The Duel: Diefenbaker, Pearson and the Making of Modern Canada

The Duel: Diefenbaker, Pearson and the Making of Modern Canada, John Ibbitson

Even by the standards of today’s testy era, where personal animosity between opposing party leaders seems more the rule than the exception, John Diefenbaker and Lester Pearson were a study in extremes. The soft-spoken Pearson was the ultimate government creation, a mandarin turned politician at home in counterpart’s offices capitals around the world but far from a compelling public figure.  Diefenbaker was populism personified, a sometimes spellbinding orator as capable of ticking off members of his own party as much as the opposition.  But together, as the always highly-readable Ibbitson sketches so compellingly, they combined – more by accident than design – to institute reforms that continue to guide the way our country functions to this day. A timely reminder that important decisions often owe as much to circumstance as they do to careful planning.  As the British Prime Minister Harold MacMillan memorably responded, when asked the greatest challenge for any statesman, ‘Events, dear boy, events.’