CANADIAN SOCIALISTS IN TORONTO ELECTION
TORONTO -~ The League for Socialist Action reports encouraging results in its campaign behind the candidacy of Ross Dowson for mayor. LDditor of the Workers Vanguard, a national monthly publication, Dowson is well lmown in Canadian labor circles as a revolutionary socialist.
The League announced that it was supporting Dowson for two reasons: (1) To uphold the principle of independent labor political action when this was not done by either the Toronto Labor Council or the New Democratic party, (2) To rally support for the defense of Cuba against the threat of attack from the U.S.
The Cuban crisis was a burninc issue throughout the campaicn but the defenders of the Cuban Revolution -— no doubt because of their position on this question -~ found it difficult to break into the columns of the daily press. Dowson did succeed, however, in setting
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several short appearances on TV.
Most of the campaigning was done in the streocts. Some 60,000 leaflets were distributed at factory gates and door to door in. worlingclass areas. A special leaflet in Italian was distributed in the _ gene community. Almost a thousand posters were pasted up throughout e city. :
Two days before the election, demonstrators carrying placards paraded through the heavily crowded downtown areas. A sound truck was also used on major streets of the city.
The revolutionary-socialist candidate received 1,119 votes. The low vote was not unexpected. Workers were little interested in the election as a whole since the labor bureaucrats urged support of Tory and Liberal candidates. With limited resources and a complete press and radio blackout, it was difficult to bring the socialist alternative to the electorate. . . However, the League for Socialist Action reports that the direct response to its campaign was rreater than in any previous campairn.
IN THE WAKE OF THE INMO0-CHINESE