John Diefenbaker - on being Canadian

Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker speaking in Canada's House of Commons about the meaning of being a Canadian, during the enacting of the Canadian Bill of Rights put forward by his government, the first comprehensive civil rights legislation at the federal level in Canada. The Bill of Rights had numerous important implications but the main ones were that it granted indigenous people living on reserves the right to vote, and the Bill of Rights opened the path for the more comprehensive Charter of Rights and Freedoms that was adopted in 1982 that is still in effect today.

Diefenbaker as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada managed to oust the incumbant government of the Liberal Party of Canada of Louis St. Laurent that had been initially deemed favoured to win the election. Diefenbaker like other Western Canadian political leaders launched a populist campaign that won him a base in the West and enough in Ontario and the Maritimes to overtake the Liberals. Diefenbaker became the first Western Canadian to be Prime Minister of Canada. Diefenbaker initially held a minority government (held a minority of the members in the House of Commons though still had the largest bloc of members), but one year later another election was held and the Progressive Conservatives won a large majority government. the idea of "Progressive Conservative" that may seem oxymoronic with contemporary usage of the word "progressive", at that time was largely emulating Benjamin Disraeli's One Nation conservatism that supported social welfare to assist people during hard times where personal initiative and private charity alone could not help them. By doing so this meant that a country would not effectively be effectively divided into two countries (the strongly rich and the strongly poor). See here for more details: www.deviantart.com/art/Benjami…

Diefenbaker's legacy sparked controversy on a number of issues. With reports of famines in China, Diefenbaker, himself a farmer, broke with NATO allies by deciding to take the risk sending large wheat exports to the this communist-led country in the hopes that the government would send it to their population. The second issue was the rise of apartheid in South Africa, while there had long been in South Africa a sense of whites being superior to blacks the enacting of apartheid increased the intensity of that sentiment. Diefenbaker opposed apartheid in South Africa and believed that the British Commonwealth should pressure South Africa on the issue. Ultimately when the South African government refused to back down, Diefenbaker stood alongside African and Asian members of the Commonwealth in supporting South Africa being expelled from the Commonwealth. This role of standing against apartheid was repeated years later by another Progressive Conservative leader and Prime Minister, Brian Mulroney who pushed other NATO leaders to support anti-Apartheid leader Nelson Mandela being released from prison in South Africa.

South African anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela upon being released from prison in 1990 made Canada the first Commonwealth country that he visited, honouring the leading efforts of Canada under the Diefenbaker government to push the Commonwealth to challenge apartheid.

The most controversial of his decisions was with the Canadian aircraft company Avro Canada due to him ordering the destruction of the Avro Arrow interceptor aircraft designed to shoot down Soviet bombers capable of carrying nuclear bombs. There was a long acrimonious dispute between Diefenbaker Crawford Gordon who was a prominent member of the Liberal Party of Canada and despised Diefenbaker. The dismantling of the Arrow project is seen as marking the end of Avro Canada and of an advanced military aircraft industry in Canada. At the time however there was serious talk in the Canadian government at that time and elsewhere of whether the Avro Arrow was already becoming obsolete as the Soviet Union was already moving towards creating nuclear missiles and that such weaponry would require interception missiles capable of swiftly shooting those down. Regardless, it is a highly controversial part of the history of Diefenbaker's legacy.



Note 4: I have posted this quote because it is a quote of an important historical figure. This is not posted here for political reasons, if people choose to support or use this image for political reasons, that is their decision and responsibility, not mine. With these points in mind, I will accept this image being included in any group interested in having this image.