Mon Homme

Svelte, brunette Fiorenza Drew is the kind of helpmeet ambitious politicians pray for. An attractive mother of two, and one of Canada's best-dressed women, she is as handy before a microphone as she is before the kitchen range. Last week when her husband, new Progressive Conservative Leader George Drew, set out to stump for himself and his party, Fiorenza, as usual, went along. They tackled Quebec first, a province where the party is weak and where a lot of selling needs to be done. Fiorenza pitched in.

George Drew can't speak French, but Fiorenza can and does. At a cocktail party for the Montreal press, and later at a banquet and reception in the Windsor Hotel, she referred to George as mon homme. The things the Drew family hold dear, she told her audience in her fearless French. "are shared by countless Canadians who want to build an even greater country for their children." That sort of talk stirred the 1,700 men & women packed in the Windsor's ballroom and Peacock Alley to sing the jaunty Vive la Canadienne in her honor.

They also liked what George Drew had to say in English. In autonomy-minded Quebec, he had picked just the right topic: provincial rights. "Our Canadian unity depends on respect for the rights of the individual provinces," he cried. "The province of Quebec has special reasons for insisting on the sanctity of the British North America Act--the preservation of its language, civil law, religious rights and customs." These, said George (amid cheers) "must not be disturbed if we are to have true national unity in Canada." He accused the Liberals of overtaxing "by nearly a billion dollars this year," confidently added, "I don't believe the Liberal Party has a chance in the next election . . . We shall carry Canada forward to its great destiny."

This week, before setting out to win friends in the Maritimes, the Drews stopped off in Ottawa to settle the business of George's seat in Parliament. A safe one was found: the Ottawa south riding of Carleton, where Tory Russel Boucher agreed to step down. In 25 elections Carleton has returned Tories 25 times, including Prime Ministers Sir John A. Macdonald and Sir Robert Borden. The Drews could take that record as a good omen.

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