Upset

Canada's powerful Liberals, 168-strong in Parliament v. the 50 seats of their Progressive Conservative challengers, went to elections with smug confidence. Just before the vote last week they canceled an advertising campaign, to save needless expense. But with the first returns, an astonishing trend set in. From half a dozen eastern constituencies that were long firmly Liberal came the flash: "Tories Leading." The Tory surge grew as it moved west. Quickly the last seat of the overwhelming Liberal majority fell, and the Liberals' 22-year rule over Canada came to an end. When final returns were in, the Conservative Party held 109 seats, the Liberal holdings were down to 104, and two small parties with 44 seats held the balance of power in Parliament.

"Isn't it a gorgeous turnover?'' cried a happy Tory housewife in Winnipeg. Canada's turn to the right was indeed a spectacular surprise. The secondary significance dawned more slowly. In a breakdown inherent in the parliamentary system, the Canadian voter had balanced his choice so nicely that the country was assured of a minority government. Canada faced the prospect of a temporarily paralyzed domestic and foreign policy, and another election within a year.

The victory was virtually a one-man win. Against advice, Tory Leader John Diefenbaker correctly sensed that Canada had had a bellyful of self-assured government too long in power. The pain affected even Liberals with a subtle death wish: many wanted their own party cut down for the good of the two-party system. A Liberal in Ottawa who voted Tory summed up a common Liberal reaction: "I never dreamed everybody else would do what I did!" Among the irritants was External Affairs Chief Lester Pearson's we-know-best refusal to answer the crowding questions about the suicide of Ambassador Herbert Norman in Egypt (see box). The voters saw in earnest John Diefenbaker a way to unload .the entrenched government. Riled at the Liberal assumption that only Liberals could competently rule, they decided that the time for a change had come.

By constitutional contention, Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent was left with two choices: to resign immediately, or to hang on and face a test in the House. A group of Liberal ministers, hopeful that the government could win small-party support, desperately tried to persuade him to stay on. But the aging (75) Prime Minister was resolved to resign and let John Diefenbaker become Prime Minister of Canada.

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