Inaugurating the "Lester B. Pearson Lecture Series"

Hello Everyone,

This summer, in conjunction with this course, Sprott-Shaw Degree College will be inaugurating the "Lester B. Pearson Lecture Series". From July to September we will do our best to bring you a number of exciting speakers from the worlds of business, politics, academia and the arts who will share with you their insights into key aspects of Canadian life, which will shape our future deep into the 21st Century.

You all know, of course, that Lester B. Pearson -"Mike" to his friends- was Canada's 14th Prime Minister. Despite his unprepossessing nature, he was one of the most remarkable individuals ever to have led our country: academic -with an MA in history from Oxford, veteran of both World Wars, career diplomat, then from 1948 Canada's Minister of External Affairs, Pearson was awarded the 1957 Nobel Peace Prize - "because of his personal qualities - the powerful initiative, strength, and perseverance he has displayed in attempting to prevent or limit war operations and to restore peace in situations where quick, tactful, and wise action has been necessary to prevent unrest from spreading and developing into a worldwide conflagration": he defused the 1957 Suez Crisis though the United Nations by creating the very first UN Peacekeeping Mission. Pearson became leader of the Liberal Party in 1958, after defeating his chief rival, Paul Martin -father of Canada's 21st Prime Minister of the same name.The five years he spent at 24 Sussex Drive - the Canadian Prime Minister's official residence- from 1963 to 1968 proved to be, in many ways, a critical period which came to define and shape to this day not only our country and its values, but also the people who have governed it for the past half-century.



After being routed by John Diefenbaker's Conservatives in the 1958 election, Pearson convened, in 1960, what turned out to be the pivotal policy conference of the Liberal Party in the 20th Century: the Kingston "Thinkers' Conference", which developed many of the most important ideas which Pearson then implemented after he became Prime Minister. Next year we will be marking 50 years since this conference. In order to underline that politicians' ideas, values and visions for the future still matter most in the long-term for a country and its people, this lecture series celebrates not only Pearson the man, but also 50 years since the Kingston Conference and the policies it gave birth to - many of which have become, over the past century, fundamental markers in how we have come to define what it means to be "Canadian".

During his five years as Prime Minister, Pearson led two minority governments. As a result, he established the most remarkable partnership in Canadian politics since Confederation with Tommy Douglas, the leader of the NDP, and guided the House of Commons to adopt many of Canada's major social programs, such as universal health care, the Canada Pension Plan and Canada Student Loans, and and established the Maple Leaf as the new national flag in time for the Centennial Celebration and Expo '67. Pearson signed the critical Canada-US Auto Pact of 1965, instituted the 40-hour work week, two weeks vacation time and a new minimum wage. He instituted a number of Royal Commissions, formost among which on the status of women and on bilingualism, and recruited to Ottawa "The Three Wise Men" - Jean Marchand, Gerard Pelletier and Pierre Elliott Trudeau - in order to strengthen Quebec's role in the Confederation and give French Canadians a larger voice in Ottawa. "Mike" took the lead in instituting the world's first race-free immigration system, based on a points system which is even today being copied around the world (most recently in the United Kingdom), reorganised and unified the three branches of the Canadian Armed Forces, opposed the Vietnam War by declining the US request to send Canadian troops to South-East Asia, and stood up in no uncertain terms to French President Charles de Gaulle's famous "Vive le Quebec libre" by remarking that "Canadians do not need to be liberated" and making it clear le General was no longer welcome in Canada. It will come as no surprise that Canadians recently chose both Pearson and Douglas as two of the top six Greatest Canadians of all time (Douglas at No. 1 and Pearson at No. 6).

Yet Pearson's influence on the latter half of the Twentieth Century derives not only from his personal attributes and successes or from the policies he helped to shape and adopt, but also from the extraordinary cast of politicians he moulded in so many ways. "Mike" either recruited or mentored the next three Liberal Prime Ministers who eventually followed him - Pierre Trudeau, John Turner and Jean Chretien - and greatly influenced his main Liberal rival's son, Paul Martin Jr., who succeeded Chretien as Liberal Party Leader and Canadian Prime Minister. Remarkably, Pearson's vision and leadership left an important mark even on the young generation of Progressive Conservatives, and in particular on future Prime Ministers Joe Clark and Brian Mulroney. In short, one would not be greatly amiss in claiming that, although Pearson was Prime Minister for only five years, the four decades between 1963 and 2003 could rightfully be labelled as "the Pearson Era" in the same way that we speak of the "John A. McDonald Era" at the end of the 19th Century and of the "McKenzie King Era" in the first half of the 20th Century.

Future Prime Ministers Pierre Elliott Trudeau, John Turner and Jean Chrétien with
then-Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson following Cabinet changes, 4 April 1967, Ottawa

Today, we live again in a time when minority governments seem to be back in fashion in Canada, but without the civility and cooperation between members of different parties for the greater good of the country -when vision and leadership are more required than ever at both national and international levels in the midst of the greatest economic, social, political, cultural and environmental upheavals and challenges we have faced for almost a century. At this time, we could do far worse than remember and celebrate the Pearson Era and, perhaps, re-acquaint ourselves with an idea of politics as public calling, and of public service as a solemn duty encumbent not only on a few elected officials in far away national and provincial capitals, but on each and everyone of us, in our daily lives, irrespective of our chosen professions. If the "Lester B. Pearson Lecture Series" will contribute to even a modest degree in motivating us all to reach towards this goal, it will more than have accomplished its aims.