The Power Issue

Canada's third political party, the socialistic Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, polled but 8% of the votes at the last general election, against 55% for Mackenzie King's Liberal party and 31% for the Conservatives. But the sands of Canadian political popularity have been shifting since the 1940 election. A recent poll, showed CCF strength up to 21%, against a dwindling 35% for the Liberals and a stationary 31% for the revamped Progressive-Conservatives. CCF demands have become important.

Last week in a convention at Montreal the CCF of militant Quebec Province adopted a resolution demanding public ownership of all power resources in Canada. The resolution singled out the controversial $106,000,000 Shipshaw development in the hinterlands of Quebec (world's largest power dam, with the possible exception of Boulder), as a "scandalous exploitation of Canadian resources," made it a leading argument for public ownership, a vital campaign issue in the next election. To steer clear of interference with the war program, CCF tempered its resolution to read "at the end of the war."

Tireless CCF Leader M. J. Coldwell has been more voluble and outspoken on this Shipshaw finance than on the question of public ownership. Already producing power and scheduled for completion in November, Shipshaw was under construction 15 months before its existence was revealed last January. The Aluminum Co. of Canada had financed it to the hilt from contracts on future aluminum deliveries signed with the U.S., Britain and Australia. Primarily, the dam was built to supply power for the war production of aluminum. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Jesse Jones advanced $68,500,000 in fund's of the Metals Reserve Co. Great Britain advanced $55,600,000, Australia $10,000,000. Canada contributed an excess-profits tax write-off of $154,500,000 to the project.

Coldwell charges that the Aluminum Co. of Canada will pay for the dam from its contracts by the close of the war, will come out with "a monopoly which will dominate electric-power resources and the production of aluminum on the American continent and to a large extent throughout the world." The method of finance, he contends, makes the project a "virtual gift" to the aluminum interests, and "the greatest financial grab ever pulled off in . . . Canada." Shipshaw, insists he, must be seized by the Province of Quebec.

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