—

Low key—high stakes

Sag oats with some of the gravest issues facing Can-
ada since Confederation, the current election cam-
paign (now a mere ten days to “curtain”’), is running very
much like an old-time “Punch and Judy” show, but, if
anything, with an inferior performance.

Already committed to deliver the ‘bulk of Canadian
resources (including water), a sizeable batch of cannon fod-
der to help the U.S. war incendiaries in Vietnam, or any-
thing else the American financial royalists may demand,
Liberal “strategy” is to “play down” these vital issues. To
campaign in “low key” in its sneaky attempt to wina
“majority’’ government by which to carry through its
“commitments” to Washington. -

Similarly the Tories, already ‘‘approving”’ U.S. mur-
der and pillage in Vietnam, are equally “quiet” on the vital
issues of war and peace, but highly vocal and rabble-
rousing on Liberal corruption, scandal and graft in govern-
ment. This noise, shored up by a “promising” extravagan-
za, helps distract the attention of the electorate from the
key issues, and fosters the illusion that somehow or other
a Tory “majority” for Canada would be better thana
Liberal one. :

In this historic contest, virtually on the eve of the
centennial of Confederation, the common people have one
major duty to Canada—and themselves: to see to it that
neither gets a “majority” to facilitate the sellout of Can-
ada, to sacrifice our resources heritage, real and potential
for a fast U.S. buck. Nor to involve our young manhood in
shameful wars of aggression in Vietnam or elsewhere for
the greater “glory” of U.S. monopoly domination, at home
or abroad.

This can be done—by returning a majority of NDP,
Communist and other progressive-minded MP’s; people de-
dicated to the principle that the Parliament of Canada
shall not become an auction block for the bartering away
of Canada’s independence, bi-national unity, and peace.

Only one road open

hat Premier Ian Smith of Rhodesia and his white
minority government want is now quite clear: an-
other racist “apartheid” State on the continent of Africa—

PACIFIC TRIBUNE

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the tyrannical “legal” rule of a white minority over four
million Negroes. That is the sum and substance of Smith's
“unilateral declaration of independence’ (UDI) threat.

In Rhodesia this week to find a “compromise”’ (short
of UDI) Britain’s Labor Prime Minister Harold Wilson
occupies the centre of a world spotlight. How to “recon-
cile” the racist ambitions of a handful of white segrega-
tionists with a preponderent native majority demand for
equality, justice, freedom—demands compressed into four
simple words—“One man—one vote.”

Any tinkering with this grave problem, which would
leave the white minority in power and a native majority
in continued slavery and worse, presents an awesome al-
ternative, well defined in the immortal words of Abraham
Lincoln: “No nation can survive, half slave and half free.’

Wilson has one choice: suspend the 1961 constitution
“granting” a phoney “independence to Rhodesia, and pro-
vide for genuine self-government, in which the man with a
black skin will have the same rights and privileges as the
man with a white skin. That, or the chaos, tyranny and
bloodshed of UDI.

Worth -
Quoting

,House of Representatives adopted

‘fight the employer in negotiations

aclean’s Magazine of No-
vember 1, (predated) takes
an editorial gander at the politi-
cal “slobs” and the scandalizing
slobber that has deeply marred
our parliamentary “image” in
recent times,

“Let us hope” says Maclean’s
**the voters will use this oppor-
tunity to elect the gentlemen
and defeat the boors of all five
parties,.’’ Despite this laudable
advice however, the average vo-
ter may encounter some consid-
erable difficulty in determining
which is which, Particularly in
the realm of old-line politikers,
where “gentlemen” and ‘‘boors”
are as closely related as Siamese

_twins,

En passant, as the liberati
say, it should be noted that Mac-
lean’s omitted to mention the
existence of a sixth party in this.
election campaign, the candidates
of the Communist Party of Can-
ada, Perhaps Maclean’s is of
the opinion (happily so) that the
Communist Party contains
neither “gentlemen” (in Ye Olde
English definition) nor “boors,”

in which case we can graciously
skip the omission — for the
moment,

Maclean’s poses a ticklish but
not unanswerable question: *We
have an old complaint against
Canadian party practices, Why
do they persist, so often, in giving
the voter a hard choice? In too
many ridings, it?’sa choice among

-several nonentities — harmless

but faceless characters, whose
own mothers could scarcely tell
them apart.”

Exactly, right on the bullseye,
Not only their own mothers
couldn’t tell them apart, but as
numerous past elections have
underscored, neither could the
electorate, faced as it is with
the “hard choice” between the
“nonentities” of Tweedledee and
Tweedledum and/or their piebald
Socred offshoots, :

The great majority of candi-
dates chosen by Liberals, Tories
or Socreds to carry the party
alms basket in search of votes,
are not selected because of any

special or note- worthy knowledge
of national or international af-
fairs, but purely because of some
local personal or political “pres-
tige” which the partisan hier-
archy feel may bring some grist
to the party mill!

Sometimes the old-line parties
come up with a bevy of similar
nonentities in a given con-
stituency, all burning to “serve
the country,” to add an *“MP®
handle to their moniker, to pocket
an eighteen or twenty thousand
smackers plus — probably three
times or more their worth inany
currency. Armed with a bagful
of party “promises” in lieu of
any knowledge of the nation’s
problems, they sally forth to
seduce a long-suffering and:
super-patient electorate,

Sometimes too, as Maclean’s
observes, *when a party does run
a straw-man against a giant, the
public will vote to defeat the
giant and the straw-man will
win,” proving, if it proves any-
thing, that the electorate may
have its own political sense of
smell, be the package “giant”
size or just run-of-the-mill,

Right smack in the middle of
a federal election campaign that
is stagnating by the hour, Mac-
lean’s gingerly puts its finger
on a sore spot — then hastily
nips it off to offer a platitude;

“Nevertheless, we think Canad-
jan democracy would be better
served if all parties paid more
deference to excellence in oppon-
ents and more concern for the
quality of parliament asa whole.”

That’s a new way of parodying
an old cookhouse wisecrack, *if
we had ham we’d have ham and
eggs, only we ain’t got no eggs,”
Nor does Maclean’s Blair Fraser
add much in his lengthy disser-
tation on “pollster” opinion onthe
possible fate of Pearson and Dief
“after the election.” A growing
number of Canadians would like
to see the “fate” of these old-
line *gold dust twins” decided
for keeps on November 8, not
after!

In the interests of Canada, its
unity as a two nation state, the

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eeTele

On the occasion of the Pan Amefi-
can Conference called in 1829 by Si
mon Bolivar, the Father of Latin Am
erican Independence said: ‘‘The Unit:
ed States appears to have been chose"
by Providence to devastate Latin
erica with misery in the name of
erty.”

On September 20, 1965, the U.S

resolution by a vote of 312 to 52
with 65 abstaining, which, in the
words of the New York Times calls for
the use of force if necessary... !0
prevent a communist takeover in any
nation of the Hemisphere.

Translated into plain English, this
means that the U.S. armed forces co”
intervene in any Latin Americal
country without even observing thé
formality of referring the question f0
such organizations as the OAS (OF
ganization of American States).

—PEKING REVIEW
L. A. Historical Record):

*

An electronic computer in Ottaw’
produces 3-million Family Allowanc
cheques monthly, employing only tw?
clerks instead of 120 formerly.
$28%-million petrochemical plant in
Sarnia, Ontario runs on shifts of 10
workers.

One factory makes 90-percent of all
glass bulbs for lights in the united 3
States with a staff of 14 operatol
Two workers now turn out 1,
radios a day which required
workers only a few years ago. ;

—UE GUIDE, Sept., 1965"

*

It is the height of foolishness 1

then turn around and support his poli-
tical servants in an election campaig™
—THE BARKER, Local 1-127 IWA,

Sept., 1

This ‘‘freedom”’ is the most wort
out word of our country. Johnsol
offers the peoples of Asia an attro®
tive package, wrapped in glory and
be-ribboned with “freedom” and “d#
mocracy’’—but the package con'
antagonism, hatred, power-stru:
and war.

—U.S. FARM NEWS, lowa, Aug., 1965

retention and development of i¥
resources for its own peop.
its peace, overshadowed by Tory
and Liberal readiness, as
Washington’s orders, to send
Canadian troops to Vietnam;
these and similar vital issue
Maclean’s joins in the studie®
silence of the old-line politikel®
of Big Business, ;

Only the candidates of the Com
munist Party, the “sixth” par!’
Maclean’s omitted to mention
its “deference to excellence in
opponents” dithyramb raise®
these issues, because they are
the determinant for the equality”
of the next Parliament of Canad
whether it shall be the voice
the Canadian people—or’a “mi
jority” rubber stamp for US
resources grabs and ruthles®
wars of aggression, :

nt

Editor — TOM McEWEN
Associate Editor —
Circulation Manager — JERRY SHACK
Published weekly at _

Ford Bldg., Mezzanine No. 3, 193 E. Hastings St.
Phone 685-5288 ;

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one year. Authorized as second class mail by the Port Office Department,
Ottawa, and for payment of postage in cash.

MAURICE RUSH ee |

October 29, 1965_-PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Pag? *