They, the People

An Ottawa Journal editorial reviewed the ruckus over a recent speech on Empire policy by Lord Halifax, British Ambassador to the U.S., and came up with a refreshing commentary on pundits v. people. Said the Journal:

"The odd thing about it all is that the average man, making up his income tax or with some other worry, hasn't the foggiest notion of what Lord Halifax did say and, what is more, doesn't care . . . which is the way, we fear, with a lot of those hectic controversies which politicians, publicists and pundits imagine to be historymaking, but which in the end don't matter at all. The publicists, pundits and politicians get themselves all worked up and imagine that all the rest of us are worked up too, when the truth is that the 'man in the street' is blissfully unconcerned. We venture to say, for example, that if we walked up Sparks Street this afternoon and asked every second man we met what Lord Halifax said, he would look at us blankly and ask: 'When did he speak?' "

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