The Socreds elected or led in 14 ridings and the CCF in 21. In any normal election the CCF would have formed a majority government with the support of independent- labor MLA Tom Uphill. But with the preferential ballot it would not be for more than a month until the next government was determined. The Socreds received 19 percent of the Tory ‘‘second choices’’, 22 percent of the Liberal second choices and a whopping 39 percent of the CCF second choices. The CCF on the other hand received on- ly 12 percent of the Tories and Liberal seconds, and although it received 37 percent of Socred seconds, they were mostly in in- terior ridings where the CCF was not strong enough to elect. The final result gave the funny, oddball Social Crediters 19 seats, one more than the CCF. The amazing result brought to power a motley government - without even a designated leader. Its elected members were a collec- tion of Bible thumpers and recycled Tories, undoubledly right wing and pro business, but not the unanimous choice of business by any. means. It was in many ways a fluke, a crazy circumstance of history which W.A.C. Bennett, elected premier by his caucus, would not allow to happen again and upset the new balance of power. The CCF was stunned by the result, not least by the fact that its own second votes had been decisive for the Socreds. Its rejection of left unity again a factor, for if the CCF had given its second votes to independent labor candidate Emil Bjarnason in Vancouver Burrard, it would have elected aheir own Alex McDonald over Socred Eric Martin. That one seat would have reversed the final outcome of the electon and it could have changed the whole course of B.C. politics. Almost exactly a year later, W.A.C. Bennett went to the polls for the second and last time with the preferential ballot. In the interval, Socred ranks had swollen with new conversions from the Liberal and Tory parties, and indeed the Tories were all but wiped out. In special by-elections, the Tories graciously declined to nominate against the Socreds, and in the ’53 election the Tory vote switched en masse to the Bennett team. With the solid’ Tory backing and growing Liberal support, Bennett triumphed in 1953 with a majority government. The CCF maintained 30 percent of the popular vote but was reduced to 11 seats. The second coalition government had arrived, but by now it was the unanimous choice of the corporate dealers who looked forward to an era of big business government more pro- fitable than any before. Jack Treliving recalls days of intervention Continued from pg. 10 They returned to Queen’s Park around 11 that night, ‘‘hungry as all get-out,’’ and Treliving still chuckles over an incident that reflected their mood. “‘The sergeant ordered us,. ‘Line up on the left of me.’ And somebody yelled out, ‘The hell with you.” Just like one man we all broke and ran for the cookhouse. ‘‘After we had eaten we sat around speculating what they would do. It was a pretty serious of- fence to defy an order. We figured we would all be on the mat. Do you know, they never said a word about itd? When the ship sailed Treliving was not aboard. He was in sick bay, down with the ’flu. It made little difference. ~After five days at sea the ship returned to port in Vancouver. The horses were all seasick. ‘*Some of the horses, about 15 or 20 of them, were in such poor shape, they couldn’t travel back to New Westminster — they had to be left in Vancouver,’’ he remembers. “If that ship had got to Vladivostok, they would have had to dump most of the horses over- board the way they crowded them into those stalls.’” The contingent was kept at New Westminster until June, but Treliv- ing got his discharge in May. He had been told his job at the Beaver River camp was open and it was all the reason he needed. Sixty years later, at the end of a long working life — 28 years logg- ing and 28 years fishing — he can look back on profound changes. But the changes that interest him most are those that took shape in his youth during the birth of a new social order and by their growth over six decades have confirmed his lifelong conviction. ‘“‘What Gibson told me back in 1918, and I learned a lot from him although I never saw him again, has all been proven true,’ he declares. South Fraser Region MAY 1 — For Peace, Jobs, Brotherhood of Men; on the march in many lands Communist Party of Canada PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 27, 1979—Page 13