Sixth Term for King

The people were in a mood of leave-well-enough-alone. Hardly had the ballot-counting started in the Maritimes before it was evident that Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King would come out on top again. In politically potent Quebec, the Liberal Party's victory reached landslide proportions. Then Ontario, by not voting against the 70-year-old Prime Minister to the extent anticipated, made it a sure thing. Final returns, pouring in from the western provinces, simply decided the question of how really conclusive the victory would be.

It was by no means the resounding triumph that the canny, colorless Prime Minister had achieved in 1940, when his Liberal Party won 178 of the 245 House of Commons seats. The electorate, while approving King for a sixth term, took the opportunity to admonish him at the same time. He won a clear, overall majority, but it was by a thin margin. For that margin of victory he had old stand-by Quebec to thank. That French Canadian province, the Liberal Party's counterpart of the U.S. Democratic Party's "solid south," handed him most of its 65 seats.

To The Right. Mackenzie King's victory clearly marked a national trend to the right. The old-line Tories, now streamlined and updated as Progressive Conservatives, increased their parliamentary strength sizably (and their national leader, John Bracken, entered the House of Commons for the first time by winning, easily, in his constituency of Neepawa. Manitoba). Even more significant: the election left socialistic CCF losers scattered all over the map. A few months ago many an astute political observer, even among the old-line parties, was willing to concede that the CCF had a good chance of running a reputable second. It ran a dismal third. Plainly the people wanted no economic didoes, no flagrant change in the status quo. Only in Saskatchewan did the party make any sort of a showing--and in that CCF bastion a CCF success was a foregone conclusion. Elsewhere, the people voted as resoundingly for capitalism as they did for King.

The Prime Minister achieved a success even in the heart of Saskatchewan. Against strong CCF opposition, he won his own personal election in the remote riding of Prince Albert.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.