Vox Populi

A Norseman plane landed last week in the Albany River where it empties into bleak James Bay. A man carrying a sheaf of papers went ashore with the pilot and walked toward a line of unpainted shacks and squalid tents on-the river bank. Huskies, chained to stakes around every dwelling, set up a howl. Ragged Indian children left their baseball game on the muskeg to crowd around the strangers.

The man with the papers was Election Officer Lucien Guertin. He had come to Fort Albany from Cochrane, 220 miles to the south, to arrange for the voting in Ontario's June 7 provincial election. This was the first time since 1939 that Fort Albany's 36 eligible citizens had had a chance to vote. "Who are the candidates?" asked Father Jules Leguerrier, head of the Roman Catholic Mission.

Elsewhere in Ontario and in two other Canadian provinces, most voters were better informed than Father Leguerrier. Campaigns were already under way in Saskatchewan (election: June 24) and in New Brunswick (June 28). Quebec and Alberta citizens, promised an election this summer, were still waiting for their premiers to name the day.

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