"Don't you think that in order to avoid political devastation by
splitting the vote into three opposition groups each fighting the
other, it is the immediate business of the two historic parties to
unite against all parties of experiment, especially against the
emancipating fanner?"
He gave this evasive but shrewd reply:
"I am a lifelong Liberal. I have been in the habit of reading
newspapers on both sides of politics. I am now driven to take the
Conservative organ for my daily political food."
I commend that answer to Hon. Mackenzie King. If the Liberal leader is
now as anxious to serve the nation of his birth as he was when he twice
refused large salaries and comparative ease for the sake of continuing
to do Canada's work, would it be high treason either to himself or to
his party to call a Liberal convention out of which he would father a
resolution of federation of historic parties based upon such a
compromise as Macdonald created in the federation of provinces?