The specific purpose of an election is to decide who will represent each constituency in the next Parliament; and, which outfit will be in power, which outfit in the opposition.
The Union of Electors takes a mild interest in the game. The place of the Union of Electors is with the electors, not in Parliament. It is far more interested in how the people will fare than in who will occupy seats in the House of Commons.
However, we think the people should have a chance to make their voice heard through the tumult, even if only to remind the candidates that the business of a representative is to carry the will of his constituents, not to impose his own to speak for the people, not for a party.
The electors hear enough of the parties' programs, of the candidates' programs. But should it not be the other way? Should not the candidates seek the people's program, since they apply for a mandate from the people?
The great problem, common to all individuals, to all families, to all institutions, to all public bodies is undeniably the financial problem — which should be non-existent when there is no material difficulty in producing the things wanted by individuals, families or public bodies? The front page of this issue focuses the light on this evil and calls upon the government to bring it to an end.
We here ask all candidates in the present election to forget for a time their own or their party's program, and listen to a simple program in three points by the Union of Electors. This, we feel, meets the demands of the people; and we expect the candidates, their organisers and their leaders to make clear their stands on these points:
1. To double the rates of the family allowances, the prices of the staple goods needed by children having doubled since their institution:
This is the only social measure which has not been adjusted to meet the rise in the cost of living during the past thirteen years. This is an injustice to families which have children to rear — an injustice which must be rectified at the very beginning of the next session of Parliament.
2. To make financially possible whatever is materially feasible in order to meet the public and private needs of the people:
The Bank of Canada should advance, without interest, the credits necessary to finance public institutions, instead of obliging these bodies to tax the population in order to pay to private finance companies the interest on the cost of those developments carried out by the people themselves. Then, the government should abolish the income tax, leaving to the individual his money for the purpose of buying the products which Canada can very easily furnish along with public services.
3. To distribute a periodic dividend to each citizen, over and above what he may or may not be able to earn by other means.
This is the Social Credit solution to unemployment in contrast to the socialist plan which would hire everyone out to the state to work on public projects. The dividend is the best means of adequately distributing the abundance of modern production and of changing unemployment, which impoverishes, into true leisure which enriches.