CanadaWho was John Diefenbaker?
John George Diefenbaker was born in Neustadt, Ontario, in 1895, and grew up in Saskatchewan. After serving in the First World War he became a well-known criminal defence lawyer in Prince Albert. He entered the House of Commons in 1940 and won the Progressive Conservative leadership in 1956. In 1957 he ended 22 years of Liberal rule, and in 1958 won what remains, by share of seats, the largest majority in Canadian federal history. His government fell in 1963 amid a split over nuclear weapons. He remained an MP until his death in 1979.
Political views
Campaigned from 1946 for a bill of rights protecting freedom of religion, speech and association, and passed the Canadian Bill of Rights in 1960.
Source: laws-lois.justice.gc.caExtended the federal vote to First Nations and Inuit people and named the first woman to a federal cabinet, Ellen Fairclough.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgCalled for an 'unhyphenated nation' in which citizens of all origins and religions would be treated equally.
Source: biographi.caVehemently rejected apartheid, and his stance helped bring about South Africa's departure from the Commonwealth in 1961.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgPledged to divert 15 per cent of Canada's foreign trade from the United States to the United Kingdom.
Source: biographi.caAgreed to host US Bomarc missiles, then hesitated over arming them with nuclear warheads and responded slowly during the Cuban missile crisis.
Source: biographi.caLed the opposition to the Maple Leaf flag in 1964, arguing it lacked historic symbols.
Source: biographi.ca
Legacy
Supporters remember Diefenbaker as a champion of the ordinary citizen and of minority rights, whose Bill of Rights prefigured the 1982 Charter and who gave Indigenous people the federal vote, appointed the first female cabinet minister and the first Indigenous senator, and took a principled stand against apartheid. His populist style broke the Liberal hold on the West. Critics fault his indecisive leadership, the 1959 cancellation of the Avro Arrow fighter program, after which the Avro company dismissed 14,000 employees, and his confused handling of nuclear weapons and relations with President Kennedy, which split his cabinet and brought down his government. His resistance to the new flag and to bicultural ideas alienated many in Quebec.