John Diefenbaker

John Diefenbaker (1957)

John George Diefenbaker , PC , CH , QC , FRSA (born September 18, 1895 in Neustadt , Ontario , † August 16, 1979 in Ottawa ) was a Canadian politician . He was the thirteenth Prime Minister of Canada from June 21, 1957 to April 22, 1963 . From 1956 to 1967 he was chairman of the Progressive Conservative Party ( Tories ) . For 39 years, from 1940 until his death, he was a non-stop member of the House of Commons .

The descendant of German and Scottish immigrants was born in the province of Ontario and grew up in the province of Saskatchewan . His interest in politics became apparent early on. After his studies and brief military service during the First World War , he worked as a lawyer . In the 1920s and 1930s he ran regularly in elections with little success until he was elected to the House of Commons in 1940. He was then repeatedly a candidate for the chairmanship of the Progressive Conservative Party, which he finally took in 1956. In 1957 he led the Tories to their first election victory in 27 years. An early election in 1958 gave them the highest percentage of voters in their history and more than three quarters of all seats.

John G. Diefenbaker, whose nickname "Dief the Chief" was, appointed the first minister at the federal level and the first time an autochthonous as Senator . During his six-year tenure, the government introduced Canada's Bill of Rights (a declaration of civil rights) and granted the First Nations and Inuit unrestricted voting rights. His consistent stance against apartheid resulted in South Africa's withdrawal from the Commonwealth . The decision by his government to stop the development of the Avro Arrow fighter aircraft was controversial . His indecision over the deployment of US nuclear weapons in his country ushered Diefenbaker's political decline.

Although electoral successes initially dampened factionalism in the party, it broke out openly after the party lost power in 1963. Diefenbaker held on as opposition leader for another four years , then in 1967 rivals within the party forced his resignation. He remained a member of the House of Commons until his death in 1979.

Diefenbaker's signature

youth

John George Diefenbaker was born in New Town , a small village in Gray County in southern Ontario , to William Thomas Diefenbaker and Mary Florence Bannerman. His father was the son of German immigrants from Adersbach in Baden named Diefenbacher, and his mother's grandparents had emigrated to Canada from Scotland . The family moved within Ontario several times in the first few years after his birth. In 1897 his brother Elmer Clive was born. William Diefenbaker, a teacher by profession, was very interested in history and politics - an inclination that he successfully instilled in his students. Of the 28 students at his school in East York near Toronto in 1903, four (including John) were Conservative MPs from 1940.

In 1903 the family moved west when William Diefenbaker took a new position near Fort Carlton in the Northwest Territories (since 1905 part of the Province of Saskatchewan ). In 1906 he claimed 160 acres (0.65 km²) of undeveloped property at Borden, 50 kilometers northwest of Saskatoon . In February 1910, the Diefenbakers settled in the city of Saskatoon. Parents felt that their children would have better educational opportunities there.

Diefenbaker as a student (ca.1919)

John Diefenbaker was interested in politics even as a child. When he was eight or nine years old, he told his mother that one day he would become prime minister, to which she replied that such a goal would be out of reach for a boy from the prairie . In fact, she later witnessed her son's rise to this office. John's first exposure to politics came in 1910 when he was selling a newspaper to Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier , who was in town for the first building of the University of Saskatchewan to be laid . The incumbent and future prime ministers spoke to each other, and when Laurier then made a speech, he mentioned the newsboy who had ended the conversation with the following words: “I can no longer waste time with you, Prime Minister, I have to keep working.” (“ I. can't waste any more time on you, Prime Minister. I must get about my work. ")

After graduating from high school in 1912, Diefenbaker enrolled at the University of Saskatoon. In 1915 he received the Bachelor of Arts , the following year the Master of Arts . In March 1916 - the First World War was in full swing - he volunteered for military service. After two months of training, he was made a lieutenant in the infantry and sent to Britain for training in September as part of a contingent of 300 young officers. Diefenbaker writes in his memoir that he was hit by a falling shovel and that the injury he suffered led to his dismissal. His memories do not coincide with the army medical records of the time, which do not record such injuries. Biographer Denis Smith speculates that any injury must have been psychosomatic .

Diefenbaker returned to Saskatchewan, where he did an internship. He graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree in May 1919, becoming the University of Saskatchewan's first graduate student with three degrees. On June 30, 1919, he was admitted as a lawyer and opened the next day a small office in the village Wakaw , about halfway between the cities of Saskatoon and Prince Albert area.

Lawyer and Candidate (1919-1940)

Activity in Wakaw (1919–1924)

Replica of Diefenbaker's first office in Wakaw

Wakaw had only about 400 inhabitants, but was in the center of a more densely populated rural area and had its own district court. The village was also easily accessible from Saskatoon, Prince Albert and Humboldt , where the next higher authority was represented. Most of the villagers were immigrants, and Diefenbaker found they were downright litigious. A barrister was already resident in the village ; the residents were loyal to him and initially refused to rent office space in Diefenbaker. The new lawyer was forced to lease vacant land and build a wooden hut with two rooms.

Diefenbaker's successes brought the local population to his side. In his first year as a lawyer, he won around half of 62 jury trials . He seldom called defense witnesses, thereby avoiding giving the prosecution the opportunity to call counter-witnesses, which gave him the final say. At the end of 1920 he was elected to the local council for three years.

Diefenbaker often spent the weekends with his parents in Saskatoon. There he began courting Olive Freeman, the daughter of a Baptist minister. But in 1921 she and her family moved to Brandon, Manitoba , and the two lost sight of each other for more than twenty years. He then became engaged to Beth Newell, a cashier from Saskatoon, in 1922. However, Newell was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1923 and Diefenbaker broke off contact. She died the following year. Diefenbaker himself suffered from internal bleeding and probably feared the disease could be passed on to him. At the end of 1923 he had a gastric ulcer surgically removed at the Mayo Clinic , but his health remained uncertain in the years that followed.

After four years in Wakaw, Diefenbaker dominated the local legal profession so much that his competitor left the place. On May 1, 1924, he moved his office to Prince Albert, while a partner in Wakaw maintained a branch for five more years.

Aspiring politician (1924–1929)

Since 1905, when Saskatchewan joined the Canadian Confederation , the province had been politically dominated by the Saskatchewan Liberal Party , which had extremely effective clientelism . Diefenbaker jokingly remarked in later years that only the hunting laws offered protection to the conservatives.

Diefenbaker's father, William, was a liberal, while John was drawn to the Conservative Party . In Western Canada had the free trade many followers, but Diefenbaker was like convince the Conservatives that the Free Trade Canada from the United States would make economically dependent. At first he did not appear publicly with his political views. In 1921 he had been elected secretary of the local liberal party of Wakaw in absentia and on his return from Saskatoon found their notes in his office, which he immediately sent back to the local party president. Diefenbaker recalls in his memoir that he was told that as a liberal candidate he had no open provincial positions.

It was not until 1925, when elections were due at both provincial and federal levels, that Diefenbaker revealed himself to be a conservative. Biographer Peter C. Newman speculates that his party-political orientation had more practical reasons. He had little chance of asserting himself against established politicians and being nominated as a liberal candidate for the election to the lower house and the legislative assembly of Saskatchewan . In contrast, he managed to be nominated as a candidate for the lower house of the Conservatives in the Prince Albert constituency. A hateful election campaign broke out in which Diefenbaker was insulted as “Hun” because of his German surname (a widespread reference to the “ Hun speech ” by Kaiser Wilhelm II ). In the general election of 1925 , which took place on October 29, Diefenbaker came third in his constituency behind the candidates of the Liberals and the Progressives . He did not get enough votes to get his deposit back.

Flyer for Diefenbaker's campaign (1926)

The victorious candidate Charles McDonald gave up his seat a little later in favor of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King , as this had failed in his own constituency in Ontario. The Tories did not run up against the February 15, 1926 by-election , and Mackenzie King easily won. Although the Conservatives had won most of the seats (but not the majority) in 1925, Mackenzie King continued to rule with the toleration of the progressives until he finally resigned as a result of the King Byng affair . The new Prime Minister Arthur Meighen was immediately overthrown by a vote of no confidence and Governor General Lord Byng dissolved parliament after all. In the 1926 general election on September 14, Diefenbaker competed in Prince Albert against Mackenzie King, a rare direct election duel between two Canadian Prime Ministers. Mackenzie King clearly won with almost two thirds of the vote and was able to form a new minority government.

Permanent candidate (1929-1940)

Diefenbaker as Crown Attorney (1929)

Announcement of a speech by Diefenbaker as Conservative candidate (1939, before the 1940 general election)

On June 6, 1929 Diefenbaker ran for election to the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly and was defeated. Nevertheless, with the help of progressive and independent MPs, the conservatives were able to form the province's government for the first time. In the event of a victory, Diefenbaker would have been designated as Attorney General in the new provincial government . As compensation for his efforts, he was appointed Crown Attorney . In the summer of 1928 Diefenbaker got engaged to the teacher Edna Brower from Saskatoon. The marriage followed three weeks after the election defeat, the marriage remained childless.

Diefenbaker decided not to challenge the prime minister in the 1930 general election in his constituency and gave reasons for health reasons. Mackenzie King defended his seat but had to cede the office of Prime Minister to the Conservative Richard Bedford Bennett . In 1933 Diefenbaker ran for Mayor of Prince Albert and lost 48 votes, with more than 2,000 votes cast.

When the prosecutor responsible for Prince Albert resigned in 1934 to run for a seat in the provincial parliament, Diefenbaker took over his office. In the election for the legislative assembly in the same year in which the ruling Conservatives lost all seats, he did not even run. He resigned as a prosecutor six days after the election. Bennett's Conservative federal government lost in the 1935 general election , after which Mackenzie King was again prime minister. Diefenbaker had declined to compete against him in Prince Albert because he didn't think he had any chances. In the last few days of Bennett's reign, the chairman of the Conservative Party of Saskatchewan was appointed judge, and Diefenbaker, who had been elected vice-president, became executive chairman of the provincial party.

On October 28, 1936, the Saskatchewan Conservatives finally held a convention to determine a definitive chairman. There were eleven candidates, Diefenbaker among them. The ten opposing candidates considered the party's position to be so hopeless that they withdrew and ultimately only Diefenbaker remained. He asked the federal party unsuccessfully for financial support in the amount of 10,000 dollars . In the provincial elections in 1938, the Conservatives could not win a single seat for the second time in a row, and their share of the vote fell below 12%. Diefenbaker himself lost 190 votes in the Arm River constituency. He offered to resign, but party delegates did not accept him at a meeting in Moose Jaw . Diefenbaker continued to run the party from his office and paid the party debt out of his own pocket.

Diefenbaker sought to secure the Conservative Federal Party's nomination for the Lake Center constituency electoral district, but was unwilling to risk divisive internal party disputes. Denis Smith describes his approach as a “sophisticated and pre-planned charade”. Diefenbaker attended the nominations meeting as a keynote speaker, but stepped back when his name was proposed and voted for a local candidate. The winner among the six remaining candidates rejected the nomination and urged the delegates to vote for Diefenbaker, which they promptly did. Mackenzie King called a new election on March 25, 1940. Diefenbaker led an aggressive election campaign with 63 events and presented himself as a candidate who was eligible for supporters of all political camps. In the 1940 general election , he beat the liberal incumbent by 280 votes. But the Conservatives, viewed as a whole, suffered a major defeat. Of the 245 seats in the House of Commons, they won only 39, fewer than ever since the state was founded.

Advancement in Parliament (1940–1957)

The Mackenzie King Years (1940-1948)

Diefenbaker speaks in the House of Commons (1948)

Diefenbaker joined a reduced and demoralized conservative faction in the House of Commons. Party chairman Robert James Manion was one of the elections. Canada had entered World War II and the Tories asked to be included in government for the duration of the war, but Prime Minister Mackenzie King refused. In any case, the House of Commons played only a subordinate role in these years, as the cabinet dealt with most of the business by issuing decrees.

Diefenbaker was a member of a bipartisan parliamentary commission investigating the rules on arrests and prison sentences without a judgment. On June 13, 1940, he gave his first speech as a member of parliament; in it, he supported the regulations and explicitly pointed out that the vast majority of Canadians of German descent were loyal. When the government, at the instigation of Ian Mackenzie , set out to intern Canadians of Japanese origin, Diefenbaker opposed these coercive measures. His efforts were unsuccessful and the government carried out the controversial relocations from the Pacific coast inland.

Diefenbaker secretly admired Mackenzie King for his political agility. The Prime Minister, on the other hand, found the Conservative MPs an annoying troublemaker. When Diefenbaker and his party colleague Howard Charles Green wanted to reprimand the government, the prime minister described the conservatives as a " mob ". Diefenbaker was also present at a briefing on the course of the war, whereupon Mackenzie King (whose constituency Prince Albert Diefenbaker still lived in) exclaimed angrily, “What are you doing here? You are a stab in the heart every time you speak. "

In 1941, the Conservatives turned to former Prime Minister Arthur Meighen, who had been appointed Senator , and asked him to resume chairmanship. Meighen agreed and gave up his Senate seat, but lost a by-election for a Lower House seat in Ontario. Although he was not allowed into the Chamber of Commons, he remained chairman for several months. Meighen wanted the Tories to align more to the left, to make them more eligible for the political center occupied by the Liberals and the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF). To this end, he wanted to hire John Bracken , the liberal-progressive prime minister of the province of Manitoba . Diefenbaker saw this as an attempt to exclude the party base from the election of a new chairman, which is why he also made himself available as a candidate. At the party congress in Winnipeg in December 1942, Bracken prevailed in the second ballot, while Diefenbaker ended up being beaten in third place. At Bracken's request, the party changed its name to the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada . Bracken decided not to run for a by-election to the House of Commons, which is why the Tories needed a parliamentary group leader. In this election Diefenbaker lost one vote.

Bracken was elected in the general election in 1945 , making the Tory party chairman represented in the lower house for the first time in five years. The progressive conservatives were able to increase their number of seats significantly to 67, but remained in the opposition. Diefenbaker increased his lead to over 1,000 votes in the Lake Center constituency, while Mackenzie King was defeated by a CCF candidate in Prince Albert. A few months later, the Liberal Prime Minister returned to the House of Commons thanks to a by-election victory in Ontario.

Diefenbaker positioned himself within the party in the populist left wing. While most Canadians trusted parliament to protect civil rights , Diefenbaker explicitly called for a civil rights declaration as "the only way" to "stop the government on its way to arbitrary power". He criticized the extensive powers of Mackenzie King's government to track down a Soviet spy ring after the war (see also Igor Gusenko ), including imprisonment without a trial, and complained about the government's tendency to grant temporary powers during the war as permanent consider.

Claim to leadership (1948–1956)

In November 1948, Louis Saint-Laurent replaced Mackenzie King as Prime Minister. Although Bracken had almost doubled the number of progressive-conservative MPs, influential Tories were increasingly dissatisfied with his leadership and put pressure on him. They were convinced that George A. Drew was better placed to help the party win the election. The Ontario Prime Minister had won three straight elections in his province and was even well received in French-speaking regions. When Bracken resigned on July 17, 1948, Diefenbaker announced his candidacy. The party's supporters, mostly financial firms based on Bay Street in Toronto, preferred Drew's conservative views over Diefenbaker's prairie populism. At the October 1948 party convention in Ottawa , Drew achieved an absolute majority in the first ballot. Among other things, 300 delegates who had been placed by financially strong supporters contributed to this. Commenting on the process, one cynical party member said: “Ghost delegates with ghostly ballot papers filled in by the magic hand of Bay Street will appoint George Drew and he will deliver a ghostwriting speech that will cheer us all up as we speed into a political cemetery march. ”In the general election in 1949 , the progressive conservatives were able to increase their share of the vote slightly, but distortions of the majority voting system led to the loss of over a third of the seats. Despite intensive efforts to appeal to the Francophone electorate, Quebec only won two seats.

Peter Charles Newman argues that without the numerous defeats Diefenbaker would never have become Prime Minister:

“If he had won the Prince Albert seat in the 1925 or 1926 general election as a newcomer to the bar,… Diefenbaker would have been remembered only as an obscure minister in Bennett's cabinet during the Depression… If he had won the 1933 mayoral election, nobody would have won at all remember him ... Had he been successful in the election of the party leader in 1942, he would have taken Bracken's place on his six-year march into oblivion as chairman of a party that hadn't changed enough to follow a prairie radical ... If he had Drew Defeated in 1948, he would have been free to fall flat in the 1949 and 1953 elections given Saint-Laurent's political strength. "

The ruling liberals tried several times to oust Diefenbaker from his parliamentary seat. In 1948, the Lake Center constituency was divided so that particularly conservative areas fell away. Nevertheless, he was the only progressive conservative in Saskatchewan to be re-elected in 1949. In 1952, the Liberal-dominated Electoral Commission abolished the Lake Center entirely and divided the electorate into three adjacent constituencies. Diefenbaker noted in his memoir that he had considered resigning as MP. Since he was only a year younger than Drew, he had little chance of advancement; there were also tempting offers from major law firms in Ontario. The gerrymandering upset him so much that he decided to fight for a seat. Diefenbaker's party had won only once in Prince Albert (1911), but he ran in that constituency and won the 1953 general election . He defended this seat for the rest of his life. All in all, the progressive conservatives were only able to gain slightly, while Saint-Laurent led the Liberals to their fifth consecutive election victory. In addition to its efforts to annoy Diefenbaker from Parliament, the government opened a dormitory for unmarried Native American mothers next to his home in Prince Albert.

Diefenbaker continued to work as a lawyer. In 1951 he gained national attention with the Atherton case. A young telegraph operator was charged with negligence in causing a train wreck by omitting important information in a report. 21 people were killed, mostly Canadian soldiers en route to Korea . Diefenbaker had taken the British Columbia Bar Association entrance exam specifically to take the case. He obtained an acquittal by bringing the jury's attention to an earlier similar case when a transmission disorder had resulted in the loss of information.

Diefenbaker's wife Edna suffered from mental illness from the mid-1940s and lived for a time in a private psychiatric clinic. She later developed leukemia and died on February 7, 1951. Two years later, Diefenbaker married Olive Palmer (nee Freeman), whom he had met in Wakaw in the early 1920s. This marriage also remained childless; from Palmer's first marriage he had a stepdaughter.

Despite two heavy election defeats, Drew was determined to remain party chairman. Diefenbaker avoided anything that could have been construed as infidelity. He was never a member of the "five o'clock club" of Drew's confidants, who met for drinks and gossiped every day in the chairman's office. In 1955, the prevailing opinion in the party was that Drew was unable to lead the Tories to an election victory. There were also signs of a change among the liberals as the aging Saint-Laurent grew tired of politics. In 1956 the Liberals suffered a marked loss of popularity when they tried to prematurely end the debate about the construction of the TransCanada pipeline , whereupon the Tories, with the help of the CCF, blocked parliamentary operations for weeks. Diefenbaker played a relatively small role in the “Big Pipeline Debate” and spoke only once on the subject.

Opposition leader, election of 1957

Drew fell ill in August 1956 and numerous party members urged him to resign. They believed that the Tories needed an energetic chairman with the election coming up. The Social Credit Party also questioned the Tories' claim to leadership in the right-wing political spectrum. Drew resigned in late September, after which Diefenbaker announced his candidacy. Various influential Tories, particularly from Ontario, started a "Stop Diefenbaker" campaign courting Sidney Earle Smith , President of the University of Toronto . When he turned down a candidacy, there was no comparable personality to compete against Diefenbaker. At the party conference in Ottawa on December 14, Diefenbaker clearly won the first ballot. His adversaries resigned themselves to defeat; they believed the 61-year-old was unlikely to lead the party in more than one election, which would be won by the Liberals anyway.

In January 1957 Diefenbaker first appeared as an opposition leader. A month later, Saint-Laurent informed him that he would dissolve parliament in April to hold an election on June 10th . Diefenbaker attacked the budget presented by the Liberals in March and criticized the excessive tax burden, the lack of support for pensioners and the lack of support for poorer provinces. Parliament was dissolved on April 12th. Saint-Laurent was so certain of his victory that he did not even make recommendations to the Governor General for the occupation of 16 vacant Senate seats.

Diefenbaker's campaign program focused on domestic reform. He promised to work with the provinces to reform the Senate and proposed a vigorous new agricultural policy to stabilize farmers' incomes. Dependence on trade with the United States was to be reduced and relations with Great Britain closer. Saint-Laurent ridiculed the progressive-conservative electoral program as "just a icing on the cake with more air than substance" (" a mere cream-puff of a thing with more air than substance ") . Diefenbaker and the Tories made good use of television, while Saint-Laurent noted he was more interested in meeting people than speaking into a camera. Although the Liberals had three times the budget, their campaign lacked imagination; they assured voters that there was no alternative to Saint-Laurent's re-election.

In a national television broadcast on April 30, 1957, Diefenbaker summarized the Tories' programming as follows:

“It is a program… for a united Canada, for one Canada, for Canada first, in every aspect of our political and public life, for the welfare of the average man and woman. That is my approach to public affairs and has been throughout my life ... A Canada, united from coast to coast, wherein there will be freedom for the individual, freedom of enterprise and where there will be a government which, in all its actions, will remain the servant and not the master of the people. "

“It is a program… for a United Canada, for a Canada, for Canada first, in every aspect of our political and public life, for the well-being of the average person. This is my approach to government and has been all of my life ... A coast-to-coast Canada where there will be freedom for the individual and economic freedom, and where there will be a government that will be servants in all of its actions and is not master of the people. "

The latest Gallup poll saw the Liberals in the lead with 48% versus 34%. Immediately after the polls opened, the Maclean’s news magazine printed its weekly edition, which appeared the morning after the election. The leading article celebrated the supposed sixth consecutive Liberal election victory. On election night, however, success began early on for the progressive conservatives, with two seat wins in the liberal stronghold of Newfoundland . The party gained nine seats in Nova Scotia , five in Québec, 28 in Ontario, and at least one more in all other provinces. After all, the Tories were just ahead of the Liberals with 112 seats, who dropped to 105 seats. This made them the strongest party, but did not have a majority. Smaller parties have announced their willingness to work with a progressive-conservative government, with Diefenbaker as Prime Minister-designate.

Prime Minister (1957–1963)

Domestic politics

Minority government

When Diefenbaker took office on June 21, 1957, only one progressive Conservative MP, William Earl Rowe , had previously served as Minister, for a brief period in 1935 under Bennett. Rowe was not a friend of Diefenbaker and received no post in his cabinet . In contrast, Diefenbaker appointed Ellen Fairclough, the first woman, and Michael Starr, the first Canadian of Ukrainian origin, to be members of the federal government. Diefenbaker was also temporarily foreign minister until September 12th. Since the parliament building had been rented to the Universal Postal Union for its 14th Congress, he had to wait until the fall to call parliament. However, the government decided on some measures over the summer, including higher subsidies for butter and turkey, as well as a wage increase for federal employees. After Queen Elizabeth II personally opened parliament on October 14 (becoming the first Canadian monarch ever), the government passed laws in quick succession, including tax cuts and pension increases. The Liberals were ineffective in the opposition because they did not have a new chairman after Saint-Laurent's resignation.

The progressive conservatives led in the polls. Diefenbaker wanted to hold an early election in the hope that his party would win a majority. At the time, it was common constitutional practice for the Governor-General to refuse to dissolve Parliament this early in the legislature . The only exceptions were when the government lost a vote in the lower house or repeatedly won it with only a few votes difference.

One such pretext came when former Secretary of State Lester Pearson attended his first session of parliament as opposition leader on January 20, 1958, four days after his election as Liberal leader. In his first speech, Pearson (who had recently returned from Oslo , where he had received the Nobel Peace Prize ) urged the progressive-conservative government to resign immediately and hand over power to the Liberals. The current economic situation requires a government that is “committed to implementing liberal economic policies”. Members of the government and the press representatives present answered with laughter. Pearson later noted in his memoir that his first attack on the government was "indeed a fiasco". In a two-hour speech, Diefenbaker overwhelmed the liberal opposition. He made fun of Pearson and read from an internal report from the Saint-Laurent government from the previous year that forecast a recession. He accused the former government of hiding facts about the economic situation from parliament and the public.

Finance Minister Donald Fleming described the opposition leader as follows: ". Pearson first looked cheerful, then seriously, then uncomfortable, then alarmed and finally evil" ( " Pearson looked at first merry, then serious, then uncomfortable, then disturbed, and finally sick. ”) Pearson had to admit that the Prime Minister" tore him to shreds ". The Liberal MP Paul Martin (father of future Prime Minister Paul Martin Jr. ) called Diefenbaker's response "one of the greatest scathing speeches." On February 1, Diefenbaker asked Governor General Vincent Massey to dissolve Parliament. Saint-Laurent has promised cooperation, but Pearson has made it clear that this will not be the case. Massey agreed and Diefenbaker scheduled a new election on March 31, 1958.

Election of 1958

The campaign leading up to the general election in 1958 was marked by strong public support from the progressive conservatives. At the opening election event on February 12 in a crowded room in Winnipeg, Diefenbaker called for "a new vision, a new hope, a new soul for Canada." He promised to open up the north of Canada, harness its resources and colonize this vast region. The closing words of his speech became known as "the vision":

“This is the vision: One Canada. One Canada, where Canadians will have preserved to them the control of their own economic and political destiny. Sir John Macdonald saw a Canada from east to west: he opened the west. I see a new Canada - a Canada of the North. This is the vision! "

“This is the vision: One Canada. A Canada where Canadians will have control of their own economic and political destiny. Sir John Macdonald saw Canada from east to west: he opened the west. I see a new Canada - a Canada of the north. This is the vision! "

Pierre Sévigny (later Deputy Defense Minister) recalled the meeting: “When he finished this speech, as he went to the door, I saw people kneeling and kissing his coat. Not one, but many. People were in tears, people were mad. And this happened many more times. " (" When he had finished that speech, as he was walking to the door, I saw people kneel and kiss his coat. Not one, but many. People were in tears. People were delirious. And this happened many a time after. ”) As Sévigny Diefenbaker at an event in Montreal with the words “  Levez-vous, levez-vous, saluez votre chef!  » (“ Stand up, stand up, salute your boss! ”), According to Post Secretary William Hamilton, “ thousands upon thousands of people are completely crazy ”. Michael Starr recalled, “It was the most fantastic choice ever… I went to little places like Smoky Lake , Alberta or Canora , Saskatchewan, where no one ever saw a minister. Every event was packed to the bursting ... The halls were filled to the last seat and the first Ukrainian immigrants were sitting in the first row, wearing headscarves and hands marked by work ... I switched to Ukrainian and the tears began to flow on their faces ... I don't care what led to the election victory; it was the emotional aspect that really caught on. " (" That was the most fantastic election ... I went into little places. Smoky Lake, Alberta, where nobody ever saw a minister. Canora, Saskatchewan. Every meeting was jammed ... The halls would be filled with people and sitting there in the front would be the first Ukrainian immigrants with shawls and hands gnarled from work… I would switch to Ukrainian and the tears would start to run down their faces… I don't care who says what won the election; it was the emotional aspect that really caught on. ")

The Liberals campaign never really caught on. Lester Pearson tried to embarrass Diefenbaker with the fact that he had called for an election in the winter, which is usually frowned upon in Canada because of the traffic delays involved. Pearson's objection had no effect on the electorate and merely reminded them that the Liberals had also called for new elections at their party convention. Pearson ridiculed Diefenbaker's plan to open up the north as connections "from igloo to igloo", which earned him the sharp criticism of the Prime Minister for being condescending. The opposition leader's events were small and quiet, and each of them quickly dissolved when he was finished. Pearson had no illusions that he would win the election and only hoped that the Liberals would save a hundred seats.

On March 31, 1958, the Tories achieved a dominant election victory: Their voter share of 53.66% was the highest of any party in the history of Canada. They won 208 seats; the Liberals had 48 seats, the CCF 6 seats, and the Social Credit Party was no longer represented. In every province except Newfoundland, the Progressive Conservatives won in over half of the constituencies. Their success was particularly noticeable in Québec, where they more than quadrupled their number of seats. This was due in particular to the active support of the National Union, which is only active at the provincial level . Party leader Maurice Duplessis had initially been reluctant, but then gave in to pressure from his electorate.

Majority government

In 1958, the Canadian economy slowed down. Due to the tax cuts initiated the previous year, the budget for the fiscal year 1957/58 foresaw a small deficit and a large one of $ 648 million for the following fiscal year. Treasury Secretary Fleming and James Coyne , President of the Bank of Canada , proposed that the Victory war bonds , which made up two-thirds of national debt and had to be repaid by 1967, should be refinanced with a longer term. After long indecision on the part of Diefenbaker, 90% of the bonds were converted as part of a nationwide campaign. However, this transaction resulted in an increase in the money supply , which in subsequent years hampered the government's efforts to respond to rising unemployment.

As a trial attorney and in the opposition, Diefenbaker had dealt extensively with civil rights. On July 1, 1960, he presented the Canadian Bill of Rights in Parliament. Parliament quickly adopted it and put it into effect on August 10th, fulfilling a long-cherished dream of Diefenbaker. This declaration of civil rights should guarantee fundamental freedoms, with special attention to the rights of the accused. However, since it was only a federal statute, it could easily be changed. In addition, the guarantee of civil rights was largely within the competence of the provinces and thus withdrawn from federal law, which was only fully applicable in the territories. A lawyer commented that the law guarantees all Canadians rights "as long as they don't live in one of the provinces."

In 1958 Diefenbaker appointed James Gladstone, the first representative of the First Nations to be a senator. Two years later, the government extended the right to vote to all indigenous people (previously they were only eligible to vote if they waived their special status granted by the Indian Act ). Diefenbaker was a staunch opponent of the death penalty : in 1960 he converted the controversial death sentence against the then 15-year-old Steven Truscott into a life sentence. Truscott was released on parole in 1969 but was not recognized as a victim of a miscarriage of justice until 2007.

Diefenbaker strived for equality for all Canadians and was therefore unwilling to make any special concessions to the Francophones in Quebec. In his opinion, this would turn those who spoke neither French nor English into second class citizens. Diefenbaker's aversion to special rules, the dwindling influence of the Union nationale, the lack of strong party structures in Québec and the small number of Francophones in the cabinet led to a significant loss of popularity for the Tories in the French-speaking part of the population. The nomination of Georges Vanier as the first French Canadian governor general changed little.

In mid-1961, differences in monetary policy led to an open conflict with James Coyne of the Bank of Canada, who maintained a strict interpretation. Coyne had been appointed by Saint-Laurent and could only be dismissed by parliamentary resolution before the end of his term in December 1961. To the chagrin of the government, he defended his position in public appearances. The cabinet was further annoyed when it learned that Coyne and the rest of the board of directors had amended the bank's pension regulations without publishing them in the gazette as required by law. Negotiations between Fleming and Coyne aimed at the latter's resignation failed. The bank president made the dispute public, whereupon Diefenbaker wanted to dismiss him by parliamentary resolution. He was successful in his cause in the House of Commons, but the Liberal-dominated Senate invited Coyne to present his view of things. The bank president used this platform to criticize the government. The responsible Senate committee decided not to take any action because Coyne had done nothing wrong. He then resigned and was allowed to keep his increased pension. The government then suffered massive criticism from the media.

When Diefenbaker called for another election on June 18, 1962 , his party had lost significant support in Québec and urban areas as voters there became increasingly disillusioned with Diefenbaker and the Tories. The depreciation of the Canadian dollar against the US dollar by the Bank of Canada had a negative impact on the ruling party's election campaign. Satirical “Diefenbucks” printed by private individuals flooded the country. The progressive conservatives lost 92 seats, but were still able to form a minority government. The New Democratic Party (successor to the CCF) and the Social Credit Party tipped the scales in the new parliament.

Foreign policy

Great Britain and the Commonwealth

Shortly after taking office in 1957, Diefenbaker attended a meeting of Prime Ministers of the Commonwealth of Nations in London . He hit the headlines when he suggested that 15% of Canada's spending on US imports should instead be used for imports from the UK. The British government of Harold Macmillan wanted to join the European Economic Community and Diefenbaker feared that Canadian exports to Great Britain would be endangered as a result. He was also convinced that the motherland should put the Commonwealth first, which is why he tried to prevent the British government from joining. The British were angry with Canadian interference. After all, it was French President Charles de Gaulle who vetoed membership in the country.

Until 1959, the Canadian government avoided criticizing South Africa and its apartheid regime . In this regard, it was supported by the Liberals but not by the CCF, which condemned the inaction. In 1960, the South Africans wanted to maintain their membership in the Commonwealth, even if white voters were to vote for the republic as the form of government in a referendum scheduled for later that year. South Africa asked the Commonwealth of Prime Ministers' Conference to remain in the international community regardless of the outcome of the referendum. In a private conversation with South African Foreign Minister Eric Louw , Diefenbaker expressed his disgust for apartheid and urged him to give black and colored people at least the minimal amount of representation they had originally had. Louw, who represented Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd while he was recovering from an attempted assassination, declined. The conference concluded that a decision at this point constituted interference in the internal affairs of South Africa.

On October 5, 1960, South Africa's white voters decided to introduce the republic. At the Prime Ministers' Conference in 1961, Verwoerd formally requested that South Africa remain in the Commonwealth. Opinions were divided until Diefenbaker overcame the blockade with a proposal. The conference should not reject the request, but state in a declaration that racial equality is a principle of the Commonwealth. Diefenbaker's proposal was accepted even though Britain and New Zealand did not agree. South Africa could not accept the declaration, withdrew the request and left the Commonwealth. Peter Newman states, "This was Diefenbaker's most important contribution to international politics ... Diefenbaker flew home as a hero."

Relations with the United States

"Ike" and "John": The Eisenhower Years

Diefenbaker (left) and US President Dwight D. Eisenhower signing the Columbia Power Plant Agreement, 1961

American government circles expressed concern about Diefenbaker's first election victory because they believed they had found an anti-American undertone in the election campaign. After more than two decades of liberal rule, they now had to adjust to an unfamiliar situation. The landslide-like election victory in 1958 was noted with disappointment, as Pearson was held in high regard for his diplomatic work and the chairman of the Liberals, from an American point of view, seemed more willing to act in their interests. US President Dwight D. Eisenhower , however, went to great lengths to establish good relations with Diefenbaker. Both men had a lot in common, from rural origins to fishing; Added to this was Diefenbaker's admiration for great leaders like Eisenhower and Winston Churchill . Diefenbaker noted in his memoir that they addressed each other as "Ike" and "John" from the start. The otherwise sensitive Prime Minister was ready to ignore certain offenses. When Eisenhower gave a speech to the House of Commons in October 1958, he downplayed trade issues Diefenbaker had publicly raised. Diefenbaker ignored this and took Eisenhower fishing.

Diefenbaker had approved plans in May 1957 for Canada's entry into the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), an integrated air defense system. Despite concerns on the part of the Liberals that Diefenbaker had given assurances without consulting the Cabinet or Parliament, they approved the treaty in June 1958.

In February 1959, the government stopped development and construction of the Avro CF-105 Arrow . The Arrow was a supersonic interceptor developed by Avro Canada that was designed to defend Canada in the event of a Soviet attack. The development begun in 1953 was overshadowed by numerous cost overruns and complications. In 1955, the Royal Canadian Air Force announced that it only needed nine instead of the original 20 squadrons. According to CD Howe , the minister responsible at the time, the Saint-Laurent government had serious concerns about continuing the Arrow program and planned to discontinue the Arrow program after the 1957 election. Before the 1958 election, Diefenbaker's government approved further payments as three Tory-held constituencies would have been affected by the cessation of production. Despite successful test flights, the US government was unwilling to commit to buying Canadian aircraft. In September 1958, Diefenbaker warned that the Arrow would undergo a full assessment in six months. Avro Canada looked around for other projects (including the US-funded VZ-9 Avrocar ) and also launched a PR offensive. On February 20, 1959, cabinet decided to drop the Arrow after previously allowing the United States to set up two Bomarc missile bases on Canadian soil. The company immediately laid off 14,000 employees, blaming Diefenbaker.

Although the two heads of state had a good relationship with one another, US government circles were increasingly concerned from 1960 onwards that Canada was delaying important issues, such as joining the Organization of American States (OAS). Corresponding discussions in June 1960 did not lead to any notable results. Diefenbaker was hoping for Richard Nixon to win the 1960 presidential election . After John F. Kennedy's victory, he sent a congratulatory note, but there was no response until Canadian officials asked two weeks later what happened to the note. Diefenbaker, who attached great importance to such correspondence, was annoyed by the lack of a response from the President-elect. In January 1961, he visited Washington, DC to sign a power plant agreement on the Columbia River . Since Eisenhower was only in office for a few days, little else could be done.

Mutual Antipathy: The Kennedy Years

Diefenbaker (right) visits the US naval base in Argentia, Newfoundland, in 1962

Relations with the Kennedy administration were strained from the start. Kennedy repeatedly mispronounced the Prime Minister's name. This angered Diefenbaker so much that he considered sending a protest note in a cabinet meeting; the other ministers advised him to let the matter rest. When the two met in Washington in February 1961, Diefenbaker was impressed by Kennedy and invited him to visit Ottawa. President Kennedy then told his advisors that he “never wanted to see that boring son of a bitch again.” The return visit took place three months later, but it also caused discomfort. At the reception at the airport, Kennedy mispronounced Diefenbaker's name and mocked his poor French. After the meeting he inadvertently left a note stating that he should bring Diefenbaker "into distress" on various points - including the question of the stationing of nuclear weapons on Canadian soil, which was highly controversial in the cabinet. Diefenbaker was also upset that the President's address in Parliament called for Canada to join the OAS (which Diefenbaker had already declined) and that he spoke to opposition leader Pearson most of the time at the gala dinner.

Diefenbaker initially tended to accede to Kennedy's request to allow nuclear weapons to be stationed in Canada as part of NORAD. However, when, on August 3, 1961, a letter urging Kennedy leaked to the media, Diefenbaker angrily withdrew his support. Massive anti-nuclear weapons demonstrations on Parliament Hill in Ottawa also influenced the Prime Minister's decision . Diefenbaker was presented with a petition with more than 142,000 signatures.

In 1962, the American government became increasingly concerned about Canada's lack of commitment on the nuclear issue. The interceptors and Bomarc missiles that Canada received as a NORAD member were either useless or of greatly reduced utility without nuclear devices. Canadian and American military officers publicized this fact in the media and advocated a change of heart for the Canadian government. Diefenbaker was upset when Pearson was invited to a Nobel Laureate Banquet at the White House in April and spoke with the President in private for 40 minutes. When the Prime Minister received the resigning American Ambassador Livingston Merchant, he angrily showed him the note that Kennedy had left and indicated that he would use it in the upcoming election campaign. Merchant's report caused consternation in Washington and the ambassador was sent back to Diefenbaker. He had calmed down in the meantime and promised not to use the note and to give an advance warning in the event of a change of opinion. Canada appointed a new ambassador, Charles Ritchie, who was greeted coolly by Kennedy on his arrival and learned that the bickering was affecting progress on numerous open issues.

Kennedy was careful not to openly express his sympathy for the opposition during the election campaign leading up to the 1962 general election , but allowed his pollster Louis Harris to secretly work for the Liberals. Diefenbaker said several times during the campaign that the Kennedy administration longed for his defeat for refusing to "bow to Washington." After continuing to rule with a minority, Washington continued to exert pressure on nuclear weapons. But Diefenbaker found himself confronted with an argument between Secretary of Defense Douglas Harkness and Secretary of State Howard Charles Green on this issue . He delayed making a decision, hoping that consensus would emerge over time.

When the Cuban Missile Crisis broke out in October 1962, Kennedy decided not to consult Diefenbaker before making any further decisions. The President sent former Ambassador Merchant to Ottawa to brief the Prime Minister of the content of the address he would be giving on television. Diefenbaker was annoyed in two ways: by the lack of consultation and by the fact that he found out about it just two hours before the televised address. The US government added fuel on the fire when it publicly stated it had Canada's full support. In a statement to the House of Commons, Diefenbaker proposed sending representatives from neutral states to Cuba to investigate the American allegations, which Washington took as doubts about Kennedy's words. When American troops were placed on heightened alert ( DEFCON 3 ), Diefenbaker took a long time to do the same for the Canadian troops. Harkness and the chiefs of staff nevertheless secretly ordered the appropriate measure, which Diefenbaker subsequently approved. The crisis ended when the Soviet Union gave in and opinion polls showed that the vast majority of Canadians supported Kennedy's actions. Diefenbaker, however, was heavily criticized in the media.

Decline

On January 3, 1963, NATO Commander-in-Chief Lauris Norstad visited Ottawa as part of a series of visits to member states prior to his resignation. At a press conference, he said that if Canada refuses to accept nuclear weapons, it will fail to meet its obligations to NATO . Newspapers across Canada criticized Diefenbaker, who believed the statement was part of a Kennedy plot to bring down his administration. Although the Liberals had previously been undecided on this issue, on January 12, Pearson called on the government to keep promises it had made.

The cabinet was still divided into a green and a harkness camp. On January 25, Diefenbaker gave a speech in the House of Commons, which Fleming (now Minister of Justice) described as a "model of concealment". Harkness was initially convinced that Diefenbaker supported the stationing of nuclear weapons in Canada. After speaking to the media, he realized that not everyone had the same impression of the speech and asked Diefenbaker for clarification. Diefenbaker, in turn, continued to try to avoid a clear position. On January 30, the State Department released a media statement suggesting that Diefenbaker made false statements in his speech to the House of Commons. For the first time ever, Canada called its Washington ambassador back in protest. Although all parties condemned the American action, the opposition parties demanded a clear statement from Diefenbaker regarding nuclear weapons.

The cabinet quarrels continued, and Diefenbaker debated whether to call a new election in the face of American interference in Canadian politics. At least six ministers supported Diefenbaker's impeachment. Finally, on February 3rd, the break occurred. In a dramatic cabinet meeting, Harkness told Diefenbaker that the Prime Minister was no longer trusted by the Canadian people and resigned. When Diefenbaker asked the rest of the ministers for support and only about half of them wanted to give it, he said that he would announce his resignation to the governor general and that Fleming would be the next prime minister. Green called his cabinet colleagues "a nest of traitors", but eventually the heated mood calmed down and the Prime Minister was asked to at least wait for the next day's vote of no confidence . Harkness, however, stuck to his resignation. Negotiations with the Social Credit Party, which had enough seats to save the government, failed. The vote of no confidence on February 4th was successful with 142 to 111 votes.

Two members of the government resigned the following day. After the election campaign began, the Tories were 15 percentage points behind in opinion polls. For Pearson and the Liberals, the only question was how big the majority would be. The US government was neutral in public, but in close circles Kennedy made it clear that he wanted the Liberals to win. In the 1963 general election on April 8, the Tories fell to 95 seats, while the Liberals got 128 seats and missed an absolute majority by five seats. Diefenbaker stayed in power for a few days until six members of the Quebec Ralliement Créditiste signed a declaration that Pearson should form a government. Those votes were enough for Pearson to secure a majority in the House of Commons, whereupon Diefenbaker resigned on April 22nd. The six MPs reversed their statement a few days later, but Pearson had now secured the support of the New Democrats.

Later years (1963–1979)

Back in the opposition

Diefenbaker remained the opposition leader of the Progressive Conservative Party. When he learned of the assassination attempt on John F. Kennedy in November 1963 , he gave a speech in the House of Commons. He regretted the loss of a "lighthouse of freedom". Kennedy was "in spite of all differences, the embodiment of freedom," "not just in his own country, but worldwide." In 1964, Diefenbaker led the opposition in the debate on a new flag for Canada after Pearson's proposal for a flag with three maple leaves was rejected was. Diefenbaker preferred the existing Canadian Red Ensign , or alternatively a flag with symbols of national heritage. He rejected the maple leaf flag with a maple leaf and two red stripes , which was ultimately adopted , because "at best Peruvians would salute you." After the flag law was passed, the supportive majority sang O Canada , while Diefenbaker and the negative minority with God Save the Queen opposed it .

In 1966 the Liberals made the Munsinger affair public. Two ministers of the progressive-conservative government, Pierre Sévigny and George Hees , had a love affair between 1958 and 1961 with the German Gerda Munsinger , who was suspected of spying for the Soviet Union. The exposure of the scandal caused weeks of media hype. Pearson set up a commission of inquiry, which Diefenbaker saw as a party-politically motivated attack. The investigation report concluded that the former head of government should have dismissed the guilty ministers, but could not find any breach of security regulations.

There have been various calls for Diefenbaker to resign - especially after 1964 from the party's wing, which was influenced by Bay Street interests. Diefenbaker initially managed to fend off internal party attacks with ease. Pearson called for the general election in 1965 , expecting to secure a majority. Diefenbaker led an aggressive campaign, but neither the government nor the opposition achieved their goals. The Liberals missed the desired majority by two seats, while the Tories were only able to improve their position slightly at the expense of smaller parties. After the election, some party members began to quietly prepare for the overthrow of Diefenbaker around party president Dalton Camp .

Camp managed to put an evaluation of the party chairmanship on the agenda for the party congress in 1966. The party congress was marked by allegations of alleged manipulation of votes and isolated brawls. The allocation of seats was arranged in such a way that the television viewers only saw unimpressed delegates in the front ten rows during Diefenbaker's speech. Other camp advocates tried to shout Diefenbaker down. Camp managed to force a new election of the party leader for September 1967. Until August 1967 Diefenbaker left it open whether he wanted to run again at all. However, when the separately conducted party program conference gave up his previous “One Canada” position in favor of a policy that took the differences between the Francophones into account, he still ran to explain his position to the party base despite the hopelessness of the endeavor. After he was only fifth in the first three ballots at the party conference in Toronto on September 8, 1967, Diefenbaker was eliminated. In the fifth ballot, Robert Stanfield , the Prime Minister of Nova Scotia, was elected as the new party leader.

Last years and death

Pearson announced his early resignation in December 1967. Diefenbaker, bitter over the loss of the party leadership, established a vigilant relationship of mutual respect with Pearson's designated successor, Pierre Trudeau . Trudeau, who took office on April 20, 1968, scheduled a new election in June . Diefenbaker declined Stanfield's request to hold an election rally with him in Saskatoon. Trudeau secured a clear electoral victory for the Liberals and an absolute majority of the seats, while the Progressive Conservatives lost 25 seats. Diefenbaker admitted in a CBC interview that his party had suffered a "fateful catastrophe", but he could not hide his delight at Stanfield's humiliation and was even gleefully pleased with Dalton Camp's cut, which was unsuccessful for a seat in the House of Commons had run. The voters in Prince Albert clearly confirmed Diefenbaker. In 1969 the University of Saskatchewan named him Chancellor ; he held this representative office until his death.

Stanfield tried to unite the party, but reconciliation with Diefenbaker and his followers proved difficult. Content-related disputes were carried out publicly via the media. For example, Diefenbaker called on progressive Conservative MPs to overthrow Stanfield's bill on official bilingualism , with nearly half of the group voting against or abstaining from their chairman. In addition to his work in Parliament, Diefenbaker traveled extensively and began working on his memoir, which appeared in three volumes between 1975 and 1977. Pearson died of cancer in 1972, and Diefenbaker was asked if he had any empathic words for his old rival. He shook his head and simply said: "He should not have won the Nobel Prize." ( " He should not have won the Nobel Prize. ")

Diefenbaker no longer had any illusions about Trudeau and was fully committed to the Tories in the campaign leading up to the 1972 general election . He was re-elected by a large margin and the progressive conservatives came within two seats of the Liberals. Diefenbaker was relieved in two ways: Trudeau had been humiliated and had to form a minority government, while Stanfield was denied power. In the 1974 general election , Trudeau regained a majority, while Diefenbaker expanded the lead to over 11,000 votes in his constituency.

On New Year's Day 1976 Diefenbaker received an order as Companion of Honor , a personal gift from Queen Elizabeth II. His wife Olive died that same year on December 22, a loss that plunged him into deep grief. Also in 1976 Joe Clark was elected to succeed Stanfield as party chairman. But since Clark had been among those who requested the review nine years earlier, Diefenbaker had a grudge against him. He criticized the new party leader so widely that Stanfield publicly asked him to stop saying, “Mr. To stab Clark knife in the back ”- a request he disagreed with. According to columnist Charles Lynch, Diefenbaker thought Clark was an upstart and a midget.

The graves of John and Olive Diefenbaker at Diefenbaker Canada Center in Saskatoon

In 1978 Diefenbaker announced that he would run one last time for an election. During the “Diefenbaker - Now More Than Ever” campaign, he apparently suffered a minor stroke while the media was told he was bedridden with the flu. The general election in June 1979 ended with a surprising election victory for the Tories. Diefenbaker was re-elected and went to Ottawa to attend the swearing-in of Clark’s minority government, although he remained unforgiving to old cabinet opponents. Two months later he died in his study at the age of 83.

Diefenbaker had planned his funeral extensively in collaboration with government officials. He was laid out in the Parliament 's Hall of Honor for two and a half days and around 10,000 people passed his coffin. The Red Ensign he admired partially covered the maple leaf flag on the coffin. The coffin was then slowly transported to Saskatoon by rail, with many Canadians standing along the tracks to watch the funeral train go by. The train also carried his wife Olive's coffin, which had been excavated from a temporary grave in Ottawa. In Saskatoon Station Square, thousands saluted the only Saskatchewan man to ever become Prime Minister. Prime Minister Clark delivered the eulogy, paying his respects to an "indomitable minority man, raised in a minority region, leader of a minority party who was preparing to change the nature of the nation and change it forever." John and Olive Diefenbaker rest in front of the Diefenbaker Canada Center on the University of Saskatchewan campus, which deals with the life and work of the Prime Minister.

Aftermath

Statue of John Diefenbaker on Parliament Hill in Ottawa

Few of Diefenbaker's political achievements survived the 16-year liberal reign that followed his fall. His successor Lester Pearson agreed to the stationing of nuclear-armed missiles, which were delivered to two locations in Québec and Ontario from the end of 1963. Pierre Trudeau , then still working as a journalist, sharply criticized the decision of his party colleague. After becoming Prime Minister himself in 1968, he announced the dismantling, which was completed in 1972. Pearson did not reverse Canada's non-accession to the OAS. It was not until 1989 that the progressive-conservative government of Brian Mulroney finally decided to join. The Bill of Rights, enforced by Diefenbaker, proved ineffective in practice (as it did not apply to provincial laws), but it formed the basis for the broader Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms , which came into effect in 1982.

Diefenbaker reinvigorated a seemingly doomed party. Joe Clark and Brian Mulroney, who were still students in 1957 and inspired by his triumph, were later the only other progressive conservatives to lead their party to election victories. Denis Smith writes of Diefenbaker: “In politics he had little more than two years of success amid failure and frustration, but he had a hard core of extremely determined and loyal followers for the rest of his life and beyond. The Conservative Party, which he revived, dominated the Prairie Provinces for 25 years after his resignation as party leader. "

Historian Michael Bliss, who published an investigation into Canada's prime ministers, writes of Diefenbaker:

“From the distance of our time, Diefenbaker's role as a prairie populist who tried to revolutionize the Conservative Party begins to emerge more strongly than his personal idiosyncrasies. The difficulties he faced in the form of significant historical predicaments appear to have been less easily resolved than liberals and hostile journalists thought at the time. Diefenbaker may resist rehabilitation, but at least he deserves credit. He stood for a fascinating and still relevant combination of individual and egalitarian values ​​... But his contemporaries were just as right when they saw a kind of disorder near the center of his personality and in his administration. The problems of leadership, power, ego and a crazy time in history overwhelmed the prairie politician with the strange name. "

- Michael Bliss : Right Honorable Men, p. 186

Lake Diefenbaker , a reservoir on the South Saskatchewan River and the Qu'Appelle River in the province of Saskatchewan, as well as the international airport of Saskatoon, is named after John Diefenbaker . The strategic command bunkers built at the beginning of the 1960s at the height of the Cold War were soon given the nickname Diefenbunker . The John G. Diefenbaker Prize , which is awarded to German humanities scholars working in Canada, is named after the Prime Minister .

literature

• Michael Bliss: Right Honorable Men: The Descent of Canadian Politics from Macdonald to Chrétien . HarperCollins Canada, Toronto 2004, ISBN 0-00-639484-1 .
• John Diefenbaker: One Canada, Memoirs of the Right Honorable John G. Diefenbaker: The Crusading Years 1895 to 1956 . Macmillan of Canada, Toronto 1975, ISBN 0-7705-1331-X .
• John Diefenbaker: One Canada, Memoirs of the Right Honorable John G. Diefenbaker: The Years of Achievement 1956 to 1962 . Macmillan of Canada, Toronto 1976, ISBN 0-7705-1443-X .
• John Diefenbaker: One Canada, Memoirs of the Right Honorable John G. Diefenbaker: The Tumultuous Years 1962 to 1967 . Macmillan of Canada, Toronto 1977, ISBN 0-7705-1569-X .
• John English: The Worldly Years: The Life of Lester Pearson, 1949-1972 . Vintage Books, Toronto 1992, ISBN 0-394-28015-6 .
• Soloman Gabriel: Foreign Policy of Canada: A Study in Diefenbaker's Years . Uppal Publishing House, New Delhi 1987, ISBN 81-85024-24-3 .
• John Meisel: The Canadian General Election of 1957 . University of Toronto Press, Toronto 1962.
• Knowlton Nash: Kennedy & Diefenbaker: Fear and Loathing Across the Undefended Border . McClelland and Stewart, Toronto 1990, ISBN 0-7710-6705-4 .
• Peter C. Newman : Renegade in Power: The Diefenbaker Years . McClelland and Stewart, Toronto 1995, ISBN 0-7710-6747-X (first edition: 1963).
• Denis Smith: Rogue Tory: The Life and Legend of John Diefenbaker . Macfarlane Walter & Ross, Toronto 1995, ISBN 0-921912-92-7 .
• Greig Stewart: Shutting Down the National Dream: AV Roe and the Tragedy of the Avro Arrow . McGraw-Hill-Ryerson, New York 1991, ISBN 0-07-551119-3 .
• Peter Stursberg: Diefenbaker: Leadership Gained 1956-62 . University of Toronto Press, Toronto 1975, ISBN 0-8020-2130-1 .
• Peter Stursberg: Diefenbaker: Leadership Lost 1962-67 . University of Toronto Press, Toronto 1976, ISBN 0-8020-2225-1 .
• Thomas Van Dusen: The Chief . McGraw-Hill, New York 1968, ISBN 0-665-25329-X .

Web links

Commons : John Diefenbaker  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• John Diefenbaker . In: Dictionary of Canadian Biography . 24 volumes, 1966–2018. University of Toronto Press, Toronto ( English , French ).
• John Diefenbaker ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia .
• John Diefenbaker - biographical information on the website of the Canadian Parliament (English)
• Topic - John Diefenbaker: Dief the Chief in the CBC Digital Archives (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 1-3
2. ↑ John Diefenbaker, The Crusading Years 1895 to 1956, pp 17-18
3. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 5-6
4. ^ Peter C. Newman , Renegade in Power, p. 15
5. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, p. 14
6. ^ Peter Newman, Renegade in Power, p. 16
7. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 15-16
8. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 19-20
9. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 20-30
10. ↑ ^{a b} Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 31-33
11. ↑ John Diefenbaker, The Crusading Years 1895 to 1956, p 79
12. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 34-35
13. ^ Peter Newman, Renegade in Power, p. 18
14. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, p. 38
15. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 38-39
16. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, p. 41
17. ↑ John Diefenbaker, The Crusading Years 1895 to 1956, p 64
18. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 41-42
19. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, p. 43
20. ↑ Peter Newman, Renegade in Power, pp. 19-20
21. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 44-46
22. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 47-50
23. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 56-57
24. ↑ ^{a b} Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 70-71
25. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 58-60
26. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, p. 75
27. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 76-77
28. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 81-83
29. ↑ Peter Newman, Renegade in Power, pp. 22-23
30. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 98-99
31. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 102-103
32. ↑ Peter Newman, Renegade in Power, pp. 23-24
33. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, p. 116
34. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 114-115
35. ↑ John Diefenbaker, The Crusading Years 1895 to 1956, pp. 223-224
36. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 120-122
37. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, p. 125
38. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 128-130
39. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 131-134
40. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 135-136
41. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, p. 155
42. ↑ Michael Bliss, Right Honorable Men, pp. 194-195
43. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 166-167
44. ^ Peter Newman, Renegade in Power, p. 28
45. ↑ ^{a b c d} Peter Newman, Renegade in Power, pp. 29-30
46. ↑ John Diefenbaker, The Crusading Years 1895 to 1956, pp. 268-269
47. ^ Peter Newman, Renegade in Power, p. 5
48. ↑ John Diefenbaker, The Crusading Years 1895 to 1956, pp. 271-272
49. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 573-574
50. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, p. 195
51. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 185-189
52. ↑ Michael Bliss, Right Honorable Men, 202
53. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 199-200
54. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 201-203
55. ↑ John Meisel, The Canadian General Election of 1957, pp. 17-18
56. ↑ Michael Bliss, Right Honorable Men, pp. 203-204
57. ↑ Michael Bliss, Right Honorable Men, p. 188
58. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 217-218
59. ^ John English, The Worldly Years, p. 185
60. ^ Peter Newman, Renegade in Power, p. 52
61. ^ John Meisel, The Canadian General Election of 1957, p. 158
62. ↑ Peter Newman, Renegade in Power, pp. 53-54
63. ^ John Meisel, The Canadian General Election of 1957, p. 286
64. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, p. 235
65. ^ John Diefenbaker's 1957 minority miracle , CBC Digital Archives, accessed July 26, 2010
66. ↑ Peter Newman, Renegade in Power, pp. 56-58
67. ^ John Meisel, The Canadian General Election of 1957, p. 235
68. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 238-240
69. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, p. 244
70. ↑ Peter Newman, Renegade in Power, pp. 61-65
71. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 272-273
72. ^ ^{A b} John English, The Worldly Years, p. 200
73. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 257-258
74. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, p. 276
75. ↑ Peter Stursberg, Leadership Gained 1956-62, pp. 88-89
76. ^ Knowlton Nash, Kennedy & Diefenbaker, p. 49
77. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, p. 280
78. ^ ^{A b} Peter Stursberg, Leadership Gained 1956-62, pp. 94-98
79. ↑ John English, The Worldly Years, pp. 201-203
80. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, p. 282
81. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 287-289
82. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, p. 335
83. ↑ Michael Bliss, Right Honorable Men, pp. 195-196
84. ^ The Politics of Inclusion: Granting Aboriginals the Vote. (No longer available online.) Canadian Commission on Human Rights, archived from original September 2, 2010 ; accessed on July 8, 2010 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
85. ↑ Truscott award 'bittersweet'. Toronto Star , July 7, 2008, accessed July 14, 2010 . 
86. ^ Van Dusen, The Chief, p. 79
87. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 284, 367, 414
88. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 393-394
89. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 397-406
90. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 412-413
91. ↑ ^{a b} Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, p. 442
92. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 437-439
93. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 251-253
94. ↑ Peter Newman, Renegade in Power, pp. 272-274
95. ^ Soloman Gabriel, Foreign Policy of Canada, pp. 53, 56-57
96. ↑ Soloman Gabriel, Foreign Policy of Canada, pp. 58-63
97. ↑ John Diefenbaker, The Years of Achievement 1956 to 1962, pp. 211-212
98. ^ Soloman Gabriel, Foreign Policy of Canada, p. 66
99. ^ Peter Newman, Renegade in Power, p. 258
100. ^ Knowlton Nash, Kennedy & Diefenbaker, p. 46
101. ^ Knowlton Nash, Kennedy & Diefenbaker, p. 50
102. ↑ Knowlton Nash, Kennedy & Diefenbaker, pp. 54-55
103. ↑ ^{a b} Knowlton Nash, Kennedy & Diefenbaker, pp. 56-57
104. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 292, 295-296
105. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 307-308
106. ↑ Greig Stewart, Shutting Down the National Dream, pp 254-255
107. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 309-310
108. ↑ Greig Stewart, Shutting Down the National Dream, pp 244-245
109. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 317-320
110. ↑ Knowlton Nash, Kennedy & Diefenbaker, pp. 59-62
111. ^ Knowlton Nash, Kennedy & Diefenbaker, p. 63
112. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 380-382
113. ^ Knowlton Nash, Kennedy & Diefenbaker, p. 107
114. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 385-388
115. ↑ Knowlton Nash, Kennedy & Diefenbaker, pp. 126-128
116. ^ Knowlton Nash, Kennedy & Diefenbaker, pp. 139-141
117. ↑ Knowlton Nash, Kennedy & Diefenbaker, pp. 144-146
118. ↑ Knowlton Nash, Kennedy & Diefenbaker, pp. 156-158
119. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 433-436
120. ^ Knowlton Nash, Kennedy & Diefenbaker, pp. 162-164
121. ↑ Knowlton Nash, Kennedy & Diefenbaker, pp. 166-168
122. ^ Knowlton Nash, Kennedy & Diefenbaker, pp. 176-177
123. ↑ Knowlton Nash, Kennedy & Diefenbaker, pp. 180-184
124. ↑ Knowlton Nash, Kennedy & Diefenbaker, pp. 189-190
125. ↑ Knowlton Nash, Kennedy & Diefenbaker, pp. 194, 200
126. ↑ Knowlton Nash, Kennedy & Diefenbaker, pp. 203-204
127. ↑ Knowlton Nash, Kennedy & Diefenbaker, pp. 223-225
128. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, p. 469
129. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 471-472
130. ^ Knowlton Nash, Kennedy & Diefenbaker, p. 245
131. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, p. 475
132. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 478-479
133. ^ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, p. 485
134. ^ Knowlton Nash, Kennedy & Diefenbaker, p. 273
135. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, p. 504
136. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 509-510
137. ^ Knowlton Nash, Kennedy & Diefenbaker, p. 314
138. ^ John Diefenbaker, The Tumultuous Years, p. 223
139. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 522-524
140. ^ John Diefenbaker, The Tumultuous Years, p. 272
141. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 539-541
142. ^ Van Dusen, The Chief, pp. 61-62
143. ↑ Peter Stursberg, Leadership Lost 1962–67, pp. 171–176
144. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 558-559
145. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 559-563
146. ↑ Chancellors: John G. Diefenbaker (1969–1979). University of Saskatchewan Archives, May 23, 2005, accessed March 23, 2016 . 
147. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 563-564
148. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 565-567
149. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 567-568
150. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 568-571
151. ↑ ^{a b} Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 571-574
152. ^ Stanfield tells Diefenbaker to button up about Clark. Ottawa Citizen, September 23, 1977; accessed July 13, 2010 . 
153. ^ Charles Lynch: Big Thunder sounds off. Ottawa Citizen, September 23, 1977, accessed July 13, 2010 (English). 
154. ↑ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, pp. 575-577
155. ^ Bomarc Missile Crisis ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia . Retrieved March 15, 2015.
156. ^ Knowlton Nash, Kennedy & Diefenbaker, p. 114
157. ^ Denis Smith, Rogue Tory, p. 568
158. ↑ John Diefenbaker . In: Dictionary of Canadian Biography . 24 volumes, 1966–2018. University of Toronto Press, Toronto ( English , French ).

Remarks

1. ↑ The exact wording of Diefenbaker's conversation with Laurier varies depending on the source.
2. ↑ The victorious HJ Fraser challenged Diefenbaker 30 years later in the general election and lost a ratio of 1: 5. Peter Newman, Renegade in Power, p. 21
3. ↑ A fiscal year in Canada runs from April 1st to March 31st.
4. ↑ More than 50,000 additional jobs were affected in the supplier companies.
5. ↑ Kennedy pronounced the name as "Diefenbawker" (German roughly: Diefenbohker). Press officer Pierre Salinger attributed this to Kennedy's Boston accent.
6. ↑ In Canada a party president has a purely administrative function.
7. ↑ Kim Campbell was also head of government, but never won an election to get that position.

This article was added to the list of excellent articles on August 6, 2010 in this version .