Terrace Bay Public Library Digital Collections

Terrace Bay News, 18 Aug 1966, p. 8

The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

mi kdte Na 48 ae Che Nah Le et Elections every two years Canadians who frequency of federal elections the past few years are prone to forget that the United States goes through a full-fledged na-. tional vote every two years. The "off-year" or "mid-term" elections, as they are called in the U.S., come half-way between presidential contests. The cam- paign for this year's voting in November -- less than three months away -- is building to a boil and the Democrats are in trouble over Vietnam and the Negro backlash. Every two years, including presidential election years, the entire 435-seat House of Representatives is up for grabs, along with one-third of the 100- seat Senate." Senators -- two from each state -- are elected for six years but as one-third of the seats are voted on alternate- ly, the Congress is in an almost constal.t siate «2 chaage. As most €veryore knows, the off-year elections alraost always produce setbacks for the Presi- dent's party. For one _ thing, weak candidates cannot ride to victory on their president's coat- tails, and voters who may be disenchanted with the admin- istration often take this oppor- tunity to rebuke the President without having to vote against him personally. The only modern exceptions to this rule came in 1934 when President Roosevelt © actually strengthened his following in Congress, and in 1962 when | President Kennedy managed to keep his losses to a virtually ir- weducible minimum. In 1962, 'BRwever, President Kennedy 'aa' the missile crisis going for lim (the country tends to unite around the President in times of crisis) and the Democrats were able to regain some traditional Democratic seats which had been lost in 1960 at the hands of voters suspicious of the pros- pects of a Catholic President. So now come the 1966 mid- term elections. In the wake of the 1964 Johnsonian landslide resulting from the debacle of Goldwater extremism, the Dem- ocrats enjoy their greatest ma- jority in 30 years -- 155 in the lament the' House and 36 in the Senate. It is a rule of politics that the. more seats you have, the more you are likely to lose. Witness the Diefenbaker reversal of 1962 when the greatest parliamentary ° majority in Canada's history was cut to an actual minority in the House of Commons. The Congress under Johnson has just come through two of the most productive years of its history, writing into law meas- ures which Kennedy had begun to advocate but had no hope of achieving. These include the civil rights act, the voting rights act, tax reduction, medicare for the aged, massive conservation and other historic moves toward "The Great Society." Despite all this, Americans have become increasingly un- easy about President Johnson. In Vietnam, he has adopted the war policy for which he had de- nounced Goldwater in 1964. His popularity in early summer fell below the 50 per cent. mark but after the Hanoi bombings, bounced back up to 54 per cent. as Americans hoped that escala- tion would bring an early end to the fighting there. Republicans freely admit that Vietnam will be the deciding factor in the November elec- tions. If the present stalemate continues, the Republicans. will benefit. Solid U.S. successes, or by ironic contrast, equally solid Communist successes _ which would seem to threaten the se- curity of. the United States, would benefit the Democrats. The Democrats, as the authors of Negro civil rights legislation, are being hurt by the Black Power movement and Negro vi- olence in the big cities. The fact that white society is still funda- mentally responsible for Negro violence in that such outbursts are the result of generations of enslavement and_ oppression, will not mollify many voters. The Black Power movement, meanwhile, is far closer to suc- cess than most Americans real- ize. While Negroes comprise only 10 per cent. of the popula- tion, they are in positions of a majority or near-majority in many cities, most notably Wash- ington, D.C. The big question in November is not how many seats the Dem- ocrats will lose, but whether they will lose them to moderate Republicans, or to arch-conserva- tives who would permit the re- establishment of the old reac- tionary coalition beaween con- servative Republicans and the. southern Democrats. MRS .CORRIGAN (Continued from page 7) money covered Rummoli Board. Mistress of Cere- monies, Mrs.Helmink, read a poem dedicated to "Our Newfie Rose" written by Mr.Jack Todd. A framed copy of the verse was presented to Mrs. Corrigan as a keepsake. A most delightful lunch was served before the party broke up. Bill Baillie is in Port Arthur General Hospital re- covering from surgery until the end of this week. He would greatly appreciate a visit from any friend in the lakehead this week. Mrs.E.Salesse is a patient in a Lakehead hospi- tal this week. Mr .and Mrs.P.Gombola of Greenville, So.Caro- lina and family, were guests at the home of Mr.and Mrs. D.Boudreau and visited old friends here last week. PLAYGROUND WIND-UP Despite the dampness of the weather, neither the children nor their leaders seemed dismayed and their Wind-up Camp Out took place in the Arena before a small group of appreciative parents. Singing games and skits performed by the children formed the program which was followed by the pre- sentation of awards. These were based on attendance and general participation and given to both senior and junior girl and boy. Diane Coupal and Stephen Gorham received the junior prizes and Wendy Schritt and Maurice Cadieux the senior awards. The playground leaders then pre sented their di- rector, Janice Mclnnes with a gift in appreciation of her work in planning and co-ordinating the pro- gram for 1966. Free popcorn for all was distributed and the 1966 playground season came to a close. TERRACE BAY WITHOUT A TAXI Now that Taxi service is no longer available in Terrace Bay those departing or arriving by Bain are contimed ps

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