Crisp & Cunning

The Prime Minister got up as casually as a man about to give his trousers a hitch. "I should like to make a statement on the winding up of [Parliament's] business," he said. As William Lyon Mackenzie King droned on, no one paid much attention. Then, suddenly, the Prime Minister stopped droning. Crisply, he read an announcement: "The Governor General ... is willing to approve ... a general election on June 11."

In an instant the chamber was a madhouse. Liberals leaped up to pound each other's backs, yell, whistle, bang desks.

Across the aisle, the Progressive Conservatives whooped and hollered, too--even though they had been caught flatfooted. When at last Progressive Conservative Opposition Leader Gordon Graydon could be heard, he said: "Well, Mr. Speaker, at last they have been forced to go to the country. . . . We shall be ready . . . to form the next Government."

The Prime Minister grinned at this lame bravado. Mr. King was entitled to a little self-satisfaction. His announcement had come just one day after Ontario had set June 11 as the date of its provincial election. The Pro-Cons are admittedly strong in Ontario; by making the two elections simultaneous, foxy Prime Minister King seemed to have blitzed their hopes that a Pro-Con triumph in Ontario would bolster the party's subsequent Federal balloting. The Toronto Globe & Mail called it "low political cunning." There was no denying the cunning.

But the cunning was capped. Ontario's Premier George A. Drew could be foxy too. This week he moved his election ahead a week--to June 4.

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