LESTER B. PEARSON

When it comes to Canadian Prime Ministers, few accomplished so much in so little time as Lester B Pearson. During his five years in office Pearson oversaw the introduction of the Canada Pension Plan, a national system of universal Medicare, the Commission on bilingualism and biculturalism, and the Maple Leaf Flag. And, he did it all without ever winning a majority government.

Lester B. Pearson

In addition to his two terms as Canada’s 14 th prime minister, Pearson was Canada’s foremost statesman in a distinguished 20-year career with the Department of External Affairs. His crowning achievement was winning the Nobel Peace Prize for his creation of the United Nations peacekeeping force during the 1956 Suez Crisis.

Through it all Lester Pearson – or “Mike” as he preferred to be called - maintained a self-effacing manner and wry wit that endeared him to a generation of Canadians during the tumultuous 1960s. Although Pearson never took himself too seriously, he took what he believed in very, very seriously, and turned those beliefs into action and achievement, again and again.

Long before he began to jet around the globe as Canada’s greatest diplomat and the world’s problem solver, the young Pearson moved many times with his family to various Ontario towns because of his father’s vocation as a Methodist minister. Born in 1897 in Newtonbrook, Ontario (now part of Toronto), Pearson’s childhood was filled with god, good works and athletics: mostly hockey and his favourite, baseball.

In 1913 he enrolled at the University of Toronto's prestigious Victoria College. Just after he turned 18 Pearson enlisted to fight in the First World War.He first served in the medical corps on the eastern front, then with the Royal Flying Corps. After the war, Pearson won a scholarship to Oxford University and then accepted a teaching position in history at U of T in 1923.

His career path would take a historic turn in 1928 when he was recruited into avery new Department of External Affairs. Over the next two decades, he played a vital role in forging Canada's international image, and played an important part in the creation of the United Nations and NATO. Pearson became the best-known Canadian in the world. And under his leadership Canada’s voice was not only heard, but heeded.

In 1948, he answered the call of politics, winning the federal seat of Algoma-East as a member of the Liberal Party. He immediately became Minister of External Affairs, as well as serving as president of the United Nations General Assembly

In October 1956 an Egyptian blockade of the Suez Canal threatened to boil over into a world war. When Britain, France and Israel attacked Egypt in an effort to take control of the canal, the war threatened to spread. Pearson solved the crisis by getting all sides to agree to the creation of a neutral United Nations force to maintain peace in the region. Pearson’s new peacekeeping force would continue to keep the peace in future decades in many parts of the world.

Pearson’s achievement earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957. He is the only Canadian to ever win that honour. In naming him, the Nobel committee said he had “saved the world”.

On the heels of this award, Pearson won the leadership of the Liberal Party in 1958. He quickly went about transforming the languishing party, recruiting young talent and developing a number of progressive social welfare initiatives. After spending five years as the opposition, Cricket won the 1963 federal election, wresting the leadership of Canada from his rival John Diefenbaker.

Despite holding only 129 seats (four short of a majority), Pearson moved ahead with a packed agenda.Over tremendous opposition from the provinces and the insurance companies, Pearson fought for and achieved a national system of universal Medicare. He also established the Canada Pension Plan and a family assistance plan. He increased old age pension payments and veterans allowances, and extended family allowances to include incentives for 16 and 17 year olds to remain in school. He also established interest free student loans to provide greater opportunity for young Canadians to go to university.

Pearson introduced the national labour code, with a minimum age of $1.25 an hour, an 8-hour working day, a 40 hour work week and two weeks vacation. He established a program of crop insurance to help protect farmers. He achieved the most sweeping and progressive package of legislation ever put before Canadians and he did it without incurring a deficit.

Pearson initiated a daring new concept in trade relations with the United States when he signed the Canada-United States Automotive Agreement, or Auto Pact, in January 1965. This led to the creation of thousands of jobs in southern Ontario. With these successes, the economy boomed and unemployment fell to its lowest rate since the mid-1950s.

One of Pearson’s guiding principles was fairness and equality of opportunity. He overturned Canada’s old immigration policy and established a points system for new immigrants. It was the world’s first race-free immigration policy and opened the doors of Canada to the world. He established the Royal Commission on Women that led to sweeping changes in the place and role of women in Canadian society.

Although he was small-town Ontario Anglophone, Pearson moved quickly to address the growing issue of francophone rights by setting up a Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism. The landmark commission led to government services in both English and French and a place for French Canadians in senior levels of government. Pearson’s action had helped save the country.

Canadians now take their flag for granted as a symbol of unity, yet at the time Pearson’s introduction of a new Canadian flag to replace the unofficial British Red Ensign was his most contentious move . Many British loyalists, including Diefenbaker, stridently objected to the move leading to months of public protest and political debate. For Pearson, a flag that all Canadians, regardless of their origin, could call their own was essential. In December 1964 the proposed red-and-white Maple Leaf was finally put to a vote; it was approved, making it Canada’s first official flag in its nearly 100-year history.

Lester B. Pearson PHOTO: Toronto Telegram Collection - York University Special Collections

Lester Pearson showed the iron in his soul during Canada’s Centennial celebrations of 1967. During a visit to Expo ‘67 in Montreal, French President Charles de Gaulle made his infamous "Vive le Québec libre" speech to a crowd. De Gaulle said his triumphant process into Montreal reminded him of entering Paris after its liberation from the Nazis in the Second World War. Pearson was enraged. It was Canadians who had fought and died driving the Nazis out of France. Amid nationwide controversy, Prime Minister Pearson delivered his response the next day insisting that “Canadians do not need to be liberated.” Chastened, de Gaulle returned to France.

At the end of the centennial year, Pearson surprised many by announcing his retirement. At a Liberal leadership campaign the following spring, he passed the torch to one of the prominent French Canadians he had brought into the Liberal party, Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Pearson had an eye for talent: two more of his recruits, John Turner and Jean Chrétien, would also eventually serve as prime ministers.

Pearson spent his brief retirement teaching and heading up a major study that argued the case for greater aid for the developing world. The secretary to the committee said Pearson had led them by drawing out what was best in them, a comment that could apply to Pearson’s entire career. Pearson died in December 1972 following a battle with cancer.

Countless schools, buildings and awards have been named in his honour. In 1984 Toronto International Airport was changed to Lester B. Pearson International. It is a fitting tribute to a man who opened the world to Canada and Canada to the world.

Pearson’s role in creating modern Canada have only recently begun to be given their full due. In 1999 he was named Canada’s top political hero in a poll done by the Dominion Institute of Canada and the Council for Canadian Unity.

In 2003, a survey of leading historians, political scientists, economists, former senior government officials, authors and journalists gave Lester Pearson something he had been denied in politics – a landslide victory. He was named overwhelmingly as Canada’s best prime minister of the last 50 years. His time in office was described as “an exciting turning point in Canadian political history; his legacy in domesticpolicy was called “transformational”.