The Budget Debate

The Budget Debate
Ottawa, May 9.
We are to have an election whether we want it or not. Roars of applause, and indistinguishable din of utterance greeted the Prime Minister's announcement. Excitement ran high. Here and there a member jumped to his feet, waving a blue book, or the white "Orders of the Day." A frenzy swept the House, and presented to the packed galleries a spectacle unparalleled since the memorable session of 1926. So prolonged was the sneering, so deaf the House to the Speaker's call for "Order", that it looked for a time as if it would be necessary to adjourn the House forthwith. The only section of the House that preserved its calm waa in the Southeast corner, where sit the Independent groups. Yet with all the apparent approval of the announcement the great majority of members did not want an election this year, and I believe the same could be said of the major part of the electors. Under our system the Prime Minister can announce an election when he will. Mr. Irving was the first speaker from the farmer's group. He emphasized that at last it was clear to everyone that there was no fundamental difference between the major parties on tariff. He reminded the House that Mr. Dunning and Mr. King in speaking in the West last year, pleaded for the unity of the low tariff forces. "Come with me," says Mr. King, "Into the ranks of the low tariff party." Yet in this Budget we have illustrations of protection gone mad. Possibly his best sentence was, "The Liberal Party has come out squarely for protection. It is the part of the irony of fate that it should have fallen to the lot of the first Western Minister of Finance to drop the cut flowers of British preference on the mangled corpse of free trade." The list of articles coming in free from Great Britain included cut flowers. The Prime Minister consulted Mr. Bennett and Mr. Gardiner regarding the possibility of hurrying the session through on the understanding that the revision of the Pensions Act, and the Canadian Grain Act and other slightly less important measures would be passed first. One can clearly see that no further serious work will be done by this Parliament. The announcement of the election has transferred all their interest to their constituencies. The remainder of the week has been dull and uneventful.
I greatly enjoyed addressing the teachers in training at the Norma! School on the work of the League as I observed it when attending the Assembly last September. They were exceedingly keen. Such groups of young people give one hope.
Sincerely,
AGNES C. MACPHAIL