Canadian Prime Ministers VI: Lester Pearson

18.  Lester B. Pearson (1963-1968) Liberal Party.

Pearson was born near Toronto in 1897.  He attended Victoria College in the University of Toronto.  The First World War interrupted his college education and he volunteered for service, first in a medical unit, and later in the Royal Flying Corps.  He suffered an aviation accident on his first flight and later, when recuperating in London, was hit by a bus, which pretty much ended his career in the Great War.  

Returning to Canada, he received his BA from the University of Toronto.  He then worked in the meat packing industry in Hamilton, ON and in Chicago, but left in time to pursue an advanced degree in history.  He won a scholarship to the UK to study history at Oxford in St. John's college and received his MA there.  He returned to the University of Toronto and taught history there, and also coached Varsity Blues Canadian football and ice hockey.    

In 1927 he became a diplomat and was sent to London in the late 1930s as the second in command in Canada House there under the high commissioner Vincent Massey until 1942 during the critical war years. He returned to Ottawa and then was re-posted to Washington DC as a ministerial counselor and then became the Canadian Ambassador to the US in early 1945, a position he held for nearly two years.  During this time he aided in the founding of NATO and the United Nations.  He almost became the first Secretary-General of the United Nations, but the Soviet Union vetoed that nomination. 

He was offered a place in the government of Mackenzie King, but Pearson declined.  It was only later on that he accepted St. Laurent's appointment as Secretary of State for External Affairs (i.e. Foreign Minister).  While in that position he played a key role in resolving the Suez crisis of 1957.  In that crisis, an Anglo-French-Israeli seizure of the canal zone followed Nasser's decision to "nationalize it" and tilt his nation towards a more cosy relationship with the Soviet Union.  In the ensuing military conflict, Cairo was bombed and the US, the Soviet Union, and the United Nations forced the French, British, and Israelis to back down.  The canal remained open for all-important oil from the Middle East, but Nasser's Egypt remained in control of the canal.   For his efforts Pearson received the Nobel Peace Prize, back when the award was awarded to persons for actually doing something for world peace, (or at least doing something the Norwegians approved as efforts towards world peace.)  

Pearson became party leader on the retirement of St. Laurent in 1958 after the fall of his government in 1957.  Pearson's first year as leader was unauspicious, as when he sought the return of power back to the Liberals, but was humiliated by Diefenbaker's revelation of St. Laurent predicting in a classified document that 1958 was going to be a bad year economically.  Thus the petty game of blaming one party or the other for the economy was played out that year.   (This, incidentally, was the same economic downturn that made 1958 a year that favored the Democrats in the US congress, who of course blamed it on Eisenhower).

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n 1963, the BOMARC missile defense issue and the divisions within the Diefenbaker government caused new elections to be called and Pearson became prime minister. As a Liberal prime minister, the BOMARC missile defense project went ahead, relations with the US improved, and a number of social programs were instituted, including

universal health care, the Canada Pension Plan, subsidized student loans for college students, and a new maple leaf flag, eliminating the old union jack version. 

An auto pact negotiated with the US in 1965 resulted in free trade for automotive products, leading to more cross border trade and manufacturing in subsequent years.  When my wife and I showed up at a family reunion in the 1990s in Lockport, NY they were bothered that we had bought a Toyota, (Lockport being a GM manufacturing town at the time)  but were mollified somewhat by the discovery that the model we were driving was made in London, ON. I guess a Canadian import was better than one from Japan. 

Pearson was less forthcoming when it came to lending support to the US war in Vietnam, refusing to send troops, and even criticizing US military strategy while speaking in the US.   Nevertheless relations with the US were friendlier than they had been under Diefenbaker.    While PM, Pearson combined the Army, Air Force, and Navy into a single entity called "Canadian Forces" in 1968.   The practice common in both the US and Canada of immigration quotas was eliminated during the Pearson years, and replaced it with a points system which did not consider race or national origin.  

de Gaulle in Montreal

It was 1967 that French President Charles de Gaulle made his infamous "Vive le Quebec Libre" speech.  Pearson criticized his speech the next day in parliament.  Just as Lyndon Johnson did not take kindly to Pearson criticizing US military strategy on American soil,  Pearson did not appreciate de Gaulle stirring up separatist sentiment on Canadian soil and said that de Gaulle was no longer welcome in Canada.    

In late 1967 Pearson announced his retirement and in a leadership conference that year Pierre Trudeau was chosen as the new leader and prime minister.    Pearson died in 1972.