John Diefenbaker
Rt. Hon. John George Diefenbaker | |
|---|---|
| File:Johndiefenbaker.jpeg | |
| In office June 10, 1957 – April 22, 1963 | |
| Personal details | |
| Political party | Progressive Conservative |
John George Diefenbaker, CH, PC, QC, BA, MA, LL.B, LL.D, DCL, FRSC, FRSA, D.Litt, DSL, (September 18, 1895 – August 16, 1979) was the 13th Prime Minister of Canada (1957 – 1963).
John Diefenbaker was the thirteenth Prime Minister of Canada. He was born on September 18, 1895, in Neustadt, Ontario, to William (Originally Diefenbacker) and Mary (Bannerman). He received a BA in 1915, an MA in Political Science and Economics in 1916, and an LL.B in 1919 from the University of Saskatchewan. Diefenbaker married Edna Brower (1901-1951) in 1929. In 1953, after Edna's death, he married his second wife, Olive Palmer (1902-1976), who had a daughter from a previous marriage. Diefenbaker had no children of his own.
Diefenbaker was known by several nicknames during his career, including "Dief the Chief", (or simply "the Chief") "J.G.D.", and "The Leader" (a monicker that continued to be applied to him even after his leaving the post of prime minister).
Early career
John George Diefenbaker served briefly in World War I in the Canadian Army from March 1916 to July 1917, acquiring the rank of lieutenant in the 29th Light Horse. He was sent to England for pre-deployment training, but he was never deployed to France, having suffered an injury that had him coughing up blood. Invalided back to Canada, he was there discharged as Medically Unfit for Service, due to heart irregularities.
He was called to the Saskatchewan Bar in 1919, and became a criminal defence lawyer. Diefenbaker was famous for representing poorer clients, and he would seldom call defense witnesses. At one time, in the Supreme Court of British Columbia, he fell on the floor, clutching his throat, to show how a murder had been committed. Diefenbaker represented clients in 20 murder cases, and lost only two. In 1920 Diefenbaker was elected as an alderman for the municipal council of the Town of Wakaw, Saskatchewan. He was unsuccessful in his re-election bid of 1923. His career as a lawyer was more successful than his political career at this time, and he was appointed King's Counsel in 1929.
Diefenbaker's early political career was marked by a singular lack of achievement after his first political breakthrough; he ran unsuccessfully in over a dozen elections at the municipal, provincial and federal levels in Alberta and Saskatchewan before finally getting elected again.
Diefenbaker served as the leader of the Saskatchewan Conservative Party from 1936-1938, having taken over the party after it was wiped out in the 1934 provincial election that brought down the Tory government of Premier James Thomas Milton Anderson.
Diefenbaker was first elected to the federal Parliament in the 1940 federal election. He was one of only a handful of western Conservative MPs elected under the party's abortive National Government platform. He served as one of the few inspiring opposition parliamentarians during the party's long years in the political wilderness between 1935 and 1957. In 1952 he became Canada's delegate to the United Nations.
Diefenbaker was a frequent contestent in Progressive Conservative leadership conventions. In 1943, Diefenbaker lost to Manitoba Premier John Bracken. In 1948, Diefenbaker lost to Ontario Premier George Drew. Diefenbaker was not a favourite of the party establishment, who thought of him as a loose cannon and unfriendly to business. Diefenbaker would finally win in 1956. While the Pipeline Debate and other signs of arrogance appeared in the Liberal government, few gave Diefenbaker any hope of winning an election against the popular Louis St. Laurent.
Prime Minister of Canada
Diefenbaker's oratory skill, and a desire for change by the populace propelled him to victory in the 1957 election, after which he was able to form a minority government. Lester Pearson would soon take over the Liberal leadership, and on his first speech, would ask Diefenbaker to hand power back to the Liberals because of recent economic decline. Diefenbaker would, in a scathing 2.5 hour response, reveal a formerly classified Liberal file that predicted the economic malaise. The "arrogant" label that had been on the Liberals in 1957 stayed.
Diefenbaker returned to the polls in the 1958 election. Running on a campaign of building a "Canada of the North", increasing subsidies and development in the northern parts of the country, and on increasing social programs, Diefenbaker's message hit harder in English Canada. The biggest surprise was in Quebec, where the Union Nationale political machine was put into use for the Tories. On election night, Diefenbaker won the largest majority government in Canadian history.
However, as Peter C. Newman would write, "[He] came to the toughest job in the country without having worked for anyone but himself, without ever having hired or fired anyone, and without ever having administered anything more complicated than a walk-up law office." His first Commonwealth leaders meeting went over well, until he made an offer to the United Kingdom to bring 15% of Canada's trade with the United States to the UK. Since the proposal violated many international agreements, the UK instead proposed a Free Trade Agreement. Diefenbaker's Cabinet strongly recommended against it, and the 15% figure never came up again. Relations considerably cooled between the UK and Canada.
Diefenbaker would soon run into economic problems. With a recession already looming by the time he came in, increased deficits would hurt the economic picture more. Diefenbaker would blame Liberal policies of tight money for these problems. Out of this sprang the Governor of the Bank of Canada, James Coyne. Coyne heavily criticised the government's financial record, saying that the country was relying too much on exports to the United States, and that a tightening was needed. The Government rejected his advice, and tried to get rid of Coyne for playing politics with his position. While the House of Commons would pass a bill declaring his position vacant, the Liberal-controlled Canadian Senate would reject it, and Coyne resigned the next day. The main bank manager criticising the Government gave a feeling of chaos to international investors, which prompted many to withdraw capital from Canada. The ensuing crunch would heavily limit economic growth.
Diefenbaker made what some believe to have been one of the most controversial policy decisions of the last century in Canada on February 20, 1959 when his government cancelled the development and manufacture of the Avro Arrow. The Arrow was a Mach 2 supersonic jet fighter built by A.V. Roe Canada (Avro), in Malton, Ontario. After cancelling the technologically advanced interceptor project, the Canadian government purchased American-made Bomarc missiles and CF-101 Voodoo interceptors to defend Canada in the event of a Soviet nuclear bomber attack from the north.
Dwight Eisenhower was president when Diefenbaker became prime minister and the two fostered a strong friendship. His hostility to the United States Kennedy administration would be pronounced. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, Diefenbaker was annoyed at the failure of President John F. Kennedy to consult with him ahead of time, which led Diefenbaker to be skeptical of the seriousness of the situation. This caused him to fail to act quickly on an American request to put Canadian forces on Defcon 3 status. The Minister of National Defence, Douglas Harkness, defied Diefenbaker by putting the military on high alert two days prior to Cabinet's decision to authorize the move.
Diefenbaker was also instrumental in bringing in the Canadian Bill of Rights in 1960. This was the first attempt to articulate the basic rights of Canadian citizens in law. Because the Bill of Rights was an ordinary federal statute and not a part of the Canadian Constitution, it did not codify such rights in an enforceable way, since it could not be used by courts to nullify federal or provincial laws that contradicted it (An official would comment, "It's great, unless you live in one of the provinces."). Thus its effect on the decisions of the courts, unlike the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms of 1982, was limited.
The lack of economic progress and the lack of an active UN political machine in Quebec helped the Progressive Conservatives lose their majority in the 1962 election. Immediately afterward, Diefenbaker's minority government began a program to reduce government spending, and raise tariffs and bank interest rates. He then reorganized his Cabinet, moving Finance Minister Donald Fleming into the Minister of Justice portfolio, replacing him with George C. Nowlan.
In September 1962, Diefenbaker attended the Conference of Commonwealth Prime Ministers in London, where he attacked Britain's prospective entry into the European Economic Community, stating it would be at the expense of Canada's increased economic dependence on the United States. He also criticized South Africa's policy of apartheid, and successfully opposed its readmission into the Commonwealth after it declared itself a republic.
Diefenbaker's final term of office would see the escalation of a nuclear arms question brought on by the imported Bomarc missiles and the Voodoo aircraft that had replaced the Avro Arrow. Diefenbaker would soon reject the American nuclear warheads being put in missiles. The already strained relationship would deteriroate faster, and a Cabinet split would further undermine the government. Social Credit and the CCF would withdraw their support of the government, prompting its fall over the nuclear arms question. Diefenbaker would use Congressional testimony about the Bomarc missiles to accuse Pearson of making Canada a target for a nuclear war, and would accuse American media outlets and the US government of interfering with the election.
Party leader and Member of Parliament
Diefenbaker lost the 1963 federal election to Lester Pearson and the Liberals. Nevertheless he continued as PC party leader after the 1963 election, serving as Leader of the Opposition. In the 1964 Great Flag Debate, he led the opposition to the Maple Leaf flag, which he castigated as the "Pearson Pennant", arguing for the retention of the Canadian Red Ensign.
There were early calls for Diefenbaker's retirement, especially from the Bay Street wing of the party. At the February, 1964 PC Convention, a secret ballot on his leadership was held. Diefenbaker held on by a very narrow margin. Diefenbaker would be introduced to the convention by Joe Clark, president of the Student Federation whose delegates were seen as the vote that tipped the balance. Clark described when he first saw Diefenbaker in High River, Alberta, and Diefenbaker's bravery at standing for the vote. Diefenbaker emotionally accepted the result, and said, "If there were no other rewards in public life than to have done what was stated by the brilliant Joe Clark, I would have been rewarded more than I could hope for."
To the surprise of many, he ran an aggressive, nationalistic campaign in the 1965 election, which Pearson had called in the expectation that the Liberals would win a majority. Growing dissatisfaction with his leadership, however, led to open dissension within the party, headed by Party president Dalton Camp. There was a fear within the party that even though ditching Diefenbaker would probably improve Eastern results, they might lose the Western seats Diefenbaker brought to the party.
Camp and other anti-Diefenbaker efforts resulted in a leadership review, a measure for which there was no provision in the party's constitution. The Progressive Conservatives called a leadership convention in 1967. Although Diefenbaker stood as a candidate for the leadership, against the proposed Deux Nations policy, he was defeated by Nova Scotia Premier Robert Stanfield. His exit was considered the most emotional moment of the convention.
Diefenbaker retained his parliamentary seat for the next twelve years until his death, while also serving as the chancellor at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon beginning in 1969. He was a favourite of the Press Gallery, and would frequently make snide remarks about other Conservatives. This reached a head in 1979, when he joked that Canada had celebrated the International Year of the Child by electing Joe Clark, who as a student had defended Diefenbaker.
Death
Diefenbaker died on August 16, 1979 in Ottawa, Ontario. According to his funeral plans his body was shipped from Ottawa to Saskatoon by train for burial. Thousands of Canadians lined the tracks and more watched on television to bid farewell to "Dief" before he was buried beside the Right Honourable John G. Diefenbaker Centre at the University of Saskatchewan. In his will, He had a special ceremony in place, so that the Maple Leaf flag was draped on his casket first, and then the Red Ensign that he defended so intensely in parliament was laid over it. His state funeral was carried out as he had planned years earlier. Interestingly, it was presided over by the short-lived government of Prime Minister Joe Clark, a fellow Tory. During the burial services, Clark took part in eulogizing Diefenbaker, only days after Diefenbaker had delivered insults against Clark to the press.
Legacy
Diefenbaker's legacy remains a controversial one. Economically, the country fared poorly, but this could be ascribed to conditions elsewhere. However, his love of the "common man", and his near universal stand for rights (He was one of the few dissenters in the internment of Japanese Canadians, and led the fight against South Africa being in the Commonwealth) seems to shed a more positive light.
Diefenbaker raised the popularity of the Progressive Conservatives in the Western provinces, and the West would be a PC mainstay until the early-1990s.
Between 1993 and 2003 Diefenbaker was frequently touted as a "spiritual father" of the values espoused by the then-beleaguered PC Party and its membership. In his 2000 book In Defence of Civility, Tory strategist and former PC leadership candidate Senator Hugh Segal notes that Diefenbaker "defined Progressive Conservatism as the ultimate balance for free enterprise, profit-making and economic growth on the one hand, and social justice and respect for the interests of the common man on the other." Many Red Tory PCs, such as David Orchard and Heward Grafftey, who were not enamoured of the more recent PC Prime Ministerships of Joe Clark, Brian Mulroney and Kim Campbell, frequently referenced their own political traditions, values and stances to the Diefenbaker era. Ironically, in his memoirs, Diefenbaker stated that he preferred the name "Conservative" to "Progressive Conservative."
Supreme Court appointments
Diefenbaker appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of Canada:
- Ronald Martland - (January 15, 1958 - February 10, 1982)
- Wilfred Judson - (February 5, 1958 - July 20, 1977)
- Roland Almon Ritchie - (May 5, 1959 - October 31, 1984)
- Emmett Matthew Hall - (November 23, 1962 - March 1, 1973)
Honours
- Lake Diefenbaker is named for the late prime minister. It is a reservoir on the South Saskatchewan River created following the construction of the Gardiner Dam.
- Saskatoon's airport is named John G. Diefenbaker International Airport in his honour.
- John G. Diefenbaker Centre on the University of Saskatchewan which is a museum dedicated to him.
Trivia
In 1967, the boyhood home of Diefenbaker was moved from Borden, Saskatchewan, to Wascana Park in Regina, Saskatchewan. In 2001, the Wascana Centre Authority shut the site to visitors, and in 2004 it was moved to the Sukanen Ship and Pioneer Village Museum, 13 km south of Moose Jaw.
With the exception of recent Prime Ministers Kim Campbell, Jean Chretien, Paul Martin and current prime minister Stephen Harper, Diefenbaker is the only former Prime Minister alive at the time of the creation of the Order of Canada not to receive it. Sitting politicians are not permitted to be given the order while in office and since Diefenbaker did not leave the House of Commons before his death, he never became eligible.
A number of fallout shelters constructed for the Canadian Government were nicknamed "Diefenbunkers" after Diefenbaker, a name which persists to this day.
The television show Due South had a wolf character who was named "Diefenbaker," after the Prime Minister. The star of that show, Paul Gross, would eventually play Diefenbaker himself in the Tommy Douglas miniseries Prairie Giant.
A planet in the BattleTech Wargame universe was also named after the late Prime Minister.
References
- Renegade in Power: The Diefenbaker Years, Peter C. Newman (1963)
External links
- Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
- Political Biography from the Library of Parliament
- Diefenbaker Homestead
- 1895 births
- 1979 deaths
- Canadian lawyers
- Companions of Honour
- Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada
- Historical Conservative Party of Canada MPs
- Progressive Conservative Party of Canada MPs
- Members of the Canadian House of Commons from Saskatchewan
- Members of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada
- Prime Ministers of Canada
- Saskatchewan MLAs
- Canadian university and college chancellors
- Canadian World War I people
- Fellows of the Royal Society of Arts
- Apartheid in South Africa
- Scottish Canadians
- German Canadians
- Red Tories