Canada’s 20th PM was in Toronto on this date in 1996 to honour his predecessor and former boss, Lester B. Pearson. The occasion was the Inauguration Dinner for Oxford University’s Lester B. Pearson Chair of International Relations. Chrétien, who served as a young MP and then as a junior cabinet minister under Pearson, had high praise for the late PM.
“He showed Canadians why international affairs matter to each and every one of us,” Chrétien said. “Canadians responded by taking up the challenges of internationalism. And Mr. Pearson showed the world that Canada matters to all who value peace above war; tolerance above hate; cooperation above conflict. He taught all of us that Canada can make a difference when we pull together and work for common goals.”
In Mr. Pearson’s legacy, Chrétien concluded, Canadians could still find a roadmap to navigate current international problems. “Canada has important international interests to defend,” he said. “We cannot do that if we run away and hide. We either stay engaged, or we allow others to determine our future for us. Just as Lester Pearson fought against isolationism fifty years ago, we must speak out against the voices of isolation today -- abroad, and here at home too.”
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.