That was mainly because the prime minister's gibes against public funding for the arts and plans for stiffer sentences for young offenders backfired in Quebec, Canada's most socially liberal province.
The American electorate is still trapped in Nixonland: a land where Democrats and Republicans exchange endless gibes about who despises whom, where simmering class and regional resentments trump all other political considerations and where the airwaves crackle with accusations about lies and counter-lies.
As our hero gibes and quibbles with his gorgeous fashion-plate lover (Grace Kelly) and his gravelly nurse (Thelma Ritter) over the suspected murder (which we never see), we take refuge in the anonymity and safe distance of his long lens until the terrifying moment when the suspect stares right back at him.