Word: pearsons
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
With stirring words about national unity, Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson last May proudly proposed a new national flag for Canada-three red maple leaves on a white ground bracketed in blue. He wanted it to replace the old Red Ensign, envisioned it as a bright symbol of Canada's independent nationhood. Last week Pearson finally had to admit defeat. He gave up trying to push his flag through a stalemated Parliament and dumped the whole thing in the lap of a 15-man interparty committee, which now has six weeks to find a brand-new design...
Bikini or Blanket? Far from producing unity, Pearson's flag produced a parliamentary spectacle that Canadians came to look upon with disgust. No sooner had Pearson's minority Liberal government proposed the flag than it was under violent attack-chiefly by the opposition Conservative Party headed by ex-Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, whose strategy apparently is to make it impossible for Pearson to govern. Diefenbaker set out to filibuster the flag to death. The Conservatives tore into the new flag as an insult to the "mother country," tagged it "Pearson's pennant," compared it to "the posterior...
...exercising forceful leadership, Pearson might have run the political risk of ramming his flag through with the help of the three small parties that generally support his minority government. Instead the debate raged on until Parliament was in chaos. Over a total 22 days of nonstop jabber, no fewer than 175 speeches were made, 117 of them by filibustering Conservatives. It got so bad that New Democrat Stanley Knowles rose in disgust. "We are making Parliament a side show," he said. And on that Mike Pearson finally had to agree...
English v. French. Pearson may eventually get some sort of maple-leaf emblem to cover his country. But it will take much more than a new flag to bring Canadians together. After 17 months in office, Pearson is beset on all sides-not only by Diefenbaker's Conservatives but also by angry squabbles over federal v. provincial powers, and most particularly by a deeply divided, mutually antagonistic population...
...thirds of Canada's 19 million citizens speak English; one-third are fiercely French - in language, culture, temperament. And now some secessionist sentiment is springing up in the province of Quebec, gathering support among French Canadians who have long complained bitterly of second-class citizenship. Pearson has made several concessions giving Quebec more provincial autonomy and French Canadians a stronger voice in the federal government. Many French Canadians consider this too little, too late...