Lester B. Pearson: Canadian diplomat and Prime Minister

CANADA’S BOY WONDER – Lianne George, Maclean’s Sept.22/08

Your story on Lester B. Pearson brought out several areas of his personal life, of which I was not aware,and serves to make him even more real and human.

I have been a fan of his since the “flag debate” in the sixties, when he pushed through the Flag legislation, against much opposition from the Diefenbaker Conservatives. As a new Canadian citizen at the time, I could not understand why so many Canadians were against having their very own flag, rather that the poor facsimile of the Union Jack we were flying at the time. Not that I had anything against the British; they gave us the culture and liberal democratic freedoms we all enjoy –we owe much to them –but I felt strongly, that the time had come to forge a new Canadian identity which would include everyone, not just people of British or French descent, and that the flag would do much to encourage that kind of identity and pride in our country. That, largely, has come to pass.

In my opinion, the Pearson government’s achievements eclipse any of the other Canadian governments in our time (or at least, in mine), and it set the course for the social activism that brought us not only the Flag, but Medicare, the Canada Pension Plan and, through his protégée, Trudeau, freedom from government intrusion into our private affairs culminating in the Charter of Rights & Freedoms. All this he did, without ever having a majority government.
I don’t think the Liberals walk on water any longer, but Lester Pearson is still my hero!