Word: pearsons
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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When Friends Fell Out. Pearson's most anxious diplomatic hours came in November 1956, after Israel, Britain and France invaded Nasser's Egypt. The crisis split Canada, which had always loyally supported Britain in time of war, but now found itself ranged alongside the U.S. and most of the Commonwealth in disapproval. Pearson had long talked of a U.N. force. At a quiet conference with Dulles, during a late General Assembly session, Pearson brought his idea forward "to prevent the deterioration of the conflict into war, and give the British and French a chance to get out with...
...Pearson's diplomatic derring-do won him the 1957 Nobel Peace Prize for "his powerful initiative, strength and perseverance displayed in attempting to prevent or limit war operations and restore peace." It was a high point in his career, but Suez also cost him his immunity to criticism carried over from his years as a civil servant. The time for a national election drew nigh, and Tory Howard Green, who eventually followed Pearson as External Affairs Secretary, accused him of "knifing Canada's best friends in the back" over Suez. That was the first taste that Pearson...
Seven months later, when Liberal fortunes were at their lowest ebb, the party's leadership fell to Mike Pearson. He had not fought for it, but the tax-free $38,885 Nobel Prize money had given him a small measure of financial independence, and he was willing to take a chance. He had barely begun his new job when he made an almost fatal political blunder...
...first day in Parliament as leader, egged on by the more militant of the old Liberal pros, Pearson condemned a Conservative finance measure as wretchedly inadequate, and with uncharacteristic arrogance demanded that Diefenbaker hand over the Government without an election...
Diefenbaker rose with all the studied ire of a prosecution counsel and cut Pearson's arguments to shreds. Two weeks later, Diefenbaker called another election, and emerged from it with the most lopsided majority in Canadian history. 208 seats to the Liberals' 49. From that campaign. John Diefenbaker developed the theory, which he confidently clung to ever after, that he had an unfaltering political touch and a whammy on Lester Pearson...