ELECTION IN CANADA

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

With regard to M. David Landau's "Canada-The Quiet Desperation" (October 29, 1970), while I am in complete agreement that the recent actions of the Government of Canada constitute nothing less than a general purge, I must correct a factual error concerning the Montreal civic election of October 25, 1970.

Landau states that, "An estimated 45 per cent of Montreal's eligible voters showed up to cast ballots-an unusually meagre turnout." According to Montreal's Le Presse (lundi, 26 octobre 1970), the turnout was actually 49.8 per cent and this turnout is higher than in any previous civic election of the past decade in which M. Drapeau has been a candidate for mayor-a total of 4 elections. The respective turnouts in 1960, 1962 and 1966 were 41.0, 42.6 and 33.0 per cent. Moreover, because the property qualification for enfranchisement was abolished by the National Assembly in December 1968, the number of eligible voters was nearly twice that in 1966, and the number exercising the franchise was nearly 2.5 times that of any previous civic election.

It would be quite proper to say that the behavior of the Montreal electorate reflected that of a frightened citizenry, but the overwhelming appearance of the mandate given Drapeau and the Parti Civique de Montreal can be belittled only at the peril of those who wish to see him gone.