The Ontario Scrapbook Hansard

Ontario Scrapbook Hansard, 17 Feb 1926, p. 4

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*au # No such situation, he coutended, | ever before existed in the 1'rnvlnce,! and he doubted if such a situation j ever before cxisted in any Leogisia-- ture under British law. MWhy not, he said, allow the Prime Minister to . do the whole thing, "a la Musso-- : ' lini'"'? Because, Mr. Raney went on,' | under the system that has developed | in Ontario during the past two or: !throe years the tendency has been} i more and more away from deimoc--; racy and representative government. Heferring to the election of} W. F. Langworthy in the Fed-- eral riding of ~Port Arthur, Mr. Raney asked if the Minister of Lands and Forests for Ontario would denpny, for instance, that the Ontario Government used all the machinery and patronage at its dis-- posal to bring about the election of } the straight Conservative condidate in Port Arthur. *"I know he will not deny," said t Mr. Raney, "that he deliberately held 'back the announcement of the ten-- ders for 9,000 square miles of pulp-- wood for political reasons, and that 'he made the announcement at a ! politichl meeting held in Port Arthur 'on Oct. 284, in the interests of Mr. \Langworthy, the straight Conserva-- tive candidate." "Both Ottawa Governments knowi that the _ Ontario breweries and dis-' tilleries were marketing their out~{ put to gangs of outlaws .who were sammugglers and criminals under the; laws of Canada, for, of course, as| the Attorney--General pointed out in; this House last year, a" considerable} quantity of the whiskey and beer' that is nominally exported from this Province to the United States is noti really exported at all, but is boot--} legged to Ontarto customers. Now} the chickens are coming home.' These outlaws carry liquors by the underground railways to Uncle Sam' and then bring back return cargoes' of goods that can be smuggled into €Canada at a profitl. ' says Cnstoms Involved. { '"'The Canadian Customs Depar(.-- ment have been bedfellows with the Ontario brewers and distillers, anda apparently they are still." I suggest that this matter ought to have been the subject of comment and con.-- demnation in the Speech from the Throne." "'The first half of my Attorney-- Generalship," said he, "was during the rule of the Borden and Meighen tiovernments, During <the second half the King (Government was in office. So far as I could see there was nothing to choose between them in this matter. Neither the Conser-- vative nor the Liberal Government made any serious attempt that I could discover to interfere with this scandalous traffic. Conditions in -- rum--running have not improved, according to Mr. Raney, who declared that the situ-- ation as it appeared to him called for the most vigorous kind of a protest from the Ontario Government. Hon. James Lyons, Minister of Lands and Foresis, told the House he would answer Mr. Raney's questions at a later time. Rum--~Runaing Continues, wC --il, ito, nas Lne overnment of; | Ontarie mt apis in opptenant of th¥) p c Aarke clare« i a nev | oceur I s uts s % law by failing to obey the clear lan guage of the statute? asked he, has the Government of| "bargaining";'itl{-{}')e i,);':;;;.;r on the : matter of debate adjournment was not intended by him to be interpreted / as some seemingly had interpreted it. The By--Election Question. a new election immediately upon the occurrence of the vacanecy. Why. tions for the seven vacant seats in the House. 'The statute, he said, de-- clared that a warrant shall issue f60; At the outset of his speech Hon. Mr. Raney scored the Government for its failure to bring on by--eolec-- Iflons for the savan vaannt sAants in Yols2d 1IoOr continuation of the debate and 15 against. J. F. Callan (Labor, Rainy River) and J, A. Pinard (Lib-- eral, Ottawa) voted with the Gov-- ernment. _ _Prior to the diviston Mr. Raney | bassed across to Premier Ferguson a } copy of the amendment he proposed t to move, with the accompanying | comment that his sugrrestinn -- nt | voted for his suggestion -- of | a C sc\a ; . The Premier claimed that he had | tried to keep the liqguor question out of ~politics, but,. said he, '"Who dragged it in? None other than the } i!tt.le%ia{)o?e()n who has just finished speaking. He and Ben EKpence have organized some donkey -- engine bureau to keep the business always before the public eye." Claiming that the stand he took at the hotelmen's meeting had been declared on the floor of the Legisla-- ture last year, Mr. Ferguson added: "The question, I will say, will not be settled without reference to the peo-- ple, and it will be in the constitu-- tional way as I seoe it. When this Government is ready to make an announcement, we will make it to the people and ask the people to signify their approval in the way of a gen-- cral election." '""You can't state a single inst'ance."! said the Premier, "where he ever has tried to assist the (.;overnment.f Instead, he continually harps on criticism. That may be his way 0£I aiding the Ontario Temperance Act, but it is difficuit to undersatand. This! apostle of all that is virtuous in the Province is not leading his crusade| so much in the interests of public welfare as in deliberately attacking| the Government." | Jienies Political Issue. { was that Mr. Raney, for decidedly partisan reasons, had Hnked himself up with the bootleggers to destroy the' vpublic's taste for 4.4. Premier Ferguson, on rising, said | that his honorable friend had treated | with levity the efforts made by the' Government last year to find within the principles of the O.T.A. some-- thing that would aid promotion, to some extent, of a remedy to combat: the evils of the drink traffic. But ; that was a habit of Mr. Raney's, ac-- cording to the Premier, who declared that he (Mr. Raney) never would allow himself to appreciate anything, the Government did. One reason, | said the Premier, that 4.4 beer had] falled to sSatisfv tha Framaralt muniu.! "So that not only was there an announcement by Mr. Ferguson. ibnt there «was a promise; there was a bargain. The people performed their part of the bargain. They made Mr. Ferguson Prime Minister, and novwr they demand of him that he shall perform his part of the bargain." Pinds No Assistance. his followers in this House rep sent prohibition ridings. To Complete "Bargain. Stating that the various clauses of his amendment were, in effect, the very words and pronouncements of Premier Ferguson himself, Mr. Raney -- said: "The -- Conservative friends of the Ontario Temperance Act took Mr. Ferguson at his word and helped to make him Prime Min-- ister of Ontario, and in consequence of that support he is Prime Minister today--because nearly two--thirds of | _ Wnat's to be gained by putting it in the Speech from the Throne?" inquired Hon. W, F, Nickle, Attor-- ney--General. _ '"We were told last year to mind our own-- business. Didn't J put it in last year?" "You did," said Mr. Raney. "Did you support it?" ' "'I 'did.'"' *'*Well, not very heartily .' il'mdlstribmiun Under Fire., r In introducing his amendment Mr. Raney said: '"'The Speech contains _no reforence to the announcement by the Prime Minister, made last October, of a fundamental change in the treatment of the subject of pro-- hibition. The Prime Minister an-- nounced last autumn to the hotelmen that, for the future, prohibition would be back in this Legislature as a question of party politics, and if the peopie don't like that, the Prime Minister says, they can be put out, if they can, with the handicap under "which he put them when at the last session of this Legislature he sub-- tracted nine ridings from rural On-- tario and added ten ridings to the large cities. This statement of the Prime Minister is the most revolu-- tionary thing in Ontario politics in a quarter of a century--and not a lines of the Speech devoted to it." *"*What's to

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