Canada: POLITICS: Walkaway

From the start, everyone knew that the federal by-election in New Brunswick’s York-Sunbury riding was one to watch. It would be a gauge of public feeling on such close-to-home issues as the rising cost of living. It was also an election in which the Liberal Government’s newly appointed Fisheries Minister Milton Fowler Gregg was seeking his seat in Parliament. Yet York-Sunbury was no Liberal pushover: the Liberals had been able to capture it only twice (1935 and 1945) in 33 years. Furthermore, for the first time in the riding’s history, the ambitious young socialist CCF Party, which polled only 1,674 votes out of 22,644 cast in 1945, was trying to make more than a token race.

The riding’s 29,000 registered voters had a choice of heroes. Gregg was a V.C. winner in World War I, a brigadier in War II. The Tory candidate, Ernest William Sansom, was a War II lieutenant general. The CCF candidate, 24-year-old Douglas MacMurray Young, a student at the University of New Brunswick, was a War II R.C.A.F. corporal.

As the campaign wore on, and the CCF played to packed rallies, it began to look as if the socialists would be a major factor—by drawing votes from the old-line parties. But in the end, York-Sunbury was less interested in political ideologies than in having a Cabinet minister in Ottawa.

The victory of Liberal Milton Gregg was a walkaway. Of more significance was the defeat of the Tories. Though they had no trouble finishing second, it was their third defeat in their three most recent tries.

Gallup pollsters reported that if a federal election were held now, the Liberals would get 43% of the popular vote (they got 41% in the 1945 election); Tories 28% (29% in 1945); CCF 16% (15%); other parties 13% (15%).