The power shift that is causing such interest in the world has its Canadian ramifications. One hundred years ago public opinion really mattered on the Canadian frontier as Militia units frequently took the law into their own hands while governments dithered and eventually followed. Opinion polls and the information explosion have brought us full circle so that public opinion at the local level is once again the engine for war and the brake upon reckless military adventure. In early time the Canadian Community has exercised this influence on its politicians. Using the Forester Regiment based in typical small cities of Ontario, Brian Brown shows how that direct influence was lost in the twentieth century.
