One of Canada's foremost authors and journalists, offers a gripping
account of the contest between John Diefenbaker and Lester Pearson, two
prime ministers who fought each other relentlessly, but who between them
created today's Canada.
John Diefenbaker has been unfairly treated by history. Although he
wrestled with personal demons, his governments launched major reforms in
public health care, law reform and immigration. On his watch, First
Nations on reserve obtained the right to vote and the federal government
began to open up the North. He established Canada as a leader in the
struggle against apartheid in South Africa, and took the first steps in
making Canada a leader in the fight against nuclear proliferation. And
Diefenbaker's Bill of Rights laid the groundwork for the Charter of
Rights and Freedoms. He set in motion many of the achievements credited
to his successor, Lester B. Pearson.
Pearson, in turn, gave coherence to Diefenbaker's piecemeal reforms. He
also pushed Parliament to adopt a new, and now much-loved, Canadian flag
against Diefenbaker's fierce opposition. Pearson understood that if
Canada were to be taken seriously as a nation, it must develop a
stronger sense of self.
Pearson was superbly prepared for the role of prime minister: decades of
experience at External Affairs, respected by leaders from Washington to
Delhi to Beijing, the only Canadian to win the Nobel Prize for Peace.
Diefenbaker was the better politician, though. If Pearson walked with
ease in the halls of power, Diefenbaker connected with the farmers and
small-town merchants and others left outside the inner circles.
Diefenbaker was one of the great orators of Canadian political life;
Pearson spoke with a slight lisp.
Diefenbaker was the first to get his name in the papers, as a crusading
attorney: Diefenbaker for the Defence, champion of the little man. But
he struggled as a politician, losing five elections before making it
into the House of Commons, and becoming as estranged from the party
elites as he was from the Liberals, until his ascension to the
Progressive Conservative leadership in 1956 through a freakish political
accident.
As a young university professor, Pearson caught the attention of the
powerful men who were shaping Canada's first true department of foreign
affairs, rising to prominence as the helpful fixer, the man both sides
trusted, the embodiment of a new country that had earned its place
through war in the counsels of the great powers: ambassador,
undersecretary, minister, peacemaker. Everyone knew he was destined to
be prime minister. But in 1957, destiny took a detour.
Then they faced each other, Diefenbaker v Pearson, across the House of
Commons, leaders of their parties, each determined to wrest and hold
power, in a decade-long contest that would shake and shape the
country.
Here is a tale of two men, children of Victoria, who led Canada into the
atomic age: each the product of his past, each more like the other than
either would ever admit, fighting each other relentlessly while together
forging the Canada we live in today. To understand our times, we must
first understand theirs.
