Showdown Election

Across a land where mild, springlike days were beginning to soften winter's deep freeze--and where a business slump has thrown more men out of work than in any other year since World War II--Canadians for the second time in a year are about to choose a new government. Bidding for a stronger mandate, after only nine months in office, is Tory Prime Minister John George Diefenbaker, 62. His leading challenger in the March 31 election: Liberal Leader Lester Bowles ("Mike") Pearson, 60, longtime Secretary of State for External Affairs in a government that ruled Canada for 22 years up to last June.

Divided House. Last year's election ended indecisively when none of the four national parties gained a clear majority of seats in the House of Commons; as leader of the largest group (112 of 265 members), Diefenbaker was invited to form the new government. He brought in legislation to implement his major campaign promises--tax cuts, aid to farmers, higher social-security benefits--saw most of it adopted with the reluctant consent of the opposition parties, finally called for a new election that might give his party a firm majority.

In a nation accustomed to decorous politics, Diefenbaker is staging a dramatically different campaign. A onetime top criminal lawyer with a flair for courtroom oratory, he is barnstorming the country, pulling in big demonstrative audiences. Standing before giant-sized portraits of himself, blue eyes blazing, he heaps scorn on his political opponents ("they talked; we acted"), blames Liberal policies for Canada's recession, promises a huge public-works program. With occasional overtones of Yankee-baiting, he sweepingly blames the farm recession on the dumping of U.S. surpluses, calls for the creation of new industries to process Canadian raw materials instead of "exporting them to make jobs for Americans."

Professor in Politics. Liberal Pearson, history professor turned politician, winner of a 1957 Nobel Peace Prize, makes no effort to match the Prime Minister's give-'em-hell speeches. In matter-of-fact tones, he maintains that the recession would have overtaken any government in power, calls for an immediate $400 million tax cut--rather than a slow-motion public-works plan--to pep up the economy.

To win a clear majority, Diefenbaker needs to score major gains in the key province of Quebec, which last year elected only nine Tories among its 75 M.P.s. In this aim, he seems to have the quiet cooperation of Quebec's powerful Premier Maurice Duplessis, who never liked the Liberals even when they were led by French Canada's own Louis St. Laurent, former Prime Minister, who retired in January.

Diefenbaker's crowd-compelling, headline-snaring campaign has seemingly given his Tories a running start to victory. The latest precampaign Gallup poll rated them the favorites of 50% of the voters who had made up their minds, v. 35% for the Liberals, 15% for the two minor parties.

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