Right Hon. W. L. MACKENZIE KING (Prime Minister):

Mr. JOHN BRACKEN (Leader of the Opposition):

Mr. Speaker, it was not my privilege to have more than a passing acquaintance with the hon. member whose decease we mourn, but all of my colleagues who had come to know him well held him in high regard. One of the satisfying things in public life, and I have noticed it quite as much in the House of Commons as in any previous legislative body with which I have been associated, is that while we may have differences of opinion on public questions we still maintain our respect for those whose views we do not always share. Speaking for the members of this group as well as for myself we desire to be associated with the Prime Minister and other hon. members in the expression of sympathy to those who have been bereaved.

Mr. M. J. COLD WELL (Rosetown-Biggar):

This is one of those sad occasions on which members of the house join together in mourning the loss of one of their colleagues; and we too of this group wish to extend our deepest sympathy to those whom the late W. R. McDonald has left behind him. I came here in 1935, the year in which Mr. McDonald also became a member. I have had contact with him throughout these years as a member of the house and its committees, and I was always impressed by his friendliness and his courtesy and kindliness. Although our views differed from his, he commanded our respect, and we sincerely mourn his passing.

Mr. SOLON LOW (Peace River):

It was not my good fortune to know personally the deceased hon. member for Pontiac, but those of my party who did know him have expressed themselves as happy in their association with him as recognizing in him a man of public service who was always ready to face realities honestly. We pay respect to his memory, and we join with the other hon. members in mourning his loss and extending to his family our deepest sympathy.

Hon. ALPHONSE FOURNIER (Minister of Public Works) (Translation):

Mr. Speaker, for more than twenty-five years Mr. McDonald was a close friend of mine. I became acquainted with him when he was a member of the Chapeau school board and I was a school inspector. We therefore cooperated in increasing the efficiency of teaching in his district. Later, we became assocated in the campaigns of the party we were representing in the western part of the province.

The distinctive qualities of Mr. McDonald were his straightforwardness and his sincerity of purpose. No one will leave, in that part of the province of Quebec, a greater reputation of honesty in public life. The late lamented member always showed a thorough understanding of the needs of the people and his greatest desire was to help those who had few opportunities in life.

It is with a feeling of deep grief that we bow to-day before the grave of a man whose loss we sincerely lament and whom we shall never forget.

(Text): ;

Mr. DANIEL McIVOR (Fort William):

I should like to join with others in paying my tribute to the one we knew as "Wally" McDonald, because I was Protestant, he was Roman Catholic; because after coming to this house we were close neighbours; because we agreed on the essentials of the Christian life. I found that he had little patience with those who would raise religious or race prejudice. Time and again when we discussed the question of religion we were at one in the view that if we Protestants and Roman Catholic but agreed on the great essentials there would be a far greater approach to unity in Canada. He also assured me that the closer we all get to Him who is the source of truth the closer we shall get to each other. I would pay my tribute to him as a Christian. As he also told me, we grow like our parents, and very much depends on who our parents or our early guardians were as to which branch of the church gets us into the kingdom of heaven. I am sure we think to-day of Wally McDonald not as dead but as living, because he placed his trust in Him who can keep him alive.

Right Hon. W. L. MACKENZIE KING (Prime Minister):

Mr. Speaker, I rise to a question of privilege. I notice that my hon. friend the leader of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, in addressing a large audience at Toronto last evening, was taking a shot in a number of directions-

Mr. COLD WELL:

Several shots.

Mr. MACKENZIE KING:

Among these, my hon. friend made a statement which I think, if not corrected by him, ought to be exposed, and I would therefore draw the attention of the house to what he said. Speaking of the recent meeting with the government of a delegation of the Canadian Congress of Labour my hon. friend said:

Canadian Citizenship

At a recent meeting between Prime Minister Mackenzie King and his cabinet and representatives of the Canadian Congress of Labour, the Prime Minister and the cabinet-

And these words are in quotation marks:

-walked out on delegates representing some 300,000 Canadian workers and their families.

If that is a correct quotation, may I say to my hon. friend that the statement itself is not correct. The last thing that was done was to walk out on the delegation. Statements were made in the representations of the delegation which I felt were untrue and the representations themselves were not expressed in the manner in which they should have been expressed, and which for this reason I thought were doing harm to the cause of labour itself. I therefore spoke plainly to the delegation on these particular aspects of their representations. But may I say to my hon. friend that after I had concluded speaking I and my colleagues waited until the secretary of the delegation, who wished to have the last word, made quite a lengthy reply, and then, bowing in a cordial manner to all present, I and my colleagues left the gathering. I hope my hon. friend will not try to create the impression that some 300,000 Canadian workers and their families were offended by my action in speaking in a kindly and fatherly way to that particular group.