Pearson — Amiable but Ambitious, He Governed in Chaos and Confusion, Yet Left a Legacy of Unequalled Achievement

PEARSON — AMIABLE BUT AMBITIOUS, HE GOVERNED IN CHAOS AND CONFUSION, YET LEFT A LEGACY OF UNEQUALLED ACHIEVEMENT

John English

Lester B. Pearson had the good fortune to follow John Diefenbaker as prime minister, and the misfortune to have the Chief sitting across from him as opposition leader, taunting and tormenting his Liberal government at every turn. From a botched budget to a string of scandals, it seemed Pearson reigned amid chaos on CP Photo his side, and the destructive tactics of the Tories on the other. Yet in only five years th Lester B. Pearson, prime minister in office, Canada’s 14 prime minister left a record of remarkable achievement — from 1963 to 1968. Father of the flag, the Canadian flag, the Auto Pact, medicare, and the Canada Pension Plan with an Medicare and the Canada Pension opting out formula for Quebec. Pearson called it co-operative federalism, and he Plan, he left a legacy much clearer in the long view of history than in the made it his mission to address the aspirations of Quebec within Canada. From the muddle of his times. landmark Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Bilculturalism, to the recruitment of Pierre Trudeau and a new generation of francophones, Pearson made Canadian unity and federal-provincial relations the touchstones of his premiership. The irony, as his biographer John English observes, is that a diplomat who made his reputation in foreign policy, made history as prime minister in domestic policy.

Lester B. Pearson a eu la chance de succéder à John Diefenbaker et la malchance de l’avoir comme chef de l’Opposition, celui-ci ne manquant pas une occasion de railler et de tourmenter son gouvernement. Entre un budget bâclé et des scandales en cascade, Pearson semblait mal pris, gouvernant en dépit du désordre qui régnait dans son parti et les tactiques dévastatrices des conservateurs. Au terme de cinq courtes années de pouvoir, il affichait pourtant un bilan de réalisations remarquables parmi lesquelles le drapeau canadien, le Pacte de l’auto, l’assurance maladie et le Régime de pensions du Canada, assorti d’un droit de retrait pour le Québec. Pearson parlait à ce propos de fédéralisme coopératif et s’était donné pour mission de répondre aux aspirations du Québec dans le cadre fédéral. De l’historique Commission royale sur le bilinguisme et le biculturalisme au recrutement de Pierre Elliott Trudeau et d’une nouvelle génération de francophones, il a fait de l’unité canadienne et des relations fédérales-provinciales la pierre angulaire de son mandat. L’ironie étant que ce diplomate qui avait acquis sa réputation en politique étrangère, observe son biographe John English, est passé à l’histoire pour sa politique intérieure.

n 1927, there were two young lecturers in the history Donald Creighton’s father, Rev. W.B. Creighton, com- department at the University of Toronto, Lester Pearson missioned Lester Pearson when he was at Oxford in the I and Donald Creighton. Both had studied at Toronto and early 1920s to write anonymous articles on postwar Britain Oxford and were Anglo-Canadians who believed that for the Methodist Christian Guardian in which Pearson exco- Canadian history was the expression of the grandeur and the riated the end of Prohibition in England, the absurdities of freedom of the British Imperial experience. Both were sons of Irish nationalism, and the German tradition of militarism. the manse, members of the so-called “Canadian church” He commended Lloyd George’s response to the Irish crisis that had carried British values into the Canadian West. and defended him against critics of the Versailles Treaty.

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With particular sarcasm, he ridiculed for the future of the British Empire as the British Empire. He had the good the “technical” universities of America early as 1940, when he took part in fortune to serve in London in the last while celebrating Oxford’s “classic negotiations that secured American years of the peace and the first years of halls” that sent “forth [men] well help for the Empire/Commonwealth the Second World War. He then went equipped to govern the Empire-aye, war effort. Although wistful about the to Washington in 1942, just at the the World.” Donald Creighton, soon Imperial past, he, unlike Creighton and moment when the Americans were to arrive at Oxford, no doubt read many others, never regretted the new assuming leadership of the war effort these words and agreed. and expanded ties with the United and the making of the peace. By the 1960s Lester B. Pearson, States. He told his friend MP Brooke It was the construction of the Canada’s 14th prime minister, and Claxton in 1940 that the new ties were peace that allowed Pearson to demon- Donald Creighton, its most eminent “something to cling to” and in the long strate his exceptional skills in negotia- historian, agreed on very little. term would prove “decisive.” tion and conceptualization. He took Pearson was promoting bilingualism Pearson became Canada’s prime part in numerous committees that and biculturalism, a policy that minister one day before his sixty-sixth sketched out the architecture of the Creighton believed lacked historical birthday in 1963. Complex, highly new international order. In these meet- precedent and threatened Canadian intelligent and ambitious, Pearson ings, he tended to remain silent until nationality. Moreover, the postwar concealed those qualities beneath a he sensed the mood and direction. He period seemed to Creighton a careless rumpled amiability and a self-depre- would then begin to make gentle and and eventually fatal embrace of the cating humour. He was not an easy often witty interventions. By the end United States and rejection of the read. The ardent Methodism of his of a series of meetings, he was either British tradition, which he the chair or the principal identified as the foundation of Pearson became Canada’s prime drafter of the final document. Canadian identity. Such was the case with the Creighton’s anger, so evi- minister one day before his sixty- series of meetings that culmi- dent in his later writings such sixth birthday in 1963. Complex, nated in the formation of the as The Forked Road, focused highly intelligent and ambitious, UN’s Food and Agricultural directly on Pearson, who, in Pearson concealed those qualities Organization. Agriculture was a Creighton’s view, had so clearly subject about which he knew betrayed his own past. Betrayal, beneath a rumpled amiability and a little, but his colleagues on the of course, is in the eye of the self-deprecating humour. interim commission recom- beholder, but Creighton was mended that he become the correct in his argument that the path youth disappeared quickly in the later first secretary-general of the FAO. that Pearson chose was not the one 1920s and religious observance He chose instead to return to that his colleagues in the history became formal and rare. He served in a Canada where he became the Under- department in 1927 would have pre- military uniform twice as long as any Secretary of State for External Affairs dicted. Nor did Pearson in his final lec- other Canadian prime minister and he and guided Canada’s response to the ture in his 1927 course on institutions served at a war front, fortunately the early Cold War. His principles were of the modern British Empire when he quiet eastern front. Nevertheless, clear: strong opposition to Soviet forecast, “with confidence,” that a Pearson had a private’s scepticism Communism; support for multilater- hundred years ahead eager Toronto about “the brass” and military ways. In al organizations; and expansion of students would listen to another the 1950s, he spent most of his spare the Canadian foreign service. He young lecturer in a course on “The suc- time with business people, but he could be pragmatic if circumstances cessful solution to Britain’s imperial shared few of their views about econo- demanded flexibility. When the problems in the 20th century.” my and society. United Nations failed to realize its Of course there was no solution, promise because of the Security and the Imperial fork in the road hat had shaped Pearson was his Council veto, he enthusiastically pro- became a dead end. Creighton W career in the Canadian diplo- moted the concept of a regional secu- responded to that outcome with elo- matic service. Entering the small rity alliance. In the debates that led quent evocations of the British Department of External Affairs in to the formation of the North Canadian past in his great biography of 1928, he quickly attracted attention Atlantic Treaty Organization, Pearson Sir John A. Macdonald but later with for the excellent prose of his memo- argued for a broader alliance that angry nostalgia and vilification of randa and his easy manner. Prime would embrace not only security but those he deemed the betrayers. Despite Minister R.B. Bennett selected him to also socio-economic concerns. The the imperialist sentiments of his be secretary to two Royal Commissions so-called Article II of the Alliance was Toronto lecture, Pearson gave up hope and rewarded him with an Order of called the Canadian article. Although

64 OPTIONS POLITIQUES JUIN-JUILLET 2003 Pearson — amiable but ambitious

CP Photo Queen Elizabeth looks down from atop the mini-rail at Expo 67, during her tour with Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson. The spirit of Expo announced a new sense of confidence in Canada and opened the door of Liberal succession to Pierre Elliott Trudeau it amounted to little, it reflected St-Laurent had total confidence in lenges in his first years in office. Pearson’s concern about political Pearson and gave him complete free- Nevertheless, he took the strong cards support for the alliance in Canada. dom to direct Canadian foreign policy. that fate had dealt him and played Others had noticed Pearson’s The Canadian bureaucracy was highly them with consummate skill. political shrewdness and growing respected in the postwar era, and its The Korean War could have been prominence. In 1948 Prime Minister foreign service was its elite. With the divisive: a poll in August 1950 indicat- Mackenzie King, with the strong agree- assistance of highly talented officials, ed that only 21 percent of francopho- ment of his successor Louis St- Pearson became the government’s nes would support sending ground Laurent, recruited Pearson for the most popular minister. The consensus troops. Yet Canadian ground troops Liberal Party. Pearson won a safe among Canadians of all major parties were sent. Moreover, the fear that the Northern Ontario seat in an October that Canada should participate active- Soviet Union would take advantage of bye-election and became St- Laurent’s ly in the American-led alliance con- the events in Asia to attack Western secretary of state for External Affairs. fronting Soviet Communism meant Europe prompted the government to The timing was superb. that Pearson faced few political chal- increase defence budgets rapidly and

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create a significant Canadian military St-Laurent won the 1953 election invasion of Egypt in late October 1956. presence in Europe. As the Korean War decisively, but his government began Pearson and St-Laurent immediately developed, Pearson was increasingly to lose strength immediately. Senior made it clear that, for the first time, anxious about American impetuosity, ministers departed, and St-Laurent Canada would not support Britain in a but he told one critic, the historian himself lost vitality and confidence. major war. With the assistance of UN A.R.M. Lower, that there was nothing Pearson continued to be an active for- Secretary-General Dag Hammarsköjld to be gained by washing “our demo- eign minister, especially with NATO and the Americans, Pearson crafted a cratic dirty linen” in public. As one and the UN. He was the first NATO for- motion that called for the creation of a who drew his lessons from the events eign minister to visit the Soviet Union, peacekeeping force and the withdrawal of the 1930s when the United States which was a memorable but disturbing of the invading forces. In Canada, the had stood aside, Pearson supported the experience. A wild night on the Black Pearson initiative faced strong criticism postwar American willingness to exer- Sea, where Nikita Khrushchev insisted from Conservative anglophone jour- cise its power internationally. The that he join him in consuming eight- nalists, and the British were irritated, challenge for Canadians was to accept een shots of vodka, confirmed for even though Pearson argued that he American leadership while trying to Pearson that the finger upon the was saving them from catastrophe. For influence American policy in a way nuclear button was unsteady. his efforts, however, Pearson received that reflected Canadian interests and Nor was the American finger as the Nobel Peace Prize in October 1957. Canada’s conception of global good. reluctant as Pearson thought it should That challenge made y that time, Pearson was no Pearson speak out in 1951 when St-Laurent had total confidence in B longer a cabinet minister. General Douglas MacArthur Pearson and gave him complete In the spring, the Liberal gov- publicly considered expanding freedom to direct Canadian foreign ernment was defeated, and the war to China and using the John Diefenbaker formed a atomic bomb. It was time to policy. The Canadian bureaucracy minority Conservative govern- wash some dirty laundry pub- was highly respected in the postwar ment. Pearson now had to con- licly, and Pearson did so in a era, and its foreign service was its sider whether he wanted to lead speech on April 10, 1951. elite. With the assistance of highly the Liberals in opposition. He Declaring that the age of “rela- rightly believed that he lacked tively easy and automatic politi- talented officials, Pearson became the some desirable political skills. cal relations” with the US were government’s most popular minister. He wrote in his memoirs about probably over, Pearson asserted his dislike and distrust of “the the right to criticize American leader- be. He believed that John Foster Dulles, marketing of politicians and policies as ship when it was necessary. He also the American secretary of state, took thought they were detergents or worked closely within NATO and the the West too close to the brink of war. deodorants.” Nevertheless, when St- UN to create multilateral options for McCarthyism in the United States, Laurent retired in September, party American policy-makers. with its outrageous assertions about leaders and press immediately identi- Communist infiltration, deeply trou- fied Pearson as the best possible succes- earson’s activities sometimes bled Pearson. He did not escape accusa- sor. With Nobel Prize in hand, Pearson P offended the Americans, especially tion himself: former Communist agent became Liberal leader in January 1958. those on the conservative right. Most, Elizabeth Bentley had identified He soon proved as politically inept as however, admired his sincerity and Pearson as a Russian source when he had feared. Two days after becoming ability. He was offered the post of first Pearson was stationed in Washington leader, he moved a motion in the secretary-general of NATO in 1952, during the war. More irritating to the House condemning the government became president of the United American anti-Communist right was for its management of the economy Nations General Assembly in the fall Pearson’s defence of Herbert Norman, a and calling, not for an election, but for of that year, and was the West’s Canadian diplomat considered by its resignation. The old charge of favoured candidate for the position of many conservative Americans to be a Liberal arrogance suddenly had new secretary-general of the United Communist agent. When Norman substance, and John Diefenbaker called Nations. The Soviets, as before, would committed suicide in 1957 because of an election. not accept Pearson as secretary-gener- these allegations, Pearson expressed The election was a debacle for the al. Nevertheless, the possibility of private bitterness and public anger. Liberals as Diefenbaker, a superb Pearson’s departure caused St- Laurent The tragedy followed Pearson’s campaigner and orator, won 208 seats to indicate to him that he believed greatest triumph: the creation of a and the Liberals only 49. Pearson Pearson should succeed him. He would United Nations Emergency Force to thought of resigning, but there was no have a long wait. respond to the British-French-Israeli convincing Liberal alternative. For the

66 OPTIONS POLITIQUES JUIN-JUILLET 2003 Pearson — amiable but ambitious next five years, Pearson rebuilt the Liberals Quebec became a catalyst for munist mole, while Pearson in return party and laid in place the foundations change and state intervention. threatened Diefenbaker with revela- for another Liberal government. tions about the sexual involvement of Pearson was no match for earson’s Liberals lost the June 1962 Tory ministers with Soviet agents. Diefenbaker in Parliament; there he P election, but Diefenbaker was held Separatist bombs exploded in relied on the parliamentary skills of to a minority. In the fall of that year, Montreal just as Pearson took office, Paul Martin, Jack Pickersgill, and the Conservative government began to and the challenge of Quebec national- Lionel Chevrier. Outside Parliament, crumble. Diefenbaker’s truculent atti- ism became ever more intense. he recruited new candidates and advisers, relying on his Pearson himself took leadership in two areas. The first was the personal networks and those of Walter Gordon, a adoption of the new Canadian flag. Despite the doubts of his Toronto businessperson Cabinet colleagues, Pearson told the annual meeting of the who had helped Pearson Canadian Legion in 1964 that Canada must have a new flag. financially when he entered On December 15, 1964 the maple leaf design won politics and later. Gordon’s close links with The Toronto parliamentary approval, and eventually became the badge of Star were enormously useful Canadian backpackers and the symbol of a new Canada. and brought such talented young politicos as Keith Davey. tude during the Cuban missile crisis in Yet the government kept its head Pearson himself recruited Tom Kent, October undermined his relationship — its program focus — while every- an Englishman who was editor of The with the United States and his ties thing around it seemed chaotic. Tom Winnipeg Free Press. Kent had criticized with the English Canadian business Kent produced a stream of memoranda Walter Gordon’s economic national- community. Pearson moved quickly to telling the cabinet how its program ism, but when they met at a Kingston take advantage of the situation by could be realized, and Walter Gordon policy conference in September 1960 changing Liberal policy and support- as finance Minister gave his strong sup- they liked each other and quickly dis- ing nuclear warheads for Bomarc and port. In retrospect the record seems covered common goals. Kent’s speech Honest John missiles that Canada had remarkable: the Canada Pension Plan, at the conference irritated some of earlier purchased. His reversal of policy expanded old age assistance, the Pearson’s parliamentary colleagues in drew criticism from Princeton student Canada Student Loan plan, medicare, its criticism of past Liberal policies and Lloyd Axworthy, who accused Pearson expanded regional development, an its call for a shift to the Left. of reneging on past principles, and international development agency, Nevertheless, it caught the mood of from Quebec intellectual Pierre “colour-blind” immigration, and many the times and reflected Pearson’s own Trudeau, who labelled Pearson the other programs that brought the state inclinations. “unfrocked priest of peace.” It proba- more directly into Canadian lives. The Liberal party had lost power bly won no additional votes, but it did Pearson himself took leadership in because Diefenbaker’s Conservatives cause a leadership crisis in the two areas. The first was the adoption of pushed them to the Left. After 1960 Conservative government. The minor- the new Canadian flag. Despite the Pearson with the assistance of Gordon ity government fell, and the election doubts of his Cabinet colleagues, and Kent drew up an activist program on April 8, 1963 returned a Liberal Pearson told the annual meeting of the of government. The conference, minority government. Canadian Legion in 1964 that Canada Pearson later wrote, was a “forecast of must have a new flag. It provoked angry the future.” The Liberal Party of espite the disappointing minori- debate, and many times the political Canada would become a liberal party, D ty status, Pearson promised “wise men” suggested the idea should which it had not always been in the “sixty days of decision.” The first sixty be dropped. On December 15, 1964 the past. While the influence of John days, however, were marked by confu- maple leaf design won parliamentary Kennedy’s new frontier and John sion and disappointment, as Finance approval, and eventually became the Kenneth Galbraith’s affluent society Minister Walter Gordon’s first budget badge of Canadian backpackers and the were obvious in the policy approach, was a political disaster. The next two symbol of a new Canada. there was another important factor: the years were filled with scandals, espe- The second area of leadership was election of the Liberal Party in Quebec cially involving francophone minis- policy towards Quebec. In opposition, and the so-called Quiet Revolution. ters. Pearson himself seemed an Pearson had proposed a royal commis- Quebec had historically been an obsta- ineffective leader, and rancour marked sion on the French presence in Canada cle to state intervention in the econo- parliamentary debate. Diefenbaker pri- even though several of his advisers, my and society; under Jean Lesage’s vately accused Pearson of being a com- including Gordon, thought it politically

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unwise. He kept the promise and estab- lished a Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, one of the very few royal commissions that fun- damentally affected Canada. Its hearings compelled all Canadians to consider what the transformation in Quebec soci- ety meant for Canadian confederation. Simultaneously, Pearson expanded the role of francophones in the government and, more importantly, in the public service of Canada. He constantly searched for new voices to speak to and for Quebec and for policies that would make francophones a more integral part of the Canadian political process.

hen his first francophone min- W isters stumbled, he took a chance. In 1965, he decided to call an election for November 8, mainly to secure a majority, partly to reorganize his government. He took a personal role in the recruitment of three Quebec candidates: the journalist Gérard Pelletier, the labour leader Jean Marchand, and the Quebec intellectu- al and frequent Pearson critic Pierre Trudeau. He did not win a majority government, but the three Quebec recruits won and profoundly influ- enced the final two years of the Pearson government. Walter Gordon, who had urged an election, left the government, and the focus of the gov- ernment turned away from the social programs to the challenge of Quebec nationalism and separatism. Pearson’s diplomatic experience persuaded him that dialogue must remain open and principles must not The Gazette, Montreal trump common sense. Federal- Prime Minister Trudeau with his predecessor at the unveiling of the former provincial meetings occurred incessant- PM’s portrait outside the House of Commons. Of the rough parliamentary arena, Pearson told a group of students near the end of his life: “Don’t be downhearted ly — 125 in 1965 alone. The failure of in the thick of battle. It is where all good men would wish to be.” the attempt to revise the Canadian con- stitution under the so-called —Fulton- Favreau formula” caused the federal Canada’s centennial year, and endorsed unable to establish a good personal government to find other expedients. It Quebec separatism. His back stiffened; relationship with Trudeau. After fiddled with constitutional precedents de Gaulle went home. Trudeau was elected, he never consult- and adapted funding agreements to sat- In December 1967 Pearson ed Canada’s sole Nobel Peace Prize isfy Quebec’s demands for control of announced his resignation. He quietly winner about foreign policy. Trudeau’s social programs and even foreign rela- encouraged francophones to seek the foreign policy angered Pearson, but he tions. However, Pearson responded leadership, and Pierre Trudeau finally strongly supported him in the general angrily when French President Charles accepted. He must have remembered election that occurred just before his de Gaulle visited Quebec in 1967, Trudeau’s earlier criticisms, and he was death on December 27, 1972.

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Donald Creighton gave Pearson in both wars, spent his prime ministerial French Canada, a society about which poor marks for his work. Biculturalism years concentrating upon “whether he knew little and whose language he was a historical myth, Canadian cultural Confederation satisfied French Canada.” did not speak. Nevertheless, he took duality a chimera. Pearson’s remaking of The Quebec historian José Igartua the French language from the Ottawa the Canadian constitution would has described the end of British elevators to the Cabinet table, fash- inevitably lead to Quebec separation. In Canada in the postwar era as “the ioned symbols for a new Canadian Creighton’s view, “All that really mat- other Quiet Revolution.” Pearson’s nationality, and kept Canadians talk- tered” for the Pearson government was achievement in diplomacy in the ing about common purposes. At the end of Pearson’s Pearson’s achievement in diplomacy in the 1940s and first year as prime minister, 1950s was to recognize Canada’s North American fate and the Canadian Annual Review to give Canadians a sense of pride in their new place in the declared that Pearson might well borrow Roosevelt’s retort world that made the other quiet revolution relatively when someone said that he tranquil. His achievement in government was to respond to would be the greatest presi- the challenge of French Canada, a society about which he dent: “either the greatest or knew little and whose language he did not speak. the last.” Perhaps he is not the greatest, but his achievements “whether Confederation satisfied French- 1940s and 1950s was to recognize assured that he was not the last. Canadian cultural needs and fulfilled Canada’s North American fate and to French-Canadian cultural aspirations.” give Canadians a sense of pride in their John English, Professor of History at Creighton’s charge has substance: new place in the world that made the Waterloo University, is the author of criti- his former colleague, who like him was other quiet revolution relatively tran- cally acclaimed two-volume biography of born in a Methodist manse, studied at quil. His achievement in government Lester B. Pearson, and is currently at work Oxford, and had supported conscription was to respond to the challenge of on a biography of Pierre Elliott Trudeau.

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