Delayed Action

To British Columbia's Premier, red-cheeked Thomas Dufferin Patullo, last week's Provincial elections were supposed to be a mere matter of routine. His Liberal Party held a comfortable 31 seats of the 48 in the Legislature and there were no vital campaign issues. His foremost rivals, the Conservatives and the socialistic Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, were stumping the Province with only formal eloquence, with little to talk about. It looked like the quietest election since the Liberals took control in 1933.

When the returns began to come in Premier Patullo could not believe his eyes. Barely re-elected himself, he saw his Party's membership in the Legislature whittled to 21 seats. The Conservatives took twelve, while the C.C.F., doubling its strength, came up with 14. The remaining seat was held by the Province's one perennial Labor member, Tom Uphill from the coal mines of East Kootenay.

The reason for the upset was not far to seek. It went back to last winter, when Patullo and the Premiers of the other eight Provinces journeyed to Ottawa at the invitation of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King. The Prime Minister wanted the Premiers to agree to a more rational economic setup for the Dominion, to reconstruct and centralize tax powers. Because his free-spending administration did not want to give up a smidgen of tax power, Premier Patullo attacked the plan. With the aid of Ontario's windy Mitch Hepburn and Alberta's William ("Bible Bill") Aberhart, he sank it. What the Premier did not realize was that he had also sunk himself politically, by delayed action.

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