Candy Is Dandy

Until the kids got started, prices in Canada were like the weather--everybody talked about them, nobody did anything. But in the Vancouver Island sawmill town of Chemainus (pop. 1,753), the youngsters put their heads together. Instead of candy bars (up to 8-c- since the April 2 decontrol) they agreed to buy ice cream cones, which were still a nickel. Youngsters from eight to 18 picketed stores. "Don't be a sucker--don't buy eight-cent bars," their signs read. "Let the suckers pay eight cents--we won't."

The movement spread. In Victoria, 200 beardless demonstrators stormed the legislature building, entering noisily and irreverently by the gate reserved for the Governor General and Lieutenant Governor. "We want five-cent bars," they chanted. In several cities some stores hurriedly cut prices to five or six cents.

By last week the rebellion had reached clear to the Maritimes. In staid Ottawa, 500 Lisgar Collegiate Institute students paraded to Parliament in a driving, cold rain, waving soggy placards: "Candy is dandy, but eight cents ain't handy," and "We'll eat worms before we eat eight-cent chocolate bars." In Toronto and Montreal, demonstrations got tangled with the Communist-inclined National Federation of Labor Youth, which tried to take over. Dominion retailers were trapped between high wholesale prices and higher juvenile tempers.

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