The Union of Electors, Only Strong Social Credit Movement

This is written to counteract the false impression possibly created by a statement widely diffused by the Canadian Press and in which undue importance was given to a small group of dissidents in Quebec.

The Canadian Press, always open to information, whether substantiated or just inflated, when it bears with it an electoral smell, has been prompt to diffuse throughout Canada a statement issued by Gilles Gregoire, concerning a so-called rally of the Social Crediters of Quebec.

In fact, the matter amounts to nothing but the noisy desertion of some discontented men from the ranks of the only genuine and only strong Social Credit movement in French Canada. But this in itself was a sufficient motive to induce the newspapers, whose hostility to Social Credit is well known, to display the statement as big news under three-column headings. It would contribute to cast confusion among the many Social Crediters who saw in the Union of Electors the Canadian group more closely faithful to the political views of the founder of Social Credit, the late Scottish engineer, Major C. H. Douglas.

The Union of Electors, founded and guided by the Institute of Political Action and its bi-monthly French organ "Vers Demain" now achieving its 19^th year of publication, and its English monthly "The Union of Electors" of more recent foundation, has gradually, and now definitely abandoned the electoral field. It concentrates on educational activities along Social Credit lines, and fosters pressure politics to seek results from elected bodies at all levels and of whatever party.

This decision has met the favour of all active members of the movement. It has also been acquiesced to by the bulk of Social Crediters won over to Douglas' doctrine by the work and publications of the Institute of Political Action. A handful of election-minded men from among them, however, refused to accept this policy, and preferred to pin their faith to the federal Social Credit party which failed so lamentably at the polls this year after 23 years of electioneering always amounting to meagre results.

Instead of nailing the cover on the coffin in which the party was laid on March 31, last, this small body of Quebec individuals. choose to lose their time and efforts in attempting to resurrect the corpse. These efforts have consisted mainly, with little success, to divert members of the Union of Electors, to follow them in their adventure. And thus, despite the name they have assumed, their undertaking has all the characteristics of a schism and none of a rally. Their only realization so far was the election of a provincial staff of officers, on May 4, in a much advertised meeting which brought less than 40 persons, several being there through mere curiosity. They anxiously look for local or regional officers in some districts but of followers they find few.

This so-called rally has nothing in hand but its bitterness against the leaders of the Institute of Political Action. It tries to gather funds, with a view to buying time on the radio and television. With no paper of their own, they play big to get their statements published by the press. This publicity feature is assumed by Gilles Grégoire, of Quebec, who must not be mistaken for Mr. J.-Ernest Grégoire, also of Quebec. The latter, Mr. Ernest Gregoire, a distinguished lawyer and university professor, and an eminent figure in the Social Credit movement, is a director of the Institute of Political Action and stands firmly for the policy of the Union of Electors. Whereas Gilles Grégoire, with only occasional lip service to Social Credit, has not contributed an iota to build up the big body of Social Crediters of French Canada. He can be no spokesman for them, and his statements are just make-believe and puffs of wind.

In the words of Major Douglas, Social Credit would mean giving birth to a new civilization, something which extends far beyond the bounds of a change in the financial system. It would enable the human community to step out of one type of civilization into another, with an absolute economic security as the first requirement.

A change of this scope cannot be the result of an election. It can only come after a general assent by the citizens forming the community. And this can only be the fruit of educational activities, not of a ballot-box race.

The Social Credit movement led by the Institute of Political Action is as strong as ever. Through its paper, the Institute reaches an average of 60,000 families twice a month. Hundreds of volunteers give freely of their time to maintain this circulation. The Institute has a staff of full-time men and women, of whom more than a dozen are constantly on the roads through the provinces of Canada, from the Atlantic coast to the Rockies. Two of them have even been sent over to Europe for a six month mission in France, where they diffuse the literature edited by the Institute of Political Action.

Among its many activities, the Institute organizes an annual popular Congress, always gathering thousands of Social Crediters. The Congress this year, the 20^th in the history of the movement, will for the first-time be held outside the province of Quebec, in New-Brunswick, at St. Basile, near Edmundston, and will be marked by the presence of official representatives of the government of New-Brunswick.