One of Canada’s greatest-ever parliamentarians, Paul Martin Sr., joined his colleagues in the Senate on this date in 1973 to pay tribute to the late Lester B. Pearson, who had passed into history only a week before. Martin, of course, had known Mike Pearson for decades, their friendship dating back to their student days. They had been rivals for the Liberal party’s leadership in 1956, and close colleagues in the cabinets of Louis St.-Laurent and Mackenzie King. When Pearson himself was Prime Minister between 1963 and 1968, Martin Sr. served as his friend’s Secretary of State for External Affairs.
“Mike Pearson's life stands as a memorial, not only to him but to Canada,” Martin told his fellow senators. “His memorial is his life, and I believe that his productive contributions to the cause of peace and to humanity must serve his country as we continue to emulate his endeavours now that he is no more. His commitment must continue to be the commitment, the continuing commitment, of Canada. That is what he wished above all else, as he told me on the night of December 12, when I saw him last. Let us not disappoint him.”
You can read Paul Martin Sr.’s generous tribute to his fallen friend in its entirety at this link.
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.