Erin O'Toole: Lester Pearson

Lester B. Pearson Dept: OTTAWA - As he goes from door to door wooing byelection voters in southwestern Ontario, Erin O'Toole talks about a lot of different issues, with one pointed exception: his 12 years as a member of the Canadian Forces, according to Winnipeg Free Press. It's just that he doesn't want to be seen as using his military service or work with veterans as a springboard to a political career and prime Minister Lester B. Pearson speaks at a press conference in Ottawa on Dec. 14, 1967. Canada has seen a far smaller proportion of ex-soldiers choosing to throw their berets into the political ring. Over the history of the House of Commons, only 18 per cent of the 4,202 MPs ever elected have military duty on their resume, according to statistics on the parliamentary website. The last prime minister to see active duty was Lester Pearson, who was both a member of the Canadian Army Medical Corps during the First World War and then a pilot in Britain. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Peter Bregg O'Toole, the Conservative hopeful in the riding of Durham, is fiercely proud of his time in the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Navy, which included Sea King helicopter missions after the 1998 crash of Swissair Flight 111. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.