The Virtue of Dullness

Many Canadians have found occasion to chide U.S. citizens for what External Affairs Chief Lester B. Pearson, no mean chider himself, calls "benevolent ignorance'' of Canadian affairs. Last week Montreal Star Editor George Ferguson explained to a Chautauqua, N.Y. audience why "some pretty important things can happen across your northern border without raising even a ripple of interest." Said Ferguson, in a mood of amiable concession: "The real reason why you know comparatively little about us is that we give you no very good reason for wanting to know more. You always know where we are, and--usually, anyway--we give nobody any trouble. We behave ourselves, and have a tradition of law and order which surpasses yours . . .

"Our divorce rate is much lower than yours, we stay much at home, we go to church on Sundays in surprisingly large numbers, and, taken all around, we are a very respectable lot--respectable but inclined to be dull. Our virtues and vices alike are pedestrian. We lack vividness . . . and violent emotion. Even though we know more or less where we are going, we trudge toward our destination. We do not skip and run. We lack both bands and flags on our national journey . . .

"We seldom surprise ourselves, and it is therefore hardly to be expected that we will surprise outsiders. We lack instability, which is always an interesting quality, even when it is most annoying. [But] we also have the capacity to be good neighbors even if we do not wear our hearts of gold upon our sleeves."

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