490 



The Review of Reviews. 



THE CANADIAN ELECTIONS EXPLAINED 



Ey a Canadian Journalist. 



Mr. J. A. Macdonalu, editor of the Toronto 

 Globe, writes in the Contemporary Reviac for Novem- 

 ber on the Canadian elections and afterwards. He 

 frankly confesses that the defeat of the Liberal 

 Government in Canada is quite the most surprising 

 of the year's surprises in the life of the oversea 

 Dominions. Any unprejudiced onlooker would have 

 said that the Government could not but be returned, 

 and probably with an increased majority. The 

 economic argument was all on the Liberal side. 

 But:— 



THE TRUE INWARDNESS. 



The truth is, the most potent factor in the election was not 

 the economic argument, or the commercial advantage which 

 reciprocity in natural products would have brought, but the 

 vague prejudice against the United .States, the distrust of the 

 sincerity of American politicians, and the uneasy fear that freer 

 trade relations might in some way lead to closer political con- 

 nection. It was sentiment and not reason, fear and not argu- 

 ment, that tipped the scale against reciprocity. For many 

 } years there has been in the sub-consciousness of Canada a 

 resentment at the open disregard of Canadian interests mani- 

 fested by the United States in every amendment of the American 

 tariff. Prohibitive tariffs on the natural products of Canada 

 destroyed Canadian tr.ade and greatly hampered Canadian 

 development. The McKinley tariff of 1S90 was tlioroughly 

 bad. The Dingley tariff of 1897 was still worse. The Payne- 

 Aldrich tarilf of 1909, which affected to be moderate, proved 

 as disappointing to Canadians as to the Insurgents in the 

 United States. 



Back of all this was the unforgotten grievance of Canada 

 against the United States, in which Britain also was ir-'-lved, 

 because of the settlement of international boundary disputes. 

 The last of these was the Al.isUa boundary question, with which 

 the name of I,ord .■\lvcrstone is associated, in the unsalisfi.-d 

 recollections of the Canadian people. That old sense of having 

 been given the worst of every bargain was revived and made 



" Mortgaging the Homestead." 



A typical cartcon (from the 'J'oronto Evening Telcgyam) 

 showing the appeal to .■\nti-.\merican prejudices. 



acute when a new bargain was proposed. At hundreds of 

 popular summer resorts in Canada, where Americans congregate 

 in large numbers, the flaunting of the Stars and Stripes, in 

 disregard of the etiquette .of flags, has made much more wide- 

 sjiread the dislike of American ways. 



Consequently : — 



The economic argument was almost wholly abandoned by 

 the Opposition campaigners. .Vppeal was made — sometimes 

 made in dangerous terms— to the smouldering anti-American 

 prejudices. The Union Jack was waved as against the fear of 

 the Stars and Stripes. To argue against such an appeal, or to 

 try to reason with the emotion it aroused, was as vain and 

 futile as to rebuke a London fog. Especially true was this of 

 thousands of recent arrivals from Britain, who were registered 

 as manhood franchise voters, and were stampeded into "voting 

 for the old flag." 



Mr. Macdonald declares that the appeal was 

 irrelevant, and the fear of annexation absurd. But 

 they were used by protected manufacturers who were 

 afraid that Free 'I'rade in some directions would lead 

 to demands for freer trade in all commodities. 



CANADA MUST^ FIND MARKETS IN A.MERKA. 



Mr. Macdonald has some very straight words to 

 utter on the fancy that the LTnited States is not the 

 best market for the surplus products of Canada. For, 

 he says, the surplus products of Canada, for which a 

 market must be found, will very soon exceed the 

 demands of Britain : — 



In less than five years Canada will have more wheat for export 

 than the entire British market will require. Sir William 

 Whyte, the well-informed and thoroughly reliable vice-presi- 

 dent of the Canadian Pacific Railway Coitipany, is authority 

 for the statement that in less than ten years the province of 

 Saskatchewan alone — only one of the three wheat-growing pro- 

 vinces of Western Canada — will produce more wheat than the 

 entire United States. 



Other markets than Canada and Britain must be 

 found for the output of Canada's wheatlands, and the 

 best other market is the United States. On ihe 

 question of British preference Mr. Macdonald says 

 the Canadian farmers, whose skill and toil produce 

 the excess of products for which markets are sought, 

 ask for no preference. All they desire is improved 

 transportation facilities and equal markets with all 

 the world. To the suggestion that the new GDVcrn- 

 nient of Canada should join hands with the C h imher- 

 lain propaganda in Britain and make IniperiJ tariffs 

 and preferences a real issue in British politics, Mr. 

 Macdonald pertinently answers : — 



It docs not require much discernment to forecast the answer 

 to such a propusal. No tr.rde Imperialist has yet made clear 

 how Britain cm carry on an export trade without an import 

 cargo ; or how Britain can shift her import trade from foreign 

 countries to Canada without also shifting her export trade ; or 

 how Britain can profit liy obstructing her trade with foreign 

 countries and keeping open markets for Can.ida's exports unless 

 Canada in turn keeps oiien markets for Britain's export.-- ; or 

 how Britain can justify free impurts of Canadian farm products 

 —the things Canada wants to export — to the injuiy of the 

 interests of the landowners and farmers of Britain, unless Canada 

 opens her doors to the free imports of Britain's factory products 

 — the things Britain wants to export- in open comi)ctiiion with 

 Ihe now protected manufacturers of Canada ; or how there can 

 be a binding of the empire by tariffs and preferences without 

 selfish bargainings among the interests involved miless there is 

 as a basis c-omplete freedom of tr.ide within the Empire. 



