CANADA: Solo Seaway

Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent flew to Washington last week to get President Harry Truman’s approval of Canada’s plans to go it alone in building the St. Lawrence seaway. After more than an hour’s discussion of the $300 million, all-Canadian route to carry ocean-going ships as far west as Detroit, St. Laurent emerged smiling from the President’s office. “We have agreed on a joint statement,” he told a group of newsmen in the White House lobby. One reporter asked whether the news would be good or bad. “Good,” said St. Laurent crisply. “We’re prepared to go ahead.”

Second Best. On its face the official statement scarcely bore out St. Laurent’s enthusiasm. Still missing was the formal presidential agreement which Canada needs before she can alter the levels of U.S.-Canadian boundary waters. But the communique did contain one meaningful commitment: “The President would support the Canadian action as second best if an early commencement of the joint development does not prove possible.”

Although the U.S. Congress has failed to act on the seaway for 20 years, Harry Truman still hopes to get congressional approval for a joint U.S.-Canadian project. By holding back from full approval of the all-Canadian route for the time being, he was, in effect, giving Congress a final chance to pass a seaway bill now or at the new session in January. If it is not approved by next spring, when the Canadians can begin the six-year job of digging their own channels, Truman presumably will accept the “second best.”

Power Deals. Canada’s announcement of her solo plans stirred up the dormant seaway debate on Capitol Hill. Backers of the joint plan called for Congress to act fast before the Canadians go ahead with a route on which U.S. ships will have to pay tolls. The anti-seaway forces still charged that the Canadians were bluffing. One lobbyist called St. Laurent’s visit “a propaganda maneuver.”

But St. Laurent has already developed Canada’s seaway project far beyond the propaganda stage. Before visiting Washington, he worked out an agreement with Ontario’s Premier Leslie Frost for sharing the cost of the $400 million power projects along the route.* On his way home, he stopped off in Quebec City to make a similar deal with Quebec Premier Maurice Duplessis. When Parliament opens next week, St. Laurent will have a complete plan for an all-Canadian seaway ready to lay before the House of Commons for speedy approval.

* If & when the seaway goes through, the U.S. and New York State governments must agree on sharing costs and ownership of power produced on the U.S. side.