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Canadian Press Radio a cross-section of Canadian opinion from the press of your northern neighbor and these viewpoints on national and international events are taken from newspapers from coast to coast the program is compiled each week as a service to American listeners by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Now this is John Trethewey speaking with building and this week's edition of Canadian Press review with less than a week to go in the American presidential election campaign Canadian newspapers have taken note of a change in the political climate in the United States the press in Canada has followed this election closely and editorials have appeared on many aspects of the campaigns waged by each candidate now the voting day is coming close might be interesting to review Canadian newspaper opinion over the last two or three weeks to show what kind of thinks about the candidates and their policies. There is one outstanding aspect to it is that authorial if newspapers are any indication of general public opinion north of the border you have to conclude that Canadians know as much about American politics as they do about their own and editorial appearing in the Monterey all star shows why this is so we have tried on these pages before to assess the mood of the United States electorate and some of the underlying reasons for its growing uneasiness it is quite natural that Canadians should be interested even concerned with what happens in the U.S. its trade and economic policies its political alliances its defense systems are all intimately connected perhaps too much so at times with our own but so too is the mood of the people for it ultimately finds its way into the political processes we saw during the Roosevelt years and again in the immediate post-war period of the Cold War and the McCarthy era. We see it now as the U.S. prepares to like a new president besides editorials there have been many articles written and all major Canadian papers partly by their own staff and partly by contributors who are close to the American scene two such men are James Ayres professor of international relations at the University of Toronto and Peter Reagan's strife Canadian professor teaching at the University of Rochester these men have written in-depth analysis especially on the Wallace phenomenon Professor Ayres stressed hate as an important part of the Wallace campaign while Mr Reagan strife wrote about fear as a prime motivating force behind his support but getting back to the editorials you can trace developments of thought on many key campaign issues and how they candidates reacted to them they Port Arthur News Chronicle from Ontario is fairly representative of most Canadians in its treatment of Wallace as its editorial title indicates while those slim a prospect is stuff for a night mayor's somebody Port Arthur paper gets right to the point fortunately it does not appear that well as and his bloodthirsty running mate will be in a position to put their policies into effect after the November fifth votes have been tallied. But it is still appalling to think that a presidential candidate who polls indicate will get at least twenty percent of the popular vote could possibly present a man of general Lamaze the lose to the country as a potential vice president the astounding following that Wallace is attracting is a frightening indication of the social rot that has set in throughout the United States people are confused and frightened sick of bloodshed lawlessness and disorder on both the domestic and foreign fronts and too many are willing to accept blindly the promise of a cure without bothering to analyze how the cure will be effected two weeks ago the Calgary Herald said what many Canadian newspapers may be hoping for the Wallace line of Law and Order at home and a tougher foreign policy is much the same as that taken by Mr Nixon in a way they appeal to voters who are of one mind on these issues it may be therefore that Mr Wallace will have the effect of splitting the vote on the right permitting the election of Mr Humphrey now considered the underdog certainly at the time Humphrey was considered almost a sure loser and his stand on many issues hadn't helped him either they Port Arthur News Chronicle correctly predicted the vice president's direction on the Vietnam issue now that he is a free man Mr Humphreys statements are beginning to get a bit more equivocal and before November fifth voting day rolls around they exigencies of the campaign may cause Mr Humphrey to swing even more positively to pledges about ending the Vietnam War since last week things have changed for Humphrey a West Coast newspaper The Vancouver Sun commented on the fact that there was going to be a race after all several significant developments in recent days lend credence to predictions that Mr Humphrey has at least a Truman's champs if not better of scoring an upset victory the Vancouver Sun mentions of vice presidential candidates and the fluctuations in the Vietnam situation as having some effect on the election campaigns of both top. Tenders and the talks about the public opinion polls the polls are the most puzzling factor of all until very recently all the polls agreed that Mr Nixon was a mile ahead the national polls still uphold the trend although the margin is narrower than a month ago but polls taken in individual states predict a different outcome results from a dozen large states put Mr Hunt for a margin and lie ahead about fifty one to forty nine percent they Montreal's French language paper La Presse concludes one of its editorials on the same note as the Vancouver paper what appeared impossible the day after the disastrous Democratic Convention is now beginning to have the appearance of the possible Canadian press has been very critical of many of Nixon's views the Ottawa Citizen writes about one of the issues raised by Nexen back in September Republican presidential candidate Richard Nixon is taking pains to portray himself as an experienced and wise statesman Unfortunately there was no statesmanship in the way he dragged the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty into the election arena but one of the more interesting editorials appeared in the Toronto Daily Star on October nineteenth under the title will a Republican win hurt Canada at that time Nixon was still considered foreign front they Toronto Star gives a strictly Canadian view on the prospects of dealing with a Republican administration under Richard Nixon the Star columnist the age Fullerton has examined Mr Nixon somewhat ambiguous opinions on international trade and finance and come to the conclusion that he is an economic nationalist possibly even a protectionist of the pre-war Republican school. One can only conclude that the entire Republican attack on this trade problem will be aimed at increasing exports and reducing imports the U.S. tariff lobbies will have a lot going for them in one thousand nine hundred eighty nine if this is sold to rattle paper then Canada as a leading exporter to the US will stand to lose substantially in trade earnings this is another example of Canada's dependence on foreign factories for its prosperity as stressed in our government's economic white paper this week we cannot count on a continued liberal trade policy in Washington perhaps the Montreal Gazette gives a good indication of Canadian reaction to this American presidential election year as the title suggests the amazing American election because that gives the reasons for its amazement one of the strange characteristics of this election year has been the manner in which the main contenders have been influenced by people of comparatively minor strength no one believed that Senator McCarthy His children's crusade was likely to win him the White House yet it was his showing in the New Hampshire primary which most influenced the president to withdraw from the contest. And those same primary results with Senator Robert Kennedy that this year not nine hundred seventy two was the year for him to enter the contest. During these last weeks of the campaign George Wallace the third party candidate is having an equally strong influence on the tactics of both the candidates of the major parties although he is not expected to win more than twenty percent of the total vote in another editorial that same newspaper discusses the so-called security gap an issue raised over the weekend without going into the details of that editorial The main point which the Gazette brings out is the difficulty of over simplifying the two leading candidates in the United States election next week have been criticized for being evasive about the major issues one of the reasons given for this attitude is the fear of dividing further and already a divided electorate and other perhaps less important to political contenders is a respect for the complexity of most of the United States' prime problems and these complex problems do not lend themselves to campaign oratory to the creation of catchy slogans or attractive solutions to simplify them for such use is to mis represent them and to mislead the public there is a chapter in the election handbook nine hundred sixty eight which warns out imponderables the unexplained to run plan factors can sometimes upset all the experts calculations for this reason political forecasts are always a more or less hazardous undertaking at this particular time there aren't too many Canadian newspapers willing to offer any forecasts for next week we'll wait and see. While we're waiting another item is likely to cause some debate in Canada over the subject of Canadian entry into the Organization of American States abstention ministerial goodwill tour left last weekend for Latin America and it's bound to revive the arguments for and against any official commitment to the OAS later wrote a telegram gives one side of the Canadian indifference to Latin America is based in part on our ease about the continent's unstable regimes and the different cultural climates between ourselves and them distances many of them very substantial separates some Latin American republics for example Chile and Argentina which are similar to Canada in national outlook the telegram things that some of the reasons that Ottawa has given for not joining the OAS no longer hold water in reviewing Canadian feeling on the issue of a Toronto paper seems to support kind of those entry into the body but pragmatists and conscious people that we are the decision to expand our relations financial trade cultural with the Americas will be based on self interest and national advantage we already contribute generous later the enter American Development Bank for those kind of development projects which our own vast unsettled regions are building Nevertheless the Latins are men of total commitment and believe Canada like nearly all the other countries in the Americas cannot fully function in the hemisphere until she is a member of the OAS another tour of a newspaper doesn't agree with The Globe and Mail has this to say recent Liberal governments have had a leaning toward the OAS suggesting that Canada might eventually become a member of this was not a first priority we would hope that it is no where on the list of priorities there are two reasons why the Globe and Mail thinks this way and here is one of them the accident of our joint occupancy of the Americas does not give us naturally close ties those still belong to the Commonwealth the Atlantic community and increasingly by the burgeoning of trade to the Orient. By and large in fact we are strangers to Latin Americans and they to us we share neither languages nor customs nor political philosophies to sit down in that empty chair reserved for us at the OAS could very well put us in dispute with them and in the strange men from our traditional friends there is a fear that Canada would be severely overshadowed by the United States for one thing but the most important reason lies in the fact that it has felt the US would pressure Canada to toll the line on any question of concern to the American government the Globe and Mail reveals this line of thought not even to mention Vietnam we should not have liked to be involved in the police action in the Dominican Republic or in propping up dictators anywhere that might be useful to US policy and the possibilities for such actions in Latin America are alarming Neither of course would we be comfortable in opposing the United States we have enough grounds for disputes between our own two selves without importing them from another continent. In the OAS as we would be the patsy of the United States practicing silent diplomacy or its enemy Prime Minister Trudeau has shown some favor to the idea of closer ties with that part of the hemisphere whether that leaning will produce any concrete steps towards entry into the Organization of American States is something that no one can foresee at this time and with that thought we have to leave you until next week when we'll be back with Canadian Press review. Canadian Press review of the weekly review of Canadian editorial opinion it was compiled this week by C.B.C. staff writer on the recording it and was read by Hilda and John press during the program was produced in Montreal by the international service of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.