be Laurier or Bourassa; but all the conditions favored Laurier. For
one thing, he could command a large body of support outside of his
own province which it was quite beyond the power of Bourassa to
duplicate. The swing to Laurier was so marked that by 1914 the
confident prediction was made by good political judges that if there
were an election Laurier would carry 60 out of the 65 seats in
Quebec. Such a vote meant victory. Sir Wilfrid was slow in coming to
believe that an early reversal of the decision of 1911 was possible;
but finally found himself infected with the hopefulness of his
following. Hard times became a powerful ally of the Liberals and the
government suffered from the first shock of the impending railway
collapse. The course of the party lay clear before it; it was to see
that the conditions in Quebec remained favorable and to await, with
patience, the coming of an election which would reopen the doors to
office. But not too much patience, for the years were slipping past.
Laurier was in his 73rd year.

THE PARTIES AND THE WAR

Such were the political conditions: a government in a position of
growing doubtfulness and a combative and confident opposition--when
Canada found herself plunged over night into the Great War. Under
the high emotion of this venture into the unknown politics vanished
for a brief moment from the land. If that moment could have been
seized for a sacred union of hearts dedicated to the great task of
carrying on the war how different would the whole future of Canada
have been! In the fires of war our sectional and racial intractibilities
might have been fused into an enduring alliance. But Canadian
statesmanship was not equal to the opportunity. For this
Sir Wilfrid has no accountability. There is no question of the