The influential leader has made a lasting impact on the country and the world. Lester B. Pearson Chancellor. More People. Lynn Coady Writer Lynn Coady. Pearson was able to share most clearly his personal views on international assistance in several high-profile lectures following his retirement from politics.
His carefully considered opinion was that international development had become the most important instrument of global peace and security.
The pragmatic Pearson realized that international assistance was not a panacea. All that external aid can do … is to help the country help itself. The final responsibility rests at home. However, if a country is trying to go forward, to help itself, then we who are more fortunate have an obligation to assist in that process.
Pearson was remarkably prescient, with a well-honed ability to spot major shifts in international affairs at their outset. Who can now ask where his country will be in a few decades without asking where the world will be?
On December 11, as we celebrate Pearson the peacekeeper, we should not overlook Pearson the peacebuilder. Get the latest from Open Canada straight to your inbox!
By: Marina Sharpe. Robert Greenhill. He was profoundly influenced by what he saw; as a result, he attached great importance to collective defence in the face of dictatorships and aggression. In , Pearson returned to Canada. His easygoing personality and personal charm made him a great success, particularly with the press. In , he was named Canadian ambassador to the United States.
In September , Pearson was summoned home by Prime Minister Mackenzie King to become deputy minister or undersecretary of external affairs. He continued to take a strong interest in the UN; but he also promoted a closer political and economic relationship between Canada and its principal allies, the US and the United Kingdom.
See also Middle Power. He strongly supported a Western self-defence organization; he hoped that its existence would discourage aggression by the Soviet Union. In September , he became minister of external affairs and subsequently represented Algoma East, Ontario , in the House of Commons.
In , he served as president of the UN General Assembly, where he tried to find a solution to the conflict. His efforts displeased the Americans; they considered him too inclined to compromise on difficult points of principle. His plan was implemented, and as a reward he received the Nobel Peace Prize in By , Pearson was no longer in office. He and the St-Laurent government were widely blamed for not standing by Britain in The Liberals were defeated and St-Laurent resigned as leader.
The Liberals faced a Conservative minority government under John Diefenbaker. In his first act as leader of the Opposition , Pearson challenged Diefenbaker to resign and turn the government over to him. Diefenbaker ridiculed the idea; in the subsequent general election, the Liberals were reduced to 49 of the seats in the House of Commons. See also Elections of and Pearson began the slow task of rebuilding the party. With the assistance of parliamentary debaters such as Paul Martin and J.
Pickersgill , as well as party workers such as Walter Gordon , Mitchell Sharp and Maurice Lamontagne, Pearson re-established the Liberals as a national party. In , the Diefenbaker government collapsed over the issue of nuclear weapons. See Cuban Missile Crisis.
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