Canada: Liberal Rebellion

Ten grim and resolute Liberal members of the House of Commons strode belligerently into a big office on the second floor of Ottawa’s East Block. There, before a full-dress meeting of the Cabinet, they shook an angry finger at the men who govern Canada.

What had aroused them was the 300% increase in Canada’s tariff on seamless steel boiler tubing, which had been belatedly discovered (TIME, Nov. 5) in Canada’s new budget. They reminded the Cabinet that those increases, perhaps petty in themselves, were indefensible in view of the Liberal Government’s repeated declarations favoring free trade.

The Cabinet tried to explain why the tubing tariff had been increased: the Government was seeking merely to protect an industry which had grown up during the war. When they had heard the Cabinet’s explanation, the delegation warned the Government that unless the new tariff increases were promptly rescinded, they would vote against the budget.

In a House of Commons where the Government has only 126 seats against 119 for the combined Opposition, such an event would be extremely hazardous. The Cabinet could allow the intraparty fight to flare on the floor of the House of Commons, and risk defeat. Or it could cancel the tariff increases. Neither alternative was sweet.