OCR Text |
Show ilT0iTE ! ; FOR OR AGAiNST ! BORDEN MONDAYi - . i ;. Soldiers All Over World to Cast Their Ballots and Result Re-sult May Not Be Known for Weeks. VICTORY CLAIMED BY BOTH FACTIONS Owing to Conscription Issue Independent Judges Hesitate Hesi-tate to Predict the Outcome. OTTAWA, Out., Dec. 11. Polls will ; uIopo for the Canadian election at 5 0 "clock ' Monday afternoon, wheu domestic do-mestic ballots will be counted and boxts scaled for return to Ottawa. Boxes too - taining soldier votes will be forwarded to Paris, London and Ottawa for the j counting of their contents. Polls for the soldier vote have been v open for four weeks in England, France, Vlanders, Italy, Macedonia, Mcsopo-. Mcsopo-. tamia, Egypt, Bermuda, St. Lucia and - af! many points in the United States, boutb to Texas and west to California. ' Only one day is allowed for the polling r ol the domestic vote. With the campaign virtually ended, ; rru-h side claims victory. Managers of the Union government say they are ccr-. ccr-. lain of a majority of from. 25 to o7 : seats in parliament. Managers of Sir Wilfred Laurier's Liberal opposition declare de-clare that they -will have a majority of not less than l!5 scats. Outcome in Doubt. ; Independent judges hesitate to predict, pre-dict, owing to thy introduction of a number of new elements into the cam-. cam-. piiign, such as the conscription issue, - exterior voting by soldiers and sailors on active service, voting by female . relatives of soldiers serving outside of , Canada and cost of living. War sca.ii- dnls attributed to the late Borden conservative con-servative government and through Sir Kubert 's continuance in office as premier, pre-mier, held to reflect on the present Union government, constitute another l j phase of the campaign. There are to be considered also the de-tcrtion de-tcrtion of a number of Liberal leaders Vioin Sir Wilfred Lauricr to -the Union government, the pronounced antagonism 1 f the province of Quebec, to conscrip- inn, and the fact that conscription is objected to by many English-speaking voters, especially by voung unmarried V men, whom it makes liable for service, - and young married men, who would become be-come liable were the second class of : conscripts called. i Farmers to Be Exempt. Agriculturists have beon against conscription, con-scription, but are said to have been mollified by assurances of exemption. There are 235 members to be returned, and it is agreed that the Union govern- ment will need a majority of at least fifteen to remain in office for any , length of time. Twenty-five members already have been declared elected . through lack of opposition. Of these ten are. Unionist and fifteen Liberal. In three other cases election is deferred. de-ferred. They are Halifax, with two members, owing to the explosion, and the Yukon with one member, owing to the distance. I Tn the case of the 207 contested elec tions, most of the domestic voting re-Hiills re-Hiills will be known Monday night and i practically all by Tuesday. Wait for Soldier Vote. The Holdier vote, which will be distributed dis-tributed throughout the. Canadian constituencies con-stituencies by the designation or domicile domi-cile of earn soldier, will not be returned for several days, probably a month and . possibly not for two months. Mence, should Laurier win in Canada by narrow majorities, the result of Ihe election may remain in doubt until the f-oldier returns are received and applied I: b the domestic, vote. It' Union govern-r'l.'nent govern-r'l.'nent wins in Canada the defeat of ' '"1,:iuricr is considered certain, as the soldier sol-dier vote undoubtedly will give a majority ma-jority against him. Premier Borden has finished his cam paign and will receive the returns at Otlawa. Sir Wilfred, who is in his 77th year, but who finished a spectacular campaign cam-paign fight with a speaking trip to the Pacific coast, is now traveling cast-ward cast-ward and will get tho returns Monday night in Winnipeg. |