By BEN TAUBE
(Copyright, 1962,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.)
MONTREAL—Ever since the
June federal election, Cana-
dians have had a constant half-
thought about a nasty brown
and black skeleton in their po-
litical closet. The uncertain
vote result placed something
like balance of power in the
suddenly revived Social Credit
Party, and has sent observers
to their old files on this strange
group.
In the western province of
Alberta, a mixture of funda-
mentalist religion and Social
Credit promises of regular free
checks for everybody brought
the party to power, and it has
stayed in power during the
decades. At first a half-hearted
move was made to implement
the promises of the creed, but
a high court ruling mercifully
labeled them ultra vires, and
relieved the provincial party of
the need to keep their promises.
The return of normal times,
the discovery of oil and the
easy forgetting of ancient theo-
ries removed the old revolu-
tionary aura off western Social
Credit, and gave it the appear-
ance of just another conserva-
tive party. The same is true of
theBritish Columbia Social
Credi
t, which also attained
power.
In eastern Canada, in Que.
bee and in Ontario, the So-
cial Creditors from the begin-
ning were a different sort of
party; or rather parties, be-
cause of the intense diffe-
rences among themselves.
Here there was no question
of responsibility of power, but
only of the propagation of
some form of a gospel. The
Preaching was intense, con-
versionist, full-blooded. Social
Credit colors and beret uni-
forms became a minor feature
of the Quebec scene; its devo-
tees developed cadres all
their own, bought and sold
quotas of preachy pamphlets
and subscriptions to their
Magazines. This f a i t h in-
cluded so much anti-Semitism
that the official organ . pub-
lished the Protocols of the
Elders of Zion serially. Party
literature was studded . with
meaningful references to
Jews, Zionists, international
bankers with Hebrew names,
long-nosed financiers, com-
munistic masons and other
enemies of their particular
faith.
seriously regarded that, at one gether with. corporatism, bloc
stage, the very _ official and populaire, and Adrien Arcand's
ultra-respectable Liberal Party Christian Unity Party.
allied with them in an unsuc-
N. Caouette believes that
cessful effort to topple the having Hitler for a hero will
Duplessis government. After not hinder him in winning and
that failure, there was a gen- holding the support of the peo-
eral tendency among the wiser ple of Quebec, and M. Caouette
and more practical politicians has proven a better judge of
to forget about the Social Cred- the people's views than his
itors who were apparently set- critics.
tling down to a greater mild-
ness and respectability, and in- The Critics and the Retort
The critics, his political op-
cidentally put aside their old
anti-Semitic creed, out of date ponents, brought his bold state-
in Quebec as elsewhere in ment to public attention and
condemned it utterly. The sen-
Canada.
timents of L. B. Pearson, the
`Fantastic' Surprise
Liberal leader who is practically
Came the fantaStic surprise a Founding Father of the State
of the June elections. All who of Israel, are easy to imagine.
bet on the election lost; all who Prime Minister Diefenbaker,
put their money on the victory himself a proven friend of
of either the Liberal or the Israel and of Jewry, was prob-
Conservative Party. Nor did ably no less incensed. T h e i r
the new Socialist Party win. motivation was not only parti-
No one won, but Social Credit san. But Caouette, who knows
came out as the third and near- he is the creator of the Quebec
balance party, with 30 coveted party and of its parliamentary
seats. To heap surprise on sur- group, said only that he had
prise, these votes did not come been misunderstood; he meant
in the greatest measure from no more than did Kennedy
the Alberta or British Columbia when he congratulated the
strongholds of the party, but Russian cosmonauts.
from the key province of Que-
bec where—all unnoticed—they
walked away with nearly all the
rural seats. While no one had
paid any attention, a grass-roots
campaign, operated only where
grass has roots, convinced all
who have nothing (but votes)
to lose, to lose these votes
where the Social Creditors
could pick them up. They
picked up 27 seats in Quebec
out of 30 in the entire country.
So that not only is there a new
important party in Canada, but
that party has a new "co-
leadership" (to the surprise of
the old Alberta leadership) in
the person of a new man, Real
Caouette of Quebec. This takes
a lot of adjusting for all Cana-
dians and for all Social Cred-
itors in Canada.
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blamed the magazine for ascrib- 7
ing an out-of-context statement
to the entire movement.
At the Trois Rivieres party
convention from which, accord-
ing to observers, he emerged
even more clearly as the na-
tional leader, Caouette recalled
to his largely Catholic audience
that it had been Mussolini who
had given the Pope back his
freedom, and who had brought
religious instruction back into
Italian schools. The press re-
ported that "that seemed to
please the crowd immensely."
Which leaves Canadian Jews
wondering a little more anxious-
ly than ever.
JOHNNY LEBOW
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How to say Happy New Year in Hebrew:
Jews in particular need polit-
ical adjustment, especially
whenever the Quebec grass
roots put out blossoms. Cana-
dian Jews are little in touch
with the cultural and political
flora of Quebec, having centered
their political thinking on the
English - language parties of
Ottawa — and their cultural
orientation even further, on
New York. It requires an ef-
fort of the order of statesman-
ship for Jews in Montreal sud-
denly to think of Quebec Social
Credit as an important and real
Their efforts to attain power political party quite near to the
Were not successful ; although machinery and powers of gov-
their political weight was so ernment.
AUCTION!
But other Social Credit lead-
ers were even more careful not
to criticize their Quebec leader.
Alberta Social Creditor Thomp-
son, titular head of the national
organization, called the Que-
becker's statement personal,
without any connection with
the party. British Columbia's
Premier Bennett defended
Caouette's right of free speech,
and with a typical Canadian
sense of interprovincial under-
standing added: "You must not
look on French (i.e. French-
Canadian) politicians the sane
as English politicians — they
speak very quickly."
Alberta's Premier Manning
In such threatening situa-
tions, it is customary for the
newly powerful and for the
fearful populace to put into the
closet all previous extreme and
lunatic statements, and to as-
sume that a newly responsible
group will act with new respon-
sibility. So everybody waited
discreetly since June to see
what colors the chameleon-like
Social Credit will show in their
new role, and who will call the
tune of the tints.
In due time the answer
came. In an interview with
the national Maclean's Maga-
zine (in its new and influen-
tial French-language edition),
Monsieur Caouette made no
bones about calling Hitler
and Mussolini his political
heroes out of history. He said:
"I admire Mussolini as a
leader and I regret that he
was a Fascist. I admire in Hit-
ler his economic reforms and I
consider that he brought his
people out of misery. I regret
that he employed for war in-
stead of for peace the ideas
which he had."
The skeleton was out. Social
Credit at its point of greatest
power and influence had re-
called the old. loyalties, devo-
tions and measures of morality
which it had cultivated when it
came to birth in Quebec to-
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9 -- THE DETR OIT JEWISH NEWS — Frid ay, S eptember 21, 1962
Hitler, Mussolini Skeletons in Canadian Politics