Something About the Climate?

Canada's election campaign, conducted with the utmost decorum and a minimum of splash and frippery, was a reflection of Canada's character. Wrote Bruce Hutchison, able novelist (The Hollow Men) and associate editor of the Winnipeg Free Press:

"We can stand a touch of sin ... a naughty trifle now & then, just to liven things up. They have always enjoyed such tidbits in British politics, the record of which abounds with magnificent exaggerations, metaphors and friendly libels. American political campaigns have always been a quadrennial circus. . . .

"But Canada's campaigns are dull and dreary, highly moral and a fearful bore. . . . Perhaps it has something to do with our climate. The cold of Canada freezes the warm blood of our whimsy and freezes the warm phrase on our lips before it can be heard. The unthinking man will say that this is all to the good, that politics here is kept on a high plane of dignity and decorum. . . . On the contrary, politics, in our cold, undiluted form, bore us so much that . . . often politicians can hardly get a meeting together. . . . One prominent candidate found himself addressing his chauffeur and the janitor of a public hall and no one else the other night. . . . Today the Canadian political audience looks like ... a cargo of dead haddock. The statesman gazing into these cold, unblinking eyes ... is frightened to say anything he would not repeat in church."

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