Butt & Rebutt

Ten p. m., eleven p. m. and midnight were the hours at which Canada's bachelor rivals for the Prime Ministry made their final campaign speeches one night last week. Bachelor William Lyon MacKenzie King (Liberal) who has been Prime Minister almost uninterruptedly since 1921 spoke at 11 p.m., had the middle word. The first and the last words of the evening were had by Bachelor Richard Bedford Bennett (Conservative) who had never been Prime Minister, ached to be.

The national issue, everyone admitted, was Conservative "Exclusion Tariffs" v. Liberal "Countervailing Duties" (TIME, July 28), both these schemes being partially booby traps for Canadian patriotism, partially panaceas for Canadian unemployment.

As usual the election was lively: one death (Citizen Albert Dauphinais, 56, of Joliette, killed in an election argument with Citizen Edmund Hottain, 33), plus 20 arrests in Montreal, plus a little wire-cutting by Conservative enthusiasts who thus interrupted Liberal broadcasts.

Candidates King and Bennett remained at Ottawa to await the returns. Premier King's Cabinet ministers, however, went to their homes to vote, to impress their constituencies. Three considered themselves re-elected according to early vote totaliza-tions--Col. J. L. Ralston (National Defense), M. D. Euler (National Revenue), P. J. A. Cardin (Marine). Three of their colleagues quickly conceded defeat-- Cyrus MacMillan (Fisheries), T. A. Crearer (Railways), W. F. Kaye (without portfolio).

In Montreal a sudden, violent electric storm halted telegraph and telephone service election night and drenched bulletin board watchers. As they rushed for home they knew that Quebec, normally Liberal, had given Conservatives at least 16 seats, that Conservatives had ten and Liberals one of New Brunswick's eleven seats, that Prince Edward Island voted three Conservatives and one Liberal into office. It appeared certain that Mr. Bennett's Conservatives had given him a majority of Parliament's 245 seats. Mr. King had perhaps 100. The minor parties had negligible counts. The Liberal-Progressives seemingly had broken up.

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