Fred Payton Prince Albert Historical Society As the electors of the Prince Albert constituency prepare to head to the polls next week, I thought it might be interesting to look back to the three times local electors were required to cast their ballots in federal elections in 1925 and 1926. The first of these elections occurred on October 29th, 1925. There was really little of significance with respect to this election. The incumbent, Andrew Knox, who had been elected in the two previous elections as the Progressive party candidate, was once again to carry their banner in this election. The Conservatives would be represented by John Diefenbaker, while the Liberal candidate would be Charles McDonald, a former city alderman and two-time member of the Legislative Assembly. Not surprisingly, although Diefenbaker received more votes from the city polls, McDonald displayed the strength which had powered him in the provincial elections. He received more votes in total than Diefenbaker and Knox put together. Nationally, the general election in 1925 had left the Liberal party with 101 seats, fifteen fewer than the number won by the Conservatives. With support from the Progressives (24 seats), Labour (2 seats) and 2 Independent candidates, the Liberals managed to cling to power, having convinced the Governor-General, Lord Byng, that they would be able to form government. Locally, however, the aftermath of the election was very significant. The leader of the federal Liberal party, William Lyon MacKenzie King, went down to defeat in his constituency of York-North. This meant that the leader of the party did not have a seat in the House of Commons. Charles McDonald and the executive of the Prince Albert Liberal association weighed the merits and concluded that if King would be willing to agree to their requests, McDonald would resign his seat and allow MacKenzie King to run locally. (One of these requests was that the Prince Albert area be guaranteed the National Park which they had been denied thus far by the federal government.) Officially, McDonald justified his decision to step down based on the speech from the throne in which the newly elected government indicated that they would move quickly ahead on the completion of the Hudson Bay railway, something which had been long desired by both local residents and area farmers. King agreed to the requests of the local Liberal executive, McDonald resigned his seat, and a by-election was called for February 15th, 1926. The local Conservatives, after deliberating the matter, chose not to contest the election, while the Progressives made it clear that they would support the Liberals in the House of Commons and in the by-election. However, some individual Conservatives and some individual Progressives were unwilling to see an acclamation, and a local farmer, D.L. Burgess, was nominated as an Independent candidate. King won the by-election with an overall vote of 7,925 votes to 2,299 votes. Following his success in the February by-election, King took his seat in the House of Commons on March 15th, 1926. An article in the Daily Herald indicated that “pages and pages of unanswered questions have piled up on the order paper, and more than a hundred different questions, it is understood, will be answered this afternoon.” It was expected to be a day “without parallel”, given the number of questions on the order paper. For the time being, King was back in his familiar position, in control of the Government of Canada. It was not long, however, before King found things going “off the rails”. There was a scandal in the Ministry responsible for the Customs and Excise department. Three Liberals, three Conservatives, and a Progressive member were appointed to report to the House of Commons with respect to the scandal and, upon reporting to the House, the Conservatives moved a vote of censure against the Liberal government. MacKenzie King was determined to avoid a vote on the motion, and went to the Governor-General requesting that the House be dissolved and that an election be called. The Governor-General refused his request and asked the leader of the Conservative party, Arthur Meighan, to form a government. (The King/Byng crisis remains one of the most hotly discussed situations in Canadian politics and, to this date, whether or not the Governor-General’s decision was appropriate, or even legal, continues to be argued). Meighen formed government on June 29th, 1926, but it lasted only until July 2nd when his government was defeated. The people of Canada were once again going back to the polls for a second time within a year, and the electors of Prince Albert were returning to the polls for the third time within that year. With the defeat of the Conservatives, the front page headline in the July 2nd edition of the Prince Albert Daily Herald informed its readers that the “Local Political Bodies Will Act in Near Future”. Dr. Thomas Robertson, the president of the federal Liberal Association, stated that their executive would hold a meeting shortly in order to prepare for calling a nominating convention. Richard Mulcaster, the vice-president of the Conservative Association, noted that John Diefenbaker had been nominated in March, shortly after the February by-election, to once again be their candidate. He indicated that he expected that the party’s executive would meet shortly to discuss organising their campaign. The executive of the Progressives also indicated that a meeting would soon be called. On the 5th of July, the probability was that a Labour/Progressive candidate would be nominated to contest the Prince Albert constituency. Alderman Harry Davis’s name was suggested as a possible candidate. Davis worked as a car man for the CNR and was active in their union. Andrew Knox, a member of the Progressive party who had represented Prince Albert as its Member of Parliament twice before, indicated that he had no knowledge of any agreement by the Progressives to entertain an alliance with the Labour organization. A meeting of prominent Liberals occurred during the afternoon of July 6th to discuss the situation. No steps would be taken, however, until a constituency-wide convention was called and a candidate named. It was the next day, July 7th, that it was announced that MacKenzie King would be invited once again to stand for the party in Prince Albert. It was expected that he would accept the nomination. (King had also been asked to accept the nomination for the Liberal Party in his former seat of York-North, and would be considered as the possible candidate in Vancouver Centre). Should King refuse the Prince Albert nomination, there were other candidates being considered, including Charles McDonald, George Langley (a former Member of Parliament), and Harold Fraser. It did not take King long to reply to the offer of the local nomination. According to Harold Fraser, he indicated that, were he to be nominated, he would accept. A nominating convention for the Liberals would be called for July 20th. A well-attended meeting of the federal Conservative Association determined at a meeting on the evening of July 10th that they would formalize the candidacy of John Diefenbaker. All parts of the constituency were represented at the meeting, at which they also organised a Young Conservative club, and decided that their club rooms would be in the Manville Block. As of July 12th, there had been no decision made by the Progressive Party with respect to a local candidate. A meeting held the previous Saturday had informally discussed and decided that they would wait until after a meeting of the provincial executive, which was to be held on the forthcoming Saturday. On July 17th, the local Liberal Association met at the Memorial Hall to select the delegates to their Party’s nominating convention. The meeting was chaired by Dr. R.L. King, president of the federal association, and was addressed by Harold Fraser and J.E. Lussier. Thirty-two delegates were chosen, as well as 32 alternate delegates. The address by Mr. Lussier praised the unity between producers and consumers which the Liberal government had managed to achieve during their recent time in power. Mr. Fraser pointed out that Canadians wanted the Constitution to be adhered to. The Liberals’ nominating convention was held in a packed Orpheum Theatre with Dr. Thomas Robertson presiding, and the Honourable W.R. Motherwell as the featured speaker. MacKenzie King was not in attendance, but wired his acceptance of the nomination. As the leader of the federal party, he would be campaigning nation-wide, opening his campaign in Ottawa where he spoke about the “illegality” of the Governor-General’s decision and of Meighen’s dissolution of the House of Commons. He also spoke about the Customs scandal, and declared that a Royal Commission should be called to enquire into it. The local campaigns were well underway by July 24th. The Liberals opened their committee rooms on 1st Avenue West, in a building which is no longer existent. They later transferred their committee rooms to the old Royal Bank building (now the site of the Abrametz Law Office) on 1st Avenue West. The Conservatives had moved their committee rooms to the former Presbyterian church on 11th Street West. There was still no formal announcement of a candidate for the Progressive party. John Diefenbaker opened his campaign at a meeting at Wild Rose, and on July 28th he addressed a ‘big meeting” in Big River (reported to have been the biggest such meeting ever held there). He dealt briefly with the “real issues of the day”. Later that evening, he addressed a meeting of the Young Conservatives, and the next day spoke to meetings at Red Deer Hill and MacDowall. Given his success in the city during the February by-election, Diefenbaker concentrated his campaign in the rural areas. He spoke in Paddockwood, and at the nearby schools of Chesley and Dorothy. He also addressed meetings at Canwood, Duck Lake, Lily Plain, and Henribourg. Due to illness, he was unable to address a Conservative meeting at Wakaw, where he was represented by W. Franchuk and F.C. Cousins Using oratory that mesmerized court rooms, Diefenbaker entertained his audiences with attacks on the Liberal government. He stressed the Customs scandal which had occurred under King’s government, openly accusing them of allowing tax free alcohol to enter Canada to be consumed by Liberal cabinet ministers, and silk dresses to be worn by their wives. He claimed that, although the Liberals had dropped the tariffs on automobiles, they had increased it on farm machinery and clothing. He focused on old age pensions, tariff reforms, and promises made by the Liberals during campaigns but forgotten once they were in office. Diefenbaker closed off his campaign with a rally held in the Orpheum Theatre, where he claimed that it had been the Conservatives who had built the Hudson Bay Railway. With MacKenzie King busy campaigning on behalf of the Liberal Party nationally. the Honourable T.C. Davis spoke to the Young Liberals in Prince Albert on July 28th, and on July 29th the Liberals held a meeting in Wakaw, with Charles McDonald and Dr. R.G. Scott speaking. Other prominent local Liberals spoke at events, including Harold Fraser, Aime Besnard, Dr. Urich, J.E. Lussier, and George Ens. Like King, they tended to focus on the legality of the Governor-General’s decision in June, and the need for Canada to have a workable constitution. Like Diefenbaker, the Liberals held meetings in various rural communities, including Steep Creek, Shellbrook, and Lily Plain. King did spend a couple of days in the constituency, travelling to Marcelin, Prince Albert and Wakaw, as well as Rosthern on his way to Saskatoon. The meeting in Prince Albert, held in the Armouries, is reported to have been attended by approximately 2,000 people. Of interest is the fact that both parties had individuals give some speeches in French at locations where the French language was predominant, the Liberals more often than the Conservatives. Neither the Progressives nor Labour entered the election. The final result of the local election was William Lyon MacKenzie King as the winner, taking 8,933 votes, and John Diefenbaker with 4,838 votes. King expended $2,819.35, and Diefenbaker spent $1,603.80. fgpayton@sasktel.net