An Election Period Experiment by Montreal Social Crediters

Social Crediters do not pin their faith on the outcome of the ballot box. They do not consider "authority" as being the product of numbers or the addition of material things. They rightly hold that a truth or a lie is no less a truth or a lie, whether upheld by a single individual or by a million followers.

Social Crediters also question the genuineness of a democratic system which never gives the people a chance to vote on a definite policy, but boils down to the privilege of deciding by a majority vote which of the candidates parading before the public for a few days will govern and tax them. This is surely one of the reasons why a large percentage of voters do not even care to exercise their franchise.

However, remaining aloof will correct nothing. Social Crediters may be well inspired to seek some means of making up for a deficiency, and bring to the fore some concrete policies, at a time when the politician's ear is more attentive and the channels of publicity more accessible.

On the occasion of the municipal election in Montreal, 25th of October last, the Social Crediters of this large city (more than a million population) decided to do something of their own along that line.

In every electoral campaign, it is customary for candidates to hold public meetings, even if such meetings are scantily attended. These meetings are organized by the candidate's organization, and the electors are invited to come and hear what the candidate chooses to say, on such subjects as he chooses to deal with.

Montreal Social Crediters reversed the process. They themselves, as electors, called and organized meeting, without the hand or the money of any one candidate's committee. They retained to that effect the big hall of St. James' Market, to the astonishment of those "in the know" who felt sure that no meeting in a municipal election would need even half that size.

Then, Social Crediters invited all candidates, either to the mayoralty or to councillors' seats, to come, all on the same platform, to listen to specific demands of the electors and state what they intended to do about these demands if elected to office. The formulated demands were sent to each candidate along with the invitation, to give him time to think them over. He was also afforded the alternative, in case he could not possibly attend, to send his written answer in time for communication to the assembly.

Nine candidates were running for mayoralty. A personal invitation was sent to eight of them, the communist candidate being discarded prima facie. Six of the eight candidates thus invited answered and were present — which is indicative of the importance now recognized to the Social Credit element of the population. About sixty candidates to councillors' seats also answered, in writing or verbally.

The 1,200 seats in the hall were filled to the last one, and many were standing in the rear of the hall and in the vestibule. This made it the largest meeting held anywhere in the city during the electoral campaign — and that also was indicative of the force of the Social Credit movement.

Social Crediters declared to the candidates that they did by no means disinterest themselves from number of questions affecting the life of the city and dealt with by the candidates at their own meetings. But this particular meeting being called by Social Credit electors, specifically Social Credit demands were placed there before the candidates, none of these demands, however, being in the least adverse to the interests of the community as a whole, or even of any section of the community. And they ran in four paragraphs:

1. That Social Crediters be left entirely free, at all times, to exert their activities in any part of the city as long as they did not cause any disorder:

2. That henceforth, not a single dollar be borrowed from foreign institutions to finance the city's development, when labor, machines and materials for them are found at home;

3. That, until the time when the implementation of Social Credit permits the abolition of the present taxation system, not a single new tax or increase in the running taxes and rates be imposed by the city administrators;

4. That the candidate, if elected, will support, personally by public statements, and officially in a motion to be passed by a vote of the municipal council, a demand to the Government of Quebec to establish a Social Credit financial system in the province, and the same demand to the Government of Ottawa to do it for the whole of Canada.

Mr. Jean Drapeau, who was to be a few days later the elected Mayor of Montreal, took the demands one after the other, emphatically giving his full assent to the first three. The fourth, however he declined, on the ground that a Mayor must be a non-party man in the discharge of his function. He undoubtedly considered the Social Credit movement as a drive to power — which it is not, as led by the Institute of Political Action. Unfortunately the existence of a political party under that Label at Ottawa and in some Western provinces, causes the confusion.

The other candidates also showed their sympathy towards Social Crediters and their demands.

Social Crediters did not expect as yet an affirmative answer to the fourth demand. They did not even expect the candidates to be so committal as they have been against foreign loans and increase in rates.

The organizers of this meeting "new style" may surely be satisfied. The announcement of the presence of competitors on the same tribune attracted considerable interest: several dailies sent their reporters and cameramen.

The contact established between Social Crediters and city hall men has already produced concrete beneficial effect to facilitate the work of Social Credit propagandists in Montreal. Not a single public statement offensive to Social Credit has been heard on the part of elected or defeated candidates, either then or since that day.

This experiment will also be useful to the orientation of our movement in future elections, provincial and federal as well, with of course improvements according to the degree of advancement of the cause in the various constituencies.

This photo shows two of the candidates to Mayoralty in the Montreal election of October 24. They meet on the same platform at the Social Crediters' mass meeting in the St. James Market Hall. Mr. JEAN DRAPEAU (left) shakes hands with a competitor, Mr. ADHEMAR RAYNAULT. Four days later, Mr. Drapeau was elected by an unprecedented majority in the history of the city. However, Mr. Raynault, himself a former Mayor, come first among the other candidates.