Posted on 02/02/2002 7:21:06 AM PST by Taft in '52
A political misfit with a grand legacy
Seen as weak and vacillating, Lester Pearson gave Canada medicare, pensions, and a flag. A hard man to know, admits former Prime Minister KIM CAMPBELLBy Kim Campbell
If you ask Canadians to identify some of the elements that define us as a country, they will cite our medical plan, our two official languages, our international role as peacekeepers and our maple leaf flag that even Americans put on their backpacks when traveling abroad. All these symbols - including the reputation that would make an American want to be taken for a Canadian - can be traced to the leadership of Lester Bowles Pearson, Canada's 14th prime minister.Long before Pierre Trudeau caught the international imagination (more for his style and marriage than for his policies) Pearson, as winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, was the world's best-known Canadian. Yet his extraordinary career was not due to any early commitment to politics nor any remarkable political skills.
Born in 1897 into a Southern Ontario Methodist minister's family, he went off to the University of Toronto to study history. War came. His decision to leave his studies and join the Royal Flying Corps in England was a momentous one for two reasons. His squadron leader, deciding that "Lester" was a poor name for a flying ace, named him "Mike," a nickname that stuck for life. And he survived the war because, after crashing on his first solo training flight, the recuperating "Mike" Pearson snuck off to London where he was hit by a bus and was then sent home to Canada.
Pearson returned to England to do graduate studies in modern history at Oxford, and to play hockey. (A keen jock, his knowledge of baseball statistics was legendary.) Returning to Toronto, he became a lecturer, married one of his students, Maryon Moore, and then wrote the foreign service exam for the Canadian government's new department of External Affairs. After earning the top mark, he left academe to become a career diplomat.
a better question would be to axe americans,
"when you hear canada, what do you think of?"
example:
"alex, would that be, what is north dakota...without dasHOLE?"
She was flattened in the election. The Liberal Party of Canada triumphed (Kim was Progressive Conservative). Did the Libs do anything drastic for the unemployed? N00..oo.
One more thing in defence of Canada. Nobody, but nobody will kidnap Americans in our country. Oh yes, at our Great Lakes border was a sign at one time. It was huge. It said THANK YOU FOR THE SIX . Yep, during the hostage taking in Iran, under the Carter administration, Canadian Iranian embassy people smuggled six Americans to safety- ok? Then there is the late Gordon Sinclair ..... One more thing, there is a massive winter festival here in the old Canadian city. Our neigbours to the south have one heck of snowmobile event. Yep, we got together on this one. Motels etc rubbing their hands.
The desire to seem Canadian overseas is true. In time of crisis almost all American expatriates are trained to go to the Canadian Embassy and not the American Embassy. This, however, is not so much because the Canadian Embassy is so good, but that the American Emabassy and its arrogant, fairy, pinko employees are so bad. Next time you are on vacation outside the US, stop in at out embassy and see how things are. If you think your local state motor vehicle bureau is rude, arrogant, nonresponsive, etc., wait 'til you see how they treat you in an American Embassy. You may get a better reception if you are a fairy or, in certain countries, on Thanksgiving Day or the 4th of July.
Hmmmm, was he trying to walk and chew gum at the same time?? He obviously had the makings of a GREAT POLITICIAN.
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