of the Conservatives good. I don’t know but they’d give me anything I’d

ask for, pretty near, when I’d go in there. I don’t see too much change since I seen it first; only there’s a lot more

asked of a politician now than there was 20 years ago... . Now, you expect the government to do everything for you. Then, they didn’t expect them to do too much, only fix their roads and keep the schools going and the like of that. Roads were the big, big thing. Big, big item was the roads.

I’d say we were responsible for [the growth of government aid programs on Prince Edward Island] when we were in for seven or eight years there. Part of it. I think we were just as bad as the Tories. Too much gift money. Grants for this, grants for everything. Now, you can’t move but you get grants. There was too much of that money. It brought us up fairly fast but now we don’t know where to turn back. We got a little above ourselves.

I don’t know. I never promised anybody anything. I went to every house in this district, or pretty well every house. Just told them that I was running and that’s it, and liked to meet them and that’s about it. Very few would ask you, “I want you to do something for me.” Very few said that. [I’d] go to the Conservatives; they knew Iwas a Liberal: “Come on in and meet the missus. You know what we are here anyway.” That’d be it. It was very nice getting around. No, we didn’t wait for stories. Five minutes at a house or

you wouldn’t get around. It was great.

Not a Die—hard

When did I turn Liberal? Well, the first time I voted, I voted Tory. Angus MacLean’s father, George MacLean, I believe. That’s the one I voted for. Thought my father was voting Tory. Next neighbour to him would be over at the house. He was quite a Conservative and, oh, I thought my father was voting Tory.

There was only one telephone in the district and a fellow picked me up with the horse and wagon to go over to hear the election news and returns. I was with a bunch of Liberals [but] there was no word about that. The next day the old neighbour said to me, “We’re awful surprised at you,” he says. “We thought you were with us but we found out the difference.” I sided with the Liberals from then on. For no reason in the world.

I began to get a little bit [involved then], yeah. I travelled around with people, you know, that was Liberal, I guess, mostly. That was it. [At that time, people] were one or the other as a rule.

I used to go to meetings and everything... . Political meetings. The Conservatives and the Liberals were at them. Both parties... . Mostly local

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