Page:The empire and the century.djvu/446

 JOHN W. HILLS

Canada has produced a line of statesmen gifted with ideas and with the power of expressing them, it is perhaps more interesting to look at the forces which have governed her destiny rather than at the minds of the leaders who have directed her policy. Conscious action of statesmen has played a part, but there have^been other and stronger forces at work, and these forces are not the ones which might at first sight have been thought the most powerful. The actual ideals of both political parties on Imperial questions are identical, and can be described very shortly: both are unanimous in desiring preferential trade within the Empire, both hope that the future will bring closer union, and both think that Canada should carry more of the weight of the defence of the Empire. A General Election is not perhaps the best occasion for ascertaining the political ideals of a people, and in Canada last autumn the speeches of the ordinary candidate, as of candidates elsewhere, were filled mainly with local and personal questions. But still there were three great issues running throughout the controversy—the new Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, preferential trade, and defence. The last issue was unluckily obscured by a personal quarrel. The discussions on it were acrimonious and not very useful. But Canadians recognise that they do not do their fair share of the work of defence, and the question for the future is to find some accept- 408