77-404: John George Diefenbaker ( / ˈ d iː f ən b eɪ k ər / DEE -fən-bay-kər ; September 18, 1895 – August 16, 1979) was a Canadian politician who served as the 13th prime minister of Canada , from 1957 to 1963. He was the only Progressive Conservative party leader between 1930 and 1979 to lead the party to an election victory, doing so three times, although only once with a majority of
154-508: A gadfly and an annoyance to Mackenzie King. Angered by the words of Diefenbaker and fellow Conservative MP Howard Green in seeking to censure the government, the Prime Minister referred to Conservative MPs as "a mob". When Diefenbaker accompanied two other Conservative leaders to a briefing by Mackenzie King on the war , the Prime Minister exploded at Diefenbaker (a constituent of his), "What business do you have to be here? You strike me to
231-578: A quarter-section , 160 acres (0.65 km) of undeveloped land near Borden, Saskatchewan . In February 1910, the Diefenbaker family moved to Saskatoon , the site of the University of Saskatchewan . William and Mary Diefenbaker felt that John and his brother Elmer would have greater educational opportunities in Saskatoon. John Diefenbaker had been interested in politics from an early age and told his mother at
308-703: A Conservative had in the province was that afforded by the game laws . Diefenbaker's father, William, was a Liberal; however, John Diefenbaker found himself attracted to the Conservative Party . Free trade was widely popular throughout Western Canada, but Diefenbaker was convinced by the Conservative position that free trade would make Canada an economic dependent of the United States. However, he did not speak publicly of his politics. Diefenbaker recalled in his memoirs that, in 1921, he had been elected as secretary of
385-498: A Conservative, a year in which both federal and Saskatchewan provincial elections were held. Journalist Peter C. Newman , in his best-selling account of the Diefenbaker years, suggested that this choice was made for practical, rather than political reasons, as Diefenbaker had little chance of defeating established politicians and securing the Liberal nomination for either the House of Commons or
462-456: A DNA test which, according to the test conductor, a 99.99% chance that the two individuals were related, with no other known commonality between them other than that Diefenbaker employed both mothers. Diefenbaker won Prince Albert in 1953, even as the Tories suffered a second consecutive disastrous defeat under Drew. Speculation arose in the press that the leader might be pressured to step aside. Drew
539-461: A brief period under Bennett in 1935. Rowe was no friend of Diefenbaker – he had briefly served as the party's acting leader in-between Drew's resignation and Diefenbaker's election, and did not definitively rule himself out of running to succeed Drew permanently until a relatively late stage, contributing to Diefenbaker's mistrust of him – and was given no place in his government. Diefenbaker appointed Ellen Fairclough as Secretary of State for Canada ,
616-602: A cashier in Saskatoon, and by 1922, the two were engaged. However, in 1923, Newell was diagnosed with tuberculosis , and Diefenbaker broke off contact with her. She died the following year. Diefenbaker was himself subject to internal bleeding, and may have feared that the disease would be transmitted to him. In late 1923, he had an operation at the Mayo Clinic for a gastric ulcer , but his health remained uncertain for several more years. After four years in Wakaw, Diefenbaker so dominated
693-408: A contingent of 300 junior officers sent to Britain for pre-deployment training. Diefenbaker related in his memoirs that he was hit by a shovel, and the injury eventually resulted in him being sent home as an invalid. Diefenbaker's recollections do not correspond with his army medical records, which show no contemporary account of such an injury, and his biographer, Denis Smith, speculates that any injury
770-619: A lack of aid for the poorer provinces. Parliament was dissolved on April 12. St. Laurent was so confident of victory that he did not even bother to make recommendations to the Governor General to fill the 16 vacancies in the Senate. Diefenbaker ran on a platform which concentrated on changes in domestic policies. He pledged to work with the provinces to reform the Senate. He proposed a vigorous new agricultural policy, seeking to stabilize income for farmers. He sought to reduce dependence on trade with
847-785: A majority. While the Liberals finished some 200,000 votes ahead of the Tories nationally, that margin was mostly wasted in overwhelming victories in safe Quebec seats. St. Laurent could have attempted to form a government, however, with the minor parties pledging to cooperate with the Progressive Conservatives, he would have likely faced a quick defeat at the Commons. St. Laurent instead resigned, making Diefenbaker prime minister. When John Diefenbaker took office as Prime Minister of Canada on June 21, 1957, only one Progressive Conservative MP, Earl Rowe , had served in federal governmental office, for
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#1732863372293924-407: A new floor leader, Diefenbaker was defeated by one vote. Bracken was elected to the Commons in the 1945 general election , and for the first time in five years the Tories had their party leader in the House of Commons. The Progressive Conservatives won 67 seats to the Liberals' 125, with smaller parties and independents winning 52 seats. Diefenbaker increased his majority to over 1,000 votes, and had
1001-682: A nomination to stand again against Mackenzie King in Prince Albert. In the waning days of the Bennett government, the Saskatchewan Conservative Party president was appointed a judge, leaving Diefenbaker, who had been elected the party's vice president, as acting president of the provincial party. Saskatchewan Conservatives eventually arranged a leadership convention for October 28, 1936. Eleven people were nominated, including Diefenbaker. The other ten candidates withdrew, and Diefenbaker won
1078-438: A party that had not changed itself enough to follow a Prairie radical ... [If he had defeated Drew in 1948, he] would have been free to flounder before the political strength of Louis St. Laurent in the 1949 and 1953 campaigns. The governing Liberals repeatedly attempted to draw Diefenbaker's seat out from under him. In 1948, Lake Centre was redistricted to remove areas which strongly supported Diefenbaker. In spite of that, he
1155-451: A population of only 400, it sat at the heart of a densely populated area of rural townships and had its own district court . It was also easily accessible to Saskatoon, Prince Albert and Humboldt , places where the Court of King's Bench sat. The local people were mostly immigrants, and Diefenbaker's research found them to be particularly litigious. There was already one barrister in town, and
1232-518: A post-election party meeting in Moose Jaw , but it was refused. Diefenbaker continued to run the provincial party out of his law office and paid the party's debts from his own pocket. Diefenbaker quietly sought the Conservative nomination for the federal riding of Lake Centre but was unwilling to risk a divisive intra-party squabble. In what Diefenbaker biographer Smith states "appears to have been an elaborate and prearranged charade", Diefenbaker attended
1309-500: A sworn enemy of discrimination." After graduating from high school in Saskatoon in 1912, Diefenbaker entered the University of Saskatchewan. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1915, and his Master of Arts the following year. Diefenbaker was commissioned a lieutenant into the 196th (Western Universities) Battalion, CEF , in May 1916. In September of that year, Diefenbaker was part of
1386-542: A train crash by omitting crucial information from a message. Twenty-one people were killed, mostly Canadian troops bound for Korea. Diefenbaker paid $ 1,500 and sat a token bar examination to join the Law Society of British Columbia to take the case, and gained an acquittal, prejudicing the jury against the Crown prosecutor and pointing out a previous case in which interference had caused information to be lost in transmission. In
1463-696: A wartime coalition government, but Mackenzie King refused. The House of Commons had only a slight role in the war effort; under the state of emergency, most business was accomplished through the Cabinet issuing Orders in Council . Diefenbaker was appointed to the House Committee on the Defence of Canada Regulations , an all-party committee which examined the wartime rules which allowed arrest and detention without trial. On June 13, 1940, Diefenbaker made his maiden speech in
1540-462: The 1948 leadership convention in Ottawa in favour of Drew, appointing more than 300 delegates at-large . One cynical party member commented, "Ghost delegates with ghost ballots, marked by the ghostly hidden hand of Bay Street, are going to pick George Drew, and he'll deliver a ghost-written speech that'll cheer us all up, as we march briskly into a political graveyard." Drew easily defeated Diefenbaker on
1617-464: The 23rd Canadian Parliament was opened on October 14 by Queen Elizabeth II – the first to be opened by any Canadian monarch – the government rapidly passed legislation, including tax cuts and increases in old age pensions. The Liberals were ineffective in opposition, with the party in the midst of a leadership race after St. Laurent's resignation as party leader. With the Conservatives leading in
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#17328633722931694-538: The Legislative Assembly . The provincial election took place in early June; Liberals would later claim that Diefenbaker had campaigned for their party in the election. On June 19, however, Diefenbaker addressed a Conservative organizing committee, and on August 6, was nominated as the party's candidate for the federal riding of Prince Albert , a district in which the party's last candidate had lost his election deposit . A nasty campaign ensued, in which Diefenbaker
1771-490: The Métis . He said, "From my earliest days, I knew the meaning of discrimination. Many Canadians were virtually second-hand citizens because of their names and racial origin. Indeed, it seemed until the end of World War II that the only first-class Canadians were either of English or French descent. As a youth, l determined to devote myself to assuring that all Canadians, whatever their racial origin, were equal and declared myself to be
1848-420: The gerrymandering so angered him that he decided to fight for a seat. Diefenbaker's party had taken Prince Albert only once, in 1911, but he decided to stand in that riding for the 1953 election and was successful. He would hold that seat for the rest of his life. Even though Diefenbaker campaigned nationally for party candidates, the Progressive Conservatives gained little, rising to 51 seats as St. Laurent led
1925-420: The 1920s and 1930s with little success until he was finally elected to the House of Commons in 1940 . Diefenbaker was repeatedly a candidate for the party leadership. He gained that position in 1956 , on his third attempt. In 1957 , he led the party to its first electoral victory in 27 years; a year later he called a snap election and spearheaded them to one of their greatest triumphs . Diefenbaker appointed
2002-561: The 28 students at his school near Toronto in 1903, four, including his son, John, served as Conservative MPs in the 19th Canadian Parliament beginning in 1940 (the others were Robert Henry McGregor , Joseph Henry Harris , and George Tustin ). The Diefenbaker family moved west in 1903, for William Diefenbaker to accept a position near Fort Carlton , then in the Northwest Territories (now in Saskatchewan). In 1906, William claimed
2079-508: The Conservative Party's legislative candidate, Diefenbaker took his place as prosecutor. Diefenbaker did not stand in the 1934 provincial election , in which the governing Conservatives lost every seat. Six days after the election, Diefenbaker resigned as Crown prosecutor. The federal government of Bennett was defeated the following year and Mackenzie King returned as prime minister. Judging his prospects hopeless, Diefenbaker had declined
2156-473: The Crown, and securing the last word for himself. In late 1920, he was elected to the village council to serve a three-year term. Diefenbaker would often spend weekends with his parents in Saskatoon. While there, he began to woo Olive Freeman , daughter of the Baptist minister, but in 1921, she moved with her family to Brandon, Manitoba , and the two lost touch for more than 20 years. He then courted Beth Newell,
2233-438: The House of Commons in the 1930 federal election , citing health reasons. The Conservatives gained a majority in the election, and party leader R. B. Bennett became prime minister. Diefenbaker continued a high-profile legal practice, and in 1933, ran for mayor of Prince Albert. He was defeated by 48 votes in an election in which over 2,000 ballots were cast. In 1934, when the Crown prosecutor for Prince Albert resigned to become
2310-556: The House of Commons, supporting the regulations, and emphatically stating that most Canadians of German descent were loyal. In his memoirs, Diefenbaker wrote he waged an unsuccessful fight against the forced relocation and internment of many Japanese-Canadians , but historians say that the fight against the internment never took place. According to Diefenbaker's biographer, Denis Smith, the Conservative MP quietly admired Mackenzie King for his political skills. However, Diefenbaker proved
2387-504: The Legislative Assembly in the 1929 provincial election . He was defeated, but Saskatchewan Conservatives formed their first government, with help from smaller parties. As the defeated Conservative candidate for Prince Albert City , he was given charge of political patronage there and was created a King's Counsel . Three weeks after his electoral defeat, he married Saskatoon teacher Edna Brower . Diefenbaker chose not to stand for
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2464-451: The Liberals to a fifth successive majority. In addition to trying to secure his departure from Parliament, the government opened a home for unwed Indian mothers next door to Diefenbaker's home in Prince Albert. Diefenbaker continued practising law. In 1951, he gained national attention by accepting the Atherton case, in which a young telegraph operator had been accused of negligently causing
2541-637: The Opposition on January 20, 1958, four days after becoming the Liberal leader. In his first speech as leader, Pearson (recently returned from Oslo where he had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize ), moved an amendment to supply , and called, not for an election, but for the Progressive Conservatives to resign, allowing the Liberals to form a government. Pearson stated that the condition of the economy required "a Government pledged to implement Liberal policies". Government MPs laughed at Pearson, as did members of
2618-459: The Prince Albert seat in the federal elections of 1925 or 1926, ... Diefenbaker would probably have been remembered only as an obscure minister in Bennett's Depression cabinet ... If he had carried his home-town mayoralty in 1933, ... he'd probably not be remembered at all ... If he had succeeded in his bid for the national leadership in 1942, he might have taken the place of John Bracken on his six-year march to oblivion as leader of
2695-659: The Progressive Conservatives needed vigorous leadership with an election likely within a year. He resigned in late September, and Diefenbaker immediately announced his candidacy for the leadership. A number of Progressive Conservative leaders, principally from the Ontario wing of the party, started a "Stop Diefenbaker" movement, and wooed University of Toronto president Sidney Smith as a possible candidate. When Smith declined, they could find no one of comparable stature to stand against Diefenbaker. The only serious competition to Diefenbaker came from Donald Fleming , who had finished third at
2772-676: The Tory representation in the House, prominent Tories were increasingly unhappy with his leadership and pressured him to stand down. These party bosses believed that Ontario Premier George A. Drew , who had won three successive provincial elections and had even made inroads in francophone ridings, was the man to lead the Progressive Conservatives to victory. When Bracken resigned on July 17, 1948, Diefenbaker announced his candidacy. The party's backers, principally financiers headquartered on Toronto's Bay Street , preferred Drew's conservative political stances to Diefenbaker's Western populism. Tory leaders packed
2849-559: The United States, and to seek closer ties with the United Kingdom. St. Laurent called the Tory platform "a mere cream-puff of a thing—with more air than substance". Diefenbaker and the PC party used television adroitly, whereas St. Laurent stated that he was more interested in seeing people than in talking to cameras. Though the Liberals outspent the Progressive Conservatives three to one, according to Newman, their campaign had little imagination, and
2926-469: The Wakaw Liberal Association while absent in Saskatoon, and had returned to find the association's records in his office. He promptly returned them to the association president. Diefenbaker also stated that he had been told that if he became a Liberal candidate, "there was no position in the province which would not be open to him." It was not until 1925 that Diefenbaker publicly came forward as
3003-585: The Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.150 via cp1114 cp1114, Varnish XID 440362391 Upstream caches: cp1114 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Fri, 29 Nov 2024 06:56:12 GMT 19th Canadian Parliament The 19th Canadian Parliament was in session from 16 May 1940, until 16 April 1945. The membership was set by the 1940 federal election on 26 March 1940, and it changed only somewhat due to resignations and by-elections until it
3080-509: The age of eight or nine that he would some day be prime minister. She told him that it was an impossible ambition, especially for a boy living on the prairies. She would live to be proved wrong. John claimed that his first contact with politics came in 1910, when he sold a newspaper to Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier , in Saskatoon to lay the cornerstone for the university's first building. The present and future prime ministers conversed, and when giving his speech that afternoon, Laurier mentioned
3157-517: The aging St. Laurent tired of politics. Drew was able to damage the government in a weeks-long battle over the TransCanada pipeline in 1956—the so-called Pipeline Debate —in which the government, in a hurry to obtain financing for the pipeline, imposed closure before the debate even began. The Tories and the CCF combined to obstruct business in the House for weeks before the Liberals were finally able to pass
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3234-544: The by-election on February 15, 1926, and he won easily. Although in the 1925 federal election, the Conservatives had won the greatest number of seats, King continued as prime minister with the support of the Progressives. Mackenzie King held office for several months until he finally resigned when the Governor General , Lord Byng , refused a dissolution . Conservative Party leader Arthur Meighen became prime minister, but
3311-632: The chamber of the House of Commons. Meighen sought to move the Tories to the left, in order to undercut the Liberals and to take support away from the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF, the predecessor of the New Democratic Party (NDP)). To that end, he sought to draft the Liberal-Progressive premier of Manitoba , John Bracken , to lead the Conservatives. Diefenbaker objected to what he saw as an attempt to rig
3388-630: The departure of South Africa from the Commonwealth of Nations , but his indecision on whether to accept Bomarc nuclear missiles from the United States led to his government's downfall. Diefenbaker is also remembered for his role in the 1959 cancellation of the Avro Arrow project. In the 1962 federal election , the Progressive Conservatives narrowly won a minority government before losing power altogether in 1963 . Diefenbaker stayed on as party leader, becoming Opposition leader , but his second loss at
3465-445: The first ballot. St. Laurent called an election for June 1949 , and the Tories were decimated, falling to 41 seats, only two more than the party's 1940 nadir. Despite intense efforts to make the Progressive Conservatives appeal to Quebecers, the party won only two seats in the province. Newman argued that but for Diefenbaker's many defeats, he would never have become prime minister: If, as a neophyte lawyer, he had succeeded in winning
3542-694: The first female minister in Canadian history to his cabinet ( Ellen Fairclough ), as well as the first Indigenous member of the Senate ( James Gladstone ). During his six years as prime minister, his government obtained passage of the Canadian Bill of Rights and granted the vote to the First Nations and Inuit peoples. In 1962, Diefenbaker's government eliminated racial discrimination in immigration policy. In foreign policy, his stance against apartheid helped secure
3619-595: The first woman to be appointed to a Cabinet post, and Michael Starr as Minister of Labour , the first Canadian of Ukrainian descent to serve in Cabinet. As the Parliament buildings had been lent to the Universal Postal Union for its 14th congress, Diefenbaker was forced to wait until the fall to convene Parliament. However, the Cabinet approved measures that summer, including increased price supports for butter and turkeys, and raises for federal employees. Once
3696-399: The heart every time you speak." The Conservatives elected a floor leader , and in 1941 approached former prime minister Meighen, who had been appointed as a senator by Bennett, about becoming party leader again. Meighen agreed, and resigned his Senate seat, but lost a by-election for an Ontario seat in the House of Commons. He remained as leader for several months, although he could not enter
3773-455: The individual, freedom of enterprise and where there will be a Government which, in all its actions, will remain the servant and not the master of the people. The final Gallup poll before the election showed the Liberals ahead, 48% to 34%. Just before the election, Maclean's magazine printed its regular weekly issue, to go on sale the morning after the vote, editorializing that democracy in Canada
3850-459: The local legal practice that his competitor left town. On May 1, 1924, Diefenbaker moved to Prince Albert, leaving a law partner in charge of the Wakaw office. Since 1905, when Saskatchewan entered Confederation , the province had been dominated by the Liberal Party , which practised highly effective machine politics . Diefenbaker was fond of stating, in his later years, that the only protection
3927-536: The march on the part of the government towards arbitrary power". He objected to the great powers used by the Mackenzie King government to attempt to root out Soviet spies after the war, such as imprisonment without trial, and complained about the government's proclivity for letting its wartime powers become permanent. In early 1948, Mackenzie King, now aged 73, announced his retirement; later that year Louis St. Laurent succeeded him. Although Bracken had nearly doubled
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#17328633722934004-666: The measure. Diefenbaker played a relatively minor role in the Pipeline Debate, speaking only once. By 1956, the Social Credit Party was becoming a potential rival to the Tories as Canada's main right-wing party. Canadian journalist and author Bruce Hutchison discussed the state of the Tories in 1956: When a party calling itself Conservative can think of nothing better than to outbid the Government's election promises; when it demands economy in one breath and increased spending in
4081-475: The mid-1940s Edna began to suffer mental illness and was placed in a private psychiatric hospital for a time. She later fell ill from leukemia and died in 1951. In 1953, Diefenbaker married Olive Palmer (formerly Olive Freeman), whom he had courted while living in Wakaw. Olive Diefenbaker became a great source of strength to her husband. There were no children born of either marriage. In 2013, claims were made that he fathered at least two sons out of wedlock, based
4158-495: The newsboy, who had ended their conversation by saying, "I can't waste any more time on you, Prime Minister. I must get about my work." The authenticity of the meeting was questioned in the 21st century, with an author suggesting that it was invented by Diefenbaker during an election campaign. In a 1977 interview with the CBC , Diefenbaker recalled he saw injustice first-hand in his youth against French Canadians , Indigenous Canadians and
4235-445: The next; when it proposes an immediate tax cut regardless of inflationary results ... when in short, the Conservative party no longer gives us a conservative alternative after twenty-one years ... then our political system desperately requires an opposition prepared to stand for something more than the improbable chance of quick victory. In August 1956, Drew fell ill and many within the party urged him to step aside, feeling that
4312-663: The nominating convention as keynote speaker , but withdrew when his name was proposed, stating a local man should be selected. The winner among the six remaining candidates, riding president W. B. Kelly, declined the nomination, urging the delegates to select Diefenbaker, which they promptly did. Mackenzie King called a general election for March 25, 1940. The incumbent in Lake Centre was Liberal John Frederick Johnston . Diefenbaker campaigned aggressively in Lake Centre, holding 63 rallies and seeking to appeal to members of all parties. On election day, he defeated Johnston by 280 votes on what
4389-613: The party for more than one general election, an election they believed would be won by the Liberals regardless of who led the Tories. In January 1957, Diefenbaker took his place as Leader of the Official Opposition . In February, St. Laurent informed him that Parliament would be dissolved in April for an election on June 10 . The Liberals submitted a budget in March; Diefenbaker attacked it for overly high taxes, failure to assist pensioners, and
4466-420: The party's choice of new leader and stood for the leadership himself at the party's 1942 leadership convention . Bracken was elected on the second ballot; Diefenbaker finished a distant third in both polls. At Bracken's request, the convention changed the party's name to "Progressive Conservative Party of Canada." Bracken chose not to seek entry to the House through a by-election, and when the Conservatives elected
4543-528: The party, Robert Manion , Arthur Meighen and John Bracken did not have seats in the House of Commons. With the selection of Bracken as national leader in December 1942, the party became known as the Progressive Conservatives . The Speaker was James Allison Glen . See also List of Canadian electoral districts 1933–1947 for a list of the ridings in this parliament. There were six sessions of
4620-456: The polls prompted opponents within the party to force him to a leadership convention in 1967 . Diefenbaker stood for re-election as party leader at the last moment, but attracted only minimal support and withdrew. He remained in parliament until his death in 1979, two months after Joe Clark became the first Progressive Conservative prime minister since Diefenbaker. Diefenbaker ranks average in rankings of prime ministers of Canada . Diefenbaker
4697-490: The polls, Diefenbaker wanted a new election, hopeful that his party would gain a majority of seats. The strong Liberal presence meant that the Governor General could refuse a dissolution request early in a parliament's term and allow them to form government if Diefenbaker resigned. Diefenbaker sought a pretext for a new election. Such an excuse presented itself when former Secretary of State for External Affairs Lester Pearson attended his first parliamentary session as Leader of
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#17328633722934774-478: The position by default. Diefenbaker asked the federal party for $ 10,000 in financial support, but the funds were refused, and the Conservatives were shut out of the legislature in the 1938 provincial elections for the second consecutive time. Diefenbaker himself was defeated in the Arm River riding by 190 votes. With the province-wide Conservative vote having fallen to 12 percent, Diefenbaker offered his resignation to
4851-511: The press who were present. Pearson later recorded in his memoirs that he knew that his "first attack on the government had been a failure, indeed a fiasco". Diefenbaker spoke for two hours and three minutes, and devastated his Liberal opposition. He mocked Pearson, contrasting the party leader's address at the Liberal leadership convention with his speech to the House: Prime minister of Canada Too Many Requests If you report this error to
4928-473: The previous leadership convention, but his having repeatedly criticised Drew's leadership ensured that the critical Ontario delegates would not back Fleming, all but destroying his chances of victory. At the leadership convention in Ottawa in December 1956 , Diefenbaker won on the first ballot, and the dissidents reconciled themselves to his victory. After all, they reasoned, Diefenbaker was now 61 and unlikely to lead
5005-423: The residents were loyal to him, initially refusing to rent office space to Diefenbaker. The new lawyer was forced to rent a vacant lot and erect a two-room wooden shack. Diefenbaker won the local people over through his success; in his first year in practice, he tried 62 jury trials, winning approximately half of his cases. He rarely called defence witnesses, thereby avoiding the possibility of rebuttal witnesses for
5082-472: The satisfaction of seeing Mackenzie King defeated in Prince Albert—albeit by a CCF candidate. The Prime Minister was returned in an Ontario by-election within months. Diefenbaker staked out a position on the populist left of the PC party. Though most Canadians were content to look to Parliament for protection of civil liberties , Diefenbaker called for a Bill of Rights, calling it "the only way to stop
5159-670: The seats in the House of Commons . Diefenbaker was born in the small town of Neustadt in Southwestern Ontario . In 1903, his family migrated west to the portion of the North-West Territories that would soon become the province of Saskatchewan . He grew up in the province and was interested in politics from a young age. After service in World War I , Diefenbaker became a noted criminal defence lawyer. He contested elections through
5236-425: Was psychosomatic . After leaving the military in 1917, Diefenbaker returned to Saskatchewan where he resumed his work as an articling student in law. He received his law degree in 1919, the first student to secure three degrees from the University of Saskatchewan. On June 30, 1919, he was called to the bar , and the following day, opened a small practice in the village of Wakaw, Saskatchewan . Although Wakaw had
5313-496: Was based on telling voters that their only real option was to re-elect St. Laurent. Diefenbaker characterized the Tory program in a nationwide telecast on April 30: It is a program ... for a united Canada, for one Canada, for Canada first, in every aspect of our political and public life, for the welfare of the average man and woman. That is my approach to public affairs and has been throughout my life ... A Canada, united from Coast to Coast, wherein there will be freedom for
5390-673: Was born on September 18, 1895, in Neustadt, Ontario , to William Thomas Diefenbaker and Mary Florence Diefenbaker, née Bannerman. His father was the son of German immigrants from Adersbach (near Sinsheim ) in Baden; Mary Diefenbaker was of Scottish descent and Diefenbaker was Baptist. The family moved to several locations in Ontario in John's early years. William Diefenbaker was a teacher, and had deep interests in history and politics, which he sought to inculcate in his students. He had remarkable success doing so; of
5467-501: Was called a " Hun " because of his German-derived surname. The 1925 federal election was held on October 29; he finished third behind the Liberal and Progressive Party candidates, losing his deposit. The winning candidate, Charles McDonald , did not hold the seat long, resigning it to open a place for the Prime Minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King , who had been defeated in his Ontario riding. The Tories ran no candidate against King in
5544-426: Was determined to remain, however, and Diefenbaker was careful to avoid any action that might be seen as disloyal. However, Diefenbaker was never a member of the "Five O'clock Club" of Drew intimates who met the leader in his office for a drink and gossip each day. By 1955, there was a widespread feeling among Tories that Drew was not capable of leading the party to a victory. At the same time, the Liberals were in flux as
5621-494: Was dissolved prior to the 1945 election . It was controlled by a Liberal Party majority under Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King and the 16th Canadian Ministry . The Official Opposition was the so-called " National Government " party (the name which the Conservatives ran under in the 1940 election), led in the House by Richard Hanson and Gordon Graydon consecutively as the three successive national leaders of
5698-418: Was otherwise a disastrous day for the Conservatives, who won only 39 seats out of the 245 in the House of Commons—their lowest total since Confederation. Diefenbaker joined a shrunken and demoralized Conservative caucus in the House of Commons. The Conservative leader, Robert Manion , failed to win a place in the Commons in the election, which saw the Liberals take 181 seats. The Tories sought to be included in
5775-456: Was quickly defeated in the House of Commons, and Byng finally granted a dissolution of Parliament . Diefenbaker, who had been confirmed as Conservative candidate, stood against King in the 1926 election , a rare direct electoral contest between two individuals who had or would become prime minister. King triumphed easily over Diefenbaker, the Liberals won the federal election, and King regained his position as prime minister. Diefenbaker stood for
5852-498: Was returned in the 1949 election, the only PC member from Saskatchewan. In 1952, a redistricting committee dominated by Liberals abolished Lake Centre entirely, dividing its voters among three other ridings. Diefenbaker stated in his memoirs that he had considered retiring from the House; with Drew only a year older than he was, the Westerner saw little prospect of advancement and had received tempting offers from Ontario law firms. However,
5929-579: Was still strong despite a sixth consecutive Liberal victory. On election night, the Progressive Conservative advance started early, with the gain of two seats in reliably Liberal Newfoundland . The party picked up nine seats in Nova Scotia , five in Quebec, 28 in Ontario, and at least one seat in every other province. The Progressive Conservatives took 112 seats to the Liberals' 105: a plurality, but not
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