Page 173 [173]
THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY: THE MAKING OF FRED ROSE, M.P.
sympathizers after June 1941. The LPP in Cartier were “spending even more
money even more lavishly than the Liberal Party on meetings, radio and lit¬
erature” and “their organization was good, with plenty of volunteer workers”
(The Canadian Forum, September 1943, 126). The “Victory” clubs contrasted
the LPP and CCF on the conscription issue, where the LPP was for it, whereas
CCF policy, decided by M.J. Coldwell in 1943, called “for the conscription of
the nation’s wealth as the necessary prelude to any further conscription of
manpower” (Young 231). Additionally, Lewis was a new candidate who had not
lived in the riding for 12 years. Though the CCF were successful in having large
mass meetings in support of Lewis, to win the riding as some expected at the
beginning of the campaign (including King) “would have required a well-trained,
well-financed and numerous bands of workers” which the CCF did not have
(The Canadian Forum, September 1943, 126-127). The CCF also had bad luck
late in the campaign of losing support due to the fear of Paul Masse. “His
presence, with the threat that Cartier might be represented by an anti-semitic,
anti-war isolationist...frightened some ofthe Jewish vote into support of Phil¬
lips as the government candidate...” (Ihe Canadian Forum 126).
Foreign events in the final days of the campaign aided Rose too. The war
news seemed hopeful on the Eastern Front with the Soviet Red Army winning
a string of victories against Germany. The front-page headlines in The Gazette
before the vote read like this: RUSSIANS CAPTURE OREL AND BELGOROD
IN DOUBLE TRIUMPH (August 6); and RUSSIANS ENVELOPING KHAR¬
KOV CUT BRYANSK RAIL LINK (August 9). The Gazette also permitted a
large House of Seagram (a distiller of Canadian whisky) ad to appear in their
newspaper on election day entitled “HOW LONG IS 3 WEEKS, IVAN?” The
ad showed a friendly Red Army soldier lighting his pipe and smiling at the
reader, with the advertisement full of praise for soldiers like Ivan (The Gazette,
August 9, 1943, 2). The fact the LPP was for the Soviet Union and conscription
meant they could also bask in this praise for ‘Ivan’ as voters went to the polls.
As for The Gazette endorsement of the Liberals, it was rather lackluster and
hardly mentioned them at all. It was basically a rant against the CCF, recount¬
ing the sins of CCF leader, M.J. Coldwell and David Lewis for their prewar
pacifism, using Coldwell’s remarks in 1937 that “young Canadians should be
ready to go to jail before enlisting in any future European war,” then stating
in the final paragraph, “We cannot convince ourselves that a great Montreal
division such as Cartier wants Socialism or will tolerate socialization” (The
Gazette, August 4, 1943, 6). The final four lines of the editorial asked the vot¬
ers of Cartier to do their duty “by voting for Mr. Phillips” and giving an “emphatic
reprobation of everything that is offered or implied in the candidature of Mr.
Phillips’ principal opponent [i.e. Lewis]” (Ihe Gazette, August 4, 1943, 6). The
Gazette likely focused more on the CCF than LPP because they thought the
CCF could actually win.
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