Mr. Speaker:

I have the honour to inform the house that I have received a communication from two members notifying me that the following vacancy has occurred in the representation, viz.:

Of Gordon B. Isnor, Esquire, a member for the electoral district of Halifax, consequent upon his being summoned to the Senate.

I have accordingly issued my warrant to the chief electoral officer to make out a new writ of election for the said electoral district.

Right Hon. L. S. St. Laurent (Prime Minister):

I should like to say to you, sir, and through you to hon. members of the house, that following the issue of your warrant to the chief electoral officer, he has been directed to issue writs for by-elections to be held in the following electoral districts: Annapolis-Kings, Cartier, and Halifax, on June 19 next.

Mr. Daniel Mclvor (Fort William):

Mr. Speaker, I congratulate my deskmate, but I am sorry for myself. I am sorry to lose such a deskmate. If any other hon. member had sat in my place during this session and the last, he would have appreciated the many fine characteristics of the member who has been removed heavenwards. His outstanding characteristics are Christian courtesy and helpfulness. Fifteen years ago we advised the prime minister to send young men into the Senate. This advice was heeded, and now they are sending wise men from the east. We congratulate the Senate.

Mr. Gordon Graydon (Peel):

Mr. Speaker, now that a close personal parliamentary friend of mine, the former member for Halifax, has just completed another stage in what the member for Fort William (Mr. Mclvor) referred to as the pilgrim's progress, I could not permit this opportunity to pass without saying a few words. Having come into the House of Commons at the same time as the former member for Halifax who has now been appointed to the Senate, I suppose it is a favourable commentary upon the House of Commons itself to say that political lines interfere but little in the friendships or the good relations that people have with each other in this parliament. I always liked Gordon Isnor. Perhaps that is putting the matter in as plain and simple terms as one can put it. I liked him because he was honest and straightforward. More than that, he was a sound parliamentarian, even though sometimes we did not see soundness in exactly the same way. In addition, he came into this House of Commons as one who had had a wide and successful business career, and in that career, as we all know, he has since had continued success.

I want to say through you, Mr. Speaker, to the new senator who cannot take his accustomed seait among us today, that from this side of the house come the best wishes that a member can have from political opponents or friends on an occasion such as this. It is true that his appointment to the Senate will throw that body somewhat further out of balance, having regard to political affiliations; on the other hand, while I know that the Prime Minister is anxious to see that the Senate does not become too far out of balance, may I say to him that this by-election may perhaps see the House of Commons put in a little better balance.

When the new senator takes his seat I hope he will adopt the same judicial and nonpartisan air that some senators have been known to adopt in the past. If he does that and keeps out of party politics, it will help us to win Halifax in the next by-election.

Mr. W. F. Carroll (Inverness-Richmond):

As

the junior member from the province of Nova Scotia, I want to say how pleased I am at the elevation to the Senate of a colleague who had been one of the members for Halifax. What is the loss to the House of Commons will be the other place's gain. I know of no

Congratulations to Senator Isnor other person in Nova Scotia who in the past thirty years has taken such a keen interest in the welfare not only of his own constituency but of every part of the province as well as of this great dominion.

Mr. J. H. Dickey (Halifax):

Mr. Speaker,-

Mr. Knowles:

The senior member for

Halifax.

Mr. Dickey:

-speaking for the constituency of Halifax, I should like to say that the many friends and supporters of Gordon Isnor in Halifax will be pleased at the honour that has been done him in appointing him to the Senate. The people of Halifax will realize at least as well as the members of this house how well merited that honour is.

Mr. L. A. Mutch (Winnipeg South):

As one

of the rapidly dwindling number of members of this house who came here in 1935 for the first time, I should like to express the pleasure it has been for me, as a western member, to have the advantage of the friendship and the advice of Gordon Isnor during these years in the House of Commons. But it is not particularly with respect to that that I wish to speak today. It is in the memory of everyone in this house, and in the experience of many, that during the period of Gordon Isnor's membership in this house the port of Halifax, which he never let us forget, became one of the great strategic war centres of the Dominion of Canada. I greatly doubt, sir, whether during those war years any other private member of this house, in uniform or out of it, contributed more to the good feeling which existed between the civilian population generally and the members of the armed forces than did Gordon Isnor. I dislike to talk in this way, because it sounds as though he were dead; on the other hand it is perhaps the only opportunity I shall have to pay this tribute.

I am morally certain that among the armed forces of the Dominion of Canada there are hundreds, if not thousands, of navy men, army and air force men who have had personal contact with and who enjoyed the benefit of the friendly assistance and co-operation of Gordon Isnor in that port of Halifax through which most of our serving personnel passed.

Because of that fact, and because of the scores, if not hundreds, of personal contacts I myself have had, I am sure that they, together with us, will remember his kindly good offices and will be glad that he has been rewarded-if it is a reward-by recognition by his Prime Minister, and that he has been sent to the place in which he will be able, without the problems that confront us in the

[Mr. Carroll.)

House of Commons, to be, as he has always been, the real friend of those men and women in this country who put Canada first.

Mr. G. A. Cruickshank (Fraser Valley):

-Speaking for the maritimes of the Pacific coast, Mr. Speaker, and having been a guest of Gordon Isnor-and no finer host that I know of and no finer gentleman could have been elevated-I want to congratulate him. Through you, Mr. Speaker, I also want to tell the Prime Minister and the government that I am available from the Pacific coast.

Mr. A. L. Smith (Calgary West):

I rise to utter a word of complaint, Mr. Speaker. In Bourinot's Parliamentary Procedure many words are set out as unparliamentary. I think that section should be amended so that when anyone speaks of someone going from this place to the other place and calls it an elevation, he will be using unparliamentary language.

Mr. Mutch:

I said "if it is"; I did not say it was.