Word: pearsons
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Politicians, like prizefighters, rarely retire by choice. Not so Lester B. Pearson, 71. Since he retired as Canada's Prime Minister last month, Pearson has declined an offer to teach full time at Yale, although he may give a series of lectures at Harvard next winter. He has settled into a small white cottage in suburban Ottawa, where he intends to spend his days savoring his wife's home cooking ("It's fantastic") and chasing down cobwebs. "We wanted a smallish house," he says, "so that I could do the housework...
Three days after succeeding Lester Pearson as Canada's 15th Prime Minister, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, 48, went before Parliament last week and, in his first formal appearance as leader of the country, dissolved Parliament and called for new general elections on June 25. Thus, ignoring considerable party opinion that he should prove himself to the voters before going to the polls, Trudeau decided to push ahead and try to capitalize on the political momentum that propelled him almost overnight from the Justice Ministry in Pearson's government into his country...
...addition to his personal appeal, Trudeau has had other factors working for him in his leadership campaign--his French Canadian birth, and an endorsement by Pearson's conservative Finance Minister, Mitchell Sharp. Many Liberals felt that a French Canadian Prime Minister would be best able to deal with French Canada's increasing demands for political and economic sovereignty. The problem with Trudeau was that he had a reputation as a leftist, and here Sharp's support served to convince many right-of-center Liberals that Trudeau was politically "sound" after...
...fact, Trudeau's administration will probably be somewhat more "sound" than many of his supporters were hoping when they elected him. The new P.M.'s foreign policy (with Mitchell Sharp as External Affairs Minister) will probably not differ radically from Pearson's, although Trudeau has announced that he will seek to decrease Canada's military commitments to NATO and the United Nations. No break with the United States over Vietnam is forseeable, although there is considerable opposition to U.S. policies both in Canada generally and within the Liberal government. Trudeau has already made it clear that he will not attempt...
Thus Trudeau's approach to Ottawa-Quebec relations is likely to be less diplomatic and cautious than was Pearson's. For Trudeau will attempt to do something that Pearson could never do: he will try to replace the Premier of Quebec as the leader of French Canada. This effort may well lead to a direct confrontation between Premier Johnson and Prime Minister Trudeau on the question of special status for Quebec. And if such a confrontation occurs, it could prove to be the turning point--one way or the other--in the 200 year history of French-English division...