Pearson's Bumbling Competence

Pearson seemed bland and indecisive while Prime Minister, but he quietly forged many of the symbols of modern Canada.

On U.S. election night, I thought, “Poor Americans.” The hopes of so many of our neighbours had been raised so high, their faith and optimism re-kindled with such fervour, that the inevitable failure of Barack Obama to meet their expectations would cause painful political despair. Which is happening.

There is a lesson here for those of us who wish in our hearts for a strong, bold, visionary leader, an Obama of our own, a new Trudeau. It won’t work.

As our ideological divide deepens, social cohesion fades and the country’s future lies beyond the grasp of politicians’ imagination, a new iconic leader leaping onto centre stage would merely make things worse, push us farther apart than we already are. We need a diplomat, a listener, an adept compromiser, someone whose skills are on the international stage where so many young Canadians’ idealistic interests lie and who can weave us together while making us think we’ve been smart enough to do it ourselves. I wince saying this, because I’ve always thought he was wishy-washy, cynical, and lacking in decent nationalism, but we need another Lester Pearson.

Canadians never thought enough of him to give him a majority government. He led two minority administrations between 1963 and 1968. His speeches were almost as bad as Michael Ignatieff’s. He appeared indecisive, appeasing, bland, and boring at the time of John F. Kennedy and the sunrise of the Beatles’ Sixties.

He built our modern nation.

In his bumbling, unexciting way he forged – with more than a little bravery – a remarkable consent from Canadians to do what he was doing.

He won the Nobel Peace Prize for creating the world’s first large-scale peacekeeping mission thus providing Canada with one of its most enduring mythologies. He gave us our flag and transformed his belief in equality into legislation, both without polarizing us. He gave us public health care, the Canada Pension Plan, student loans, a decent federal minimum wage. He instituted Royal commissions into biculturalism and bilingualism and the status of women. He had the guts to give a speech in the U.S. calling on the Americans to suspend their bombing campaign in Vietnam, after which President Lyndon Johnson grabbed him by the lapels and shouted, “Don’t you come into my living room and piss on my rug.”

He made things, in retrospect, look easy and himself look incompetent and totally uninspiring. I’d rather us bumble to a good end than flame out in style.