Howe, feeling political activism was bad for business, had not publicly expressed political views.[22] Norman Platt Lambert, a Liberal Party official and friend of Howe, brought him to a meeting with Liberal Party leader and former Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King on 20 January 1934. The two men were impressed with each other, but each felt the other should make the next move. According to Lambert in his diary, Howe wanted a guaranteed Cabinet position were he to run in the new riding of Port Arthur.[23]