Crediters at work

The following item illustrates how Social Crediters of the Union of Electors go about exercising their vocation as apostles of the Social Credit movement. The Crediters are Romuald St- Cyr, Laurent Ricard, Henri Beaudoin, Édouard Boutin and Léon Sylvain, all of Drummondville of the province of Quebec. They are paying a visit to their representative in the Quebec provincial legislature. He is Bernard Pinard. We shall refer to him below as, "M.P."

Here is a portion of the meeting.

Ricard: "We are apostles of Vers Demain (the movement's French-language publication) and we have come to protest the increase in the provincial income tax. You promised that we would have hospital insurance without any increase in taxes."

M.P.: "You have to pay only 14% of the total cost of hospital insurance. And, you get wonderful service."

Beaudoin: "Yes, and again it's the little fellow who is going to pay."

MP: "I have to pay also just like you."

Beaudoin: "It will hardly show in your big salary. For myself. I already am lacking sufficient purchasing power, and here they are taking away from me a part of my pay without me ever having seen it!"

Ricard: "Look, Mr. Member, here's a newspaper which came out during the election campaign. It is written here at the end of the article, very clearly: Hospital insurance is practical and can be realized without the imposition of any new tax. It is signed: Jean Lesage."

MP: "I recall that my Premier said that; I myself also said it."

Ricard: "Then you are guilty of not following the truth, but of lying."'

St-Cyr "Why don't you go and knock on the door of the place where money takes its existence, instead of picking our pockets? We don't make the money.

M.P.: " It is not for us to discuss the means to be taken. The families are going to receive $10.00 more in family allowances for children at school who are over the age of 16. So perhaps you'll be getting more than you give."

Ricard: "Here is a petition with 358 signatures. Read the text and you will find the real way of our avoiding falling into Communism... All the workers are up in arms against this increase."

M.P: "Perhaps we are too much individualists. We are working too much just for ourselves."

St-Cyr: "If you had said that the taxes were going to be increased you would not have been elected."

Beaudoin (after Pinard had finished criticizing the previous administration): "But you aren't doing any better!!

MP: "The taxes are going up, but if you are going to have social laws you have to find the money somewhere. Ottawa will probably make some concession on taxes.

Ricard: "You have a René Lévesque as one of your Ministers. He is busy fashioning Socialist legislation."

St-Cyr: "When we came to see you, Mr. Ricard and myself, we asked you to take a stand against the hospital insurance plan. You assured us that there would be no extra taxes to pay."

M.P.: "I myself in one of our caucuses, asked that the minimum taxable salary be set at $3,000."

The Crediters: "You should have opposed this increase in income taxes."

M.P. "It is very difficult to satisfy the demands of the people when you are in the government. It is much easier to be the party in opposition."

Ricard: "We have come to ask you in the name of those you represent; to protest against this increase in the income tax. Help us to fight against this financial system which is contrary to your best interests and to ours. Demand that Social Credit be established."

* * *

Whether or not the deputy, Bernard Pinard, will ultimately accede to the request of the Crediters, is difficult to say, but one thing is certain; Mr. Pinard is now very well aware of the fact he is sitting in the Quebec legislature, not merely as one more vote for his party, but as the representative of the citizens of his constituency.

It is not hard for an MP., once safely installed in the comfortable seat in the legislature, to forget the ordinary folks back home. He has only to contend with organized lobbying groups. And he does as the party leaders tell him.

But when enlightened and trained citizens, who have decided to take their responsibilities seriously, start applying the pressure, he finds out who his bass really is - the people!

This is the work of the Union of Electors, directed by the Institute of Political Action to train ordinary men and women to know the situation as it is really, then, to do something about it. These men of Drummondville, trained Crediters, were opposed to the increase of provincial income taxes, especially since they had been specifically promised during the election campaign that there would be no increase in taxation to cover the new hospital insurance plan. When their representative reneged on this promise, they wasted no time in going about letting him know just what they thought.

Bernard Pinard, representative from the constituency of Drummondville, is one M.P. who has learned the hard way that when the Union of Electors says it is educating ordinary citizens to know and to act politically, not just at election time but the year round, it means just that!!