Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson was surely smiling on this date in 1964. His latest book, a collection of his speeches delivered before he became the nation’s PM, received an excellent review. Writing in the Regina Leader Post, Kathleen Graham told her readers “(When) speaking on politics, opposition and the plight of democracy Mr. Pearson's tone is down to earth and practical. The political facts of life are confronted squarely and realistically. Contrasting speeches…will help readers of this book to arrive fair assessment of Lester Pearson's ideas and character.”
I found this book of Mr. Pearson’s in a used bookstore while I was an undergraduate back in the 1980s here in Kingston. It helped spark my life-long interest in the 14th Prime Minister. I heartily recommend this volume to anyone studying this late-great Prime Minister.
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.