Oldal 169 [169]
THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY: THE MAKING OF FRED ROSE, M.P.
prisoners signed an undertaking “not to participate in the Communist Party”
(Weisbord 113). Therefore, the Labor Progressive Party (LPP) became the new
party name which Canadian Communists would rally under in the future.®
The Cartier byelection was called due to the death of their sitting MP, Peter
Bercovitch, on December 26, 1942. Bercovitch was — like all previous Cartier
MPs — Liberal and Jewish. Cartier was considered a safe Liberal seat, where
the Liberals had won 88.54% of vote in the 1940 federal election. However, the
King Government was in political trouble by August 1943 in both English and
French Canada, and the issues hurting them most were the manpower short¬
age in the military, and whether conscription should be used to solve this
problem. The Gazette stressed this in an editorial entitled, “ONE ISSUE IN
CARTIER, ONE ONLY” declaring “The only issue in Cartier is the war issue...
It is important, in these circumstances, that the voters in Cartier should keep
this issue clear, should not allow their perspective to be warped by unrelated
appeals of any kind” (August 4, 1943, 6).
The above editorial on the importance of the conscription issue later became
the accepted view of future Canadian historians, including Robert Bothwell,
who wrote: “The conscription crisis was the most serious challenge for the
(King) wartime cabinet. No other issue had the same emotional power... no
other matter could have toppled the government.” (Bothwell 333).’ In the
Conscription plebiscite of April 1942, 65.6% of Canadian voters (but only 27.9%
of Quebec voters) gave King permission to back out of his promise not to impose
conscription. However, King really meant “conscription if necessary, but not
necessarily conscription”. The Liberals wanted to avoid the pitfalls of the Con¬
servative Bordon Government in WW, where the introduction of mandatory
conscription of Canadian men for overseas forces decimated Conservative
support among French Canadians in Quebec for generations. Maintaining
national unity and unity among the English and French-Canadian ministers
of his Liberal government was King’s priority, but his cautious maneuvering
on conscription had many voters in English Canada become critical of him.
The Liberals were also in danger of losing seats due to labour difficulties in
Canada. This combination of voter dissatisfaction over conscription and labour
disputes meant there was a realistic possibility that the Liberals could suffer
the same fate as the British Liberals after WWI, and this concern became
apparent in September 1943 when a Gallup Poll of Canadian public opinion
showed the socialist Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) with 29%
support, and the Liberals and Progressive Conservatives tied at 28% (Bothwell,
8 A new party label for the Communists meant that the “name Labor-Progressive would appeal
to broader circles, that it would bring us votes in the parliamentary field, that it would re-assure
those liberals ‘frightened’ by the term Communist.” (Avakumovic 152).
° For a description of the Conscription Crisis during WWI and WWII, see Robert Bothwell’s
Canada, 1900-1945, pp. 119-137, 317-335.
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