Mackenzie King will put up a smoke screen to hide the defection of the
West from historic Liberalism. He will insist that the Liberals want
only a reasonable tariff for revenue while the Government want
protection--when Heaven knows each of them wants substantially the same
thing in opposition to the farmer who wants everything. He will point
with confident pride to the solid Liberal _bloc_ Quebec, when he knows
Quebec is dominated by Lapointe who can demand from him just what he
wants as the price of Quebec's solidarity; and he knows equally well
that Quebec is as much opposed to continentalism as the
Liberal-Conservative Government can ever be. The man who wears the
mantle of Laurier without his Orphean magic cannot lead Quebec.
However, Mackenzie King was put where he is to lead, and he intends to
keep on doing it. If he can regulate a few of his enthusiasms and so
adjust his personality as to make Liberalism as led by him powerful
enough to be the dog that wags the Agrarian tail, he should be set down
as one of the most remarkable men in the history of Canadian politics.
He legitimately chuckles over Quebec. One can fancy him matching that
race-group against the Agrarian _bloc_ and the Government industrial
centres group, and saying to himself:
"Labour may lop a few from the Government; Michael Clark a few from the
farmers--enough to make my friend Mr. Crerar a most excellent colleague
in my Coalition. Excellent fellow, Crerar!"
A low-tariff group, of whom 75 per cent. are Quebeckers, amalgamated
with a no-tariff group who are near-Continentalists, is at least
entitled to serious regard as a fantastic experiment in administration.
But we may trust Hon. Mackenzie King to simulate a vast moving-picture
smile of high benevolence and great sagacity as he contemplates such a
fantasia--with himself as the chief tight-rope performer and Niagara
roaring below.