Lester B. Pearson

Biography

Lester Bowles Pearson was born in 1897 near Toronto, the son of a Methodist minister. He studied at Victoria College in the University of Toronto, served in the First World War as a medical orderly in Egypt and Salonika and then as a Royal Flying Corps pilot, and after the war read history at St John's College, Oxford, before teaching history at Toronto.

In 1927 he joined Canada's Department of External Affairs. He served at the high commission in London, moved to the Washington embassy in 1942 and became ambassador to the United States at the start of 1945. In 1948 he entered Louis St. Laurent's Liberal cabinet as Secretary of State for External Affairs and won the Ontario seat of Algoma East. He took part in founding NATO, presided over the UN General Assembly in 1952-1953, and twice lost bids to become UN Secretary-General to Soviet vetoes. His proposal for a UN Emergency Force during the 1956 Suez Crisis earned him the 1957 Nobel Peace Prize.

Pearson became Liberal leader in 1958 and, after defeats in 1958 and 1962, won minority governments in 1963 and 1965. As prime minister he introduced the Canada Pension Plan, student loans, the Canada Assistance Plan and federal support for universal health care, set up royal commissions on bilingualism and on the status of women, adopted the Maple Leaf flag, unified the armed forces, signed the Auto Pact and kept Canada out of the Vietnam War.

He retired in 1968, chaired the World Bank's commission on international development, became chancellor of Carleton University and first chairman of the International Development Research Centre, and died in Ottawa in December 1972.