It was a tough-talking Lester Pearson who took to his feet in the Commons on this date in 1949 and offered up very harsh criticism of the Soviet Union. The press reported that Pearson said the “Soviet not only is bent on widening its area of power but on stamping out all remnants of independence (within Eastern Europe).”
For 90 minutes Pearson, who was Secretary of State for External Affairs at the time, lamented the actions of Canada’s former war-time ally. At one point, with great sarcasm, he termed the USSR that “apostle of international cooperation.”
In the same address, Pearson told the House that our American neighbours “must realize that Canada wishes to play her own part to make her own contribution and she can only do it as a co-operative partner and not as a camp follower.” 
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.