Lester B. Pearson: St. Laurent

Louis St. Laurent Dept: In many ways he was an unlikely party leader. He had spent the first two-thirds of his career as a foreign affairs officer, diplomat, deputy minister and minister of external affairs challenging experiences, but different from the rough and tumble of domestic politics. In External, he made an impressive, though unusual, sort of mark with his rumpled look, his informal ways and a seemingly casual approach to serious international matters, according to The Star. Even before he sought the Liberal leadership, Pearson understood he would need help. He looked for a new set of core advisors quite different from those who had worked with King and St. Laurent and found two remarkably able men, Walter Gordon and Tom Kent. In effect the three men recruited each other and Fifty years ago this month, Lester B. Pearson became Prime Minister of Canada . It is a good occasion to remember the man himself and examine those personal traits that enabled him to lead the team that put together the most progressive legislative program in Canadian history. Unlike Louis St. Laurent, who inherited a party in office from Mackenzie King, Pearson took over after the Liberals, widely perceived as tired and arrogant, had been thrown out of office in 1957, and the party was decimated in Pearson first election in 1958. Most of the senior players were defeated or refused to run again. On the provincial scene, there was only one Liberal provincial government. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.