for this result was that the verdict was given in a general
election, not in a referendum. The fate of the Government was involved;
its general record was brought up for review; party ambitions and
passions were stirred to the utmost. Fifteen years, of office-holding
had meant the accumulation of many scandals, a slackening in
administrative efficiency, and the cooling by official compromise of the
ardent faith of the Liberalism of the earlier day. The Government had
failed to bring in enough new blood. The Opposition fought with the
desperation of fifteen years of fasting and was better served by its
press.

Of the side issues introduced into the campaign, the most important were
the naval policy in Quebec and the racial and religious issue in the
English-speaking provinces. The Government had to face what Sir Wilfrid
Laurier termed "the unholy alliance" of Roman Catholic Nationalists
under Bourassa in Quebec and Protestant Imperialists in Ontario. In
the French-speaking districts the Government was denounced for allowing
Canada to be drawn into the vortex of militarism and imperialism and
for sacrificing the interests of Roman Catholic schools in the West. On
every hand the naval policy was attacked as inevitably bringing in its
train conscription to fight European wars a contention hotly denied
by the Liberals. The Conservative campaign managers made a working
arrangement with the Nationalists as to candidates and helped
liberally in circulating Bourassa's newspaper, Le Devoir. On the back
"concessions" of Ontario a quieter but no less effective campaign was
carried on against the domination of Canadian politics by a French Roman
Catholic province and a French Roman Catholic Prime Minister. In vain
the Liberals appealed to national unity or started back fires in Ontario
by insisting that a vote for Borden meant a vote for Bourassa. The
Conservative-Nationalist alliance cost the Government many seats in
Quebec and apparently did not frighten Ontario.

Reciprocity, however, was the principal issue everywhere except in
Quebec. Powerful forces were arrayed against it. Few manufactures
had been put on the free list, but the argument that the reciprocity
agreement was the thin edge of the wedge rallied the organized
manufacturers in almost unbroken hostile array. The railways, fearful
that western traffic would be diverted to United States roads, opposed
the agreement vigorously under the leadership of the ex-American
ch