by Denis Smith
18 “Draft for T.V. Acceptance Speech, March 31, 1958, Saskatoon,” JGDP, VI/95/304-1958.4, 81825-29. A typewritten excerpt from Lincoln’s first inaugural speech containing the words used by the prime minister is located in Diefenbaker’s “Lincoln file.” JGDP, VII/154/A/1386, 94147. The plea comes in a passage in which Lincoln speaks of the dangers of “hot haste” and “precipitate action” by southern opponents of the Union, and urges upon them calm and self-restraint. If Diefenbaker intended to compare his own situation, after a massive nationwide victory, to that of Lincoln on the verge of civil war in 1860, he was indulging in somewhat curious fantasy. The allusion may suggest Diefenbaker’s continuing sense that the forces opposing him were intransigent and threatening, however much “the people” supported him. Diefenbaker had been coupled with Abraham Lincoln in many introductions during the campaign, and supporters had provided him with books about the American president, one of which he dipped into while awaiting the results that afternoon. Peter Newman reports: “He was, once again, trying to read the Abraham Lincoln biography, but still couldn’t summon much interest in it.” Newman, Renegade, 117
19 Telegram, JGD to Hon. Lester B. Pearson, April 1, 1958, JGDP, VI/95/304-1958.5, 82142
20 Richard Nixon to JGD, April 1, 1958, JGDP, XII/A/306
21 JGD to Richard Nixon, April 10, 1958, ibid.
22 JGD to Colin B. McKay, April 9, 1958, JGDP, VI/95/304-1958.5 NB, 82082
23 JGD to Elmer Diefenbaker, April 6, 1958, JGDP, V/3, 1731-34
24 JGD to Colin B. McKay, JGDP, VI/95/304-1958.5 NB, 82082
25 Telegram, JGD to new Conservative MPs, April 1958, JGDP, VI/94/304-1958.2, 81777
26 Patrick Nicholson mentions “Noel Dorion, a former General President of the Bar of Quebec; Jacques Flynn, grandson of the last Conservative premier of Quebec; Won Tassé, prominent Quebec City engineer; André Gillet, mayor of St. Michel; Jean-Noel Tremblay, brilliant young intellectual and a professor at Laval University; Charles-Edouard Campeau, Montreal town planner.” Nicholson, Vision, 101. Other prospects among English-speaking members included Egan Chambers and John Pratt.
27 William Hamilton to JGD, April 14, 1958, JGDP, VI/119/312.2, private
28 Diefenbaker rid himself of Courtemanche to the Senate within two years (soon after that he was forced to resign in scandal), and appointed Comtois lieutenant governor of Quebec in 1961. He died in a fire that destroyed the vice-regal residence. Patrick Nicholson reports Comtois’s habit of reading the newspaper and solving crossword puzzles during cabinet meetings. Nicholson, Vision, 100
29 On the other hand, the government extended its courtesy to French-speaking members of the new House by installing a system of simultaneous translation. This encouraged participation in debates by French-speaking MPs by making their speeches accessible to the almost wholly unilingual majority of English-speaking members.
30 Quoted in Stursberg, Leadership Gained, 103
31 A select committee on estimates had existed since 1955; the Diefenbaker government made it a standing committee. The government also enlarged membership in some other committees to accommodate its gaggle of back-benchers. The estimates committee was given sixty members, veterans affairs forty, and several other committees between thirty-five and sixty members. The prime minister argued that these changes, particularly the creation of an estimates committee, were intended to “make parliament … more effective” as an agency of review. That purpose was also served by the appointment of an opposition member as chairman of the public accounts committee, and the extension of powers to call for persons, papers, and records to all standing committees of the House. These reforms were imitations of existing practices at Westminster. The opposition parties supported the changes. CC, 30-58, April 15, 1958; House of Commons, Debates, May 12, 1958, 8; May 30, 1958, 079-703
32 Quoted in Stursberg, Leadership Gained, 103
33 Harkness is quoted ibid., 104; Fleming, Near 1, 457-58.
34 CC, 21-58, February 5, 1958
35 CC, 39-58, May 2, 1958
36 CC, 41-58, May 7, 1958. These cabinet minutes refer only to the Breughel, although previous and later cabinet records suggest that the May 7 decision involved both the Breughel and the Monaco.
37 CC, 48-58, May 27, 1958
38 CC, 68-58, July 14, 1958; CC, 80-58, August 9, 1958. Ellen Fairclough argued that the agent had acted in good faith in making the Monaco purchase, that this should be confirmed, and that the necessary supplementary funding of $22,000 should be requested from parliament to make up the deficiency in the purchase fund. The cabinet preferred to let the agent sue for his commission. The Opposition criticized the cabinet for its reversal during discussion of the National Gallery estimates for 1959 and 1960, and quoted the comments of a member of the board of trustees, the artist Lawren Harris, who said that dealers throughout the world were now suspicious of deals with the National Gallery. “Conservative governments,” he asserted, “have never shown any interest whatever in art.” Debates, February 23, March 12, 13, 1959; June 17, 1960, 1364, 1903-05, 1915-21, 5070-71
39 Fleming, Near 1, 467; Newman, Renegade, 134-35
40 Debates, May 12, 1958, 5-6
41 Fleming, Near 1, 489-93; Debates, June 17, 1958, 1230-77
42 Fleming, Near 1, 497. The prime minister’s economic adviser, Merril Menzies, learned of the conversion loan from Diefenbaker only on the morning of its announcement, when Diefenbaker told him he was “extremely concerned” about it. Another ministerial aide consulted by Menzies, Roy Faibish, wrote at the time that Diefenbaker was “disturbed and somewhat confused.” Menzies “was literally staggered … because essentially this was a program that greatly intensified the restrictive policies that both Mr Fleming, the minister of finance, and Mr Coyne, the governor of the Bank of Canada, believed in so strongly, and were pursuing by various means.” Menzies presented a memo to the prime minister the next day outlining his concerns about the conversion’s severely restrictive effects, while Faibish expressed similar concerns to his minister, Gordon Churchill. “Canada Conversion Loan,” M.W. Menzies to JGD, July 15, 1958; memorandum, Roy Faibish to Alvin Hamilton, July 16, 1958, JGDP, VI/284/E/97, 179749-53, 179754-57; Stursberg, Leadership Gained, 117-19
43 Fleming, Near 1, 497-501, esp. 498, 500. The CBC broadcast was preceded by a display of prime ministerial fury, when the camera spilled film on the studio floor. Diefenbaker, “ever ready to suspect sabotage by the CBC or the civil service,” was calmed by apologies from the CBC president, Alphonse Ouimet, and delivered his remarks flawlessly. Afterwards, when Ouimet said to him, “You didn’t seem to be angry,” he was tartly rebuked by the prime minister: “I’m not angry at the people of Canada.” Ibid., 500
44 Churchill is quoted in Roy Faibish’s memorandum to Alvin Hamilton, July 16, 1958, JGDP, VI/284/E/97, 179754-57.
45 Fleming, Near 1, 501
46 Stursberg, Leadership Gained, 118-19, esp. 119; see also Bothwell et al., Canada, 205-08.
47 Fleming, Near 1, 504-05; CC, 79-58, 82-58, 83-58, 85-58, 8(5-58, 90-58, August 8, 13, 14, 19, 22, 29, 1958
48 Fleming, Near 1, 509-20; OC 2, 200-01; JGDP, XII/104/F/91.1, F/91.2
49 JGD to Mary F. Diefenbaker, April 29, May (undated), May 20, June 3, 14, 21, July 5, 15, 1958, JGDP, V/1, 674-79, 686-87, 689, 702, 708-11, 726, 731
50 JGD to Mary F. Diefenbaker, September 17, October 1, 10, 1958, ibid., 770, 772, 783
51 JGD to Mary F. Diefenbaker, October 2, 18, 22, 1958, ibid., 775, 789-94, 795
52 JGD to Mary F. Diefenbaker, August 31, 1958, ibid., 763-66
53 JGD to Mary F. Diefenbaker, September 19, 1958, ibid., 771. For the moment, Diefenbaker seemed less interested in his father’s family - perhaps because his uncle, Ed Diefenbaker, showed slight interest in his pre-eminence. His uncle, who lived in retirement in Regina, was “apparently … so busy it is impossible for him to write,” and could not visit Mary in hospital because “apparently he has got such important matters that require his undivided attention that he just ca
n’t get away.” The prime minister was offended when Ed did write, asking him to stop sending copies of Hansard “as it causes too much work for the mailman! What an excuse!” Diefenbaker sent Ed a copy of an August 1958 personal profile in the Saturday Evening Post, but told his mother, “I don’t know whether he will even read it. He doesn’t write any more as I told him to be more careful in the way he writes as I can’t read his scribble.” By the summer of 1959, however, Ed had made amends by providing the prime minister with a sixteen-page, handwritten “Biography of the Hon. J.G. Diefenbaker” recalling the homesteading years from 1905 to 1910. JGD to Mary F. Diefenbaker, June 3, July 16, August 24, 1958, ibid., 689, 736, 760; Ed. L. Diefenbaker, “Biography of J.G. Diefenbaker,” May 1959, ibid., XII/82/D/48
54 R.B. Bryce to J. Léger, September 4, 1957; memo, D.R.C. Bedson to William Hamilton, December 4, 1957; Allan K. Hay to JGD, May 14 and May 27, 1958; Press Release Concerning Prime Minister’s Summer Residence (first draft), June 19, 1959, JGDP, VI/120/313.5, 101974, 101973, 101971, 101970, 101961. Bryce noted that the house had been rented during the summer of 1957 by the director of the National Gallery, Alan Jarvis.
55 JGD to Mary F. Diefenbaker, May 18, 1958, ibid., V/1, 682
56 Ibid.
57 Robinson, Diefenbaker’s World, 20-21
58 Debates, November 13, 1957, 1059-62
59 Ibid., 1060
60 Robinson, Diefenbaker’s World, 21
61 Ibid., 22
62 McLin, Canada’s Changing Defense Policy, 47-48
63 Ibid., 48; Debates, May 19, 1958, 52
64 “Agreement between The Government of Canada and The Government of The United States of America concerning the Organization and Operation of the North American Air Defence Command (NORAD), Signed at Washington, May 12, 1958,” JGDP, XII/20/A/556, 1-2
65 Ibid., 3-4
66 Debates, June 10, 1958, 994-95
67 Ibid., 999
68 Globe and Mail, June 11, 1958
69 Debates, June 10, 1958, 999-1006, esp. 1000
70 Ibid., 1003
71 McLin, Canada’s Changing Defense Policy, 56; Robinson, Diefenbaker’s World, 23
72 The government’s own confusion about the integrated command was reflected in its uncertainty over when, and whether, Canadian fighter squadrons actually came under NORAD control. Diefenbaker distinguished between “command” - which he insisted remained Canadian - and “operational control” - which fell under NORAD; and on June 10 he said that no Canadian squadrons had yet been assigned to NORAD. The chairman of the chiefs of staff, General Foulkes, and the secretary of cabinet, Robert Bryce, could not establish clearly what effect the agreement had on Canadian squadrons, but said (in Foulkes’s words, “not to confuse the issue further”) that an order-in-council should allocate them to NORAD. The order was adopted in July 1958. General Charles Foulkes, “Memorandum to the Minister, Assigned Forces,” June 11, 1958; R.B. Bryce, “Memorandum for the Prime Minister, Re: Allocation of Forces to NORAD,” July 11, 1958, JGDP, XII/20/A/556
73 Gowan Guest was a young lawyer and active Conservative from Vancouver; James Nelson had been the Ottawa bureau chief of United Press and president of the parliamentary press gallery.
Olive and John both offered advice to Elmer as he prepared for this adventure, and John provided castoff clothing for ceremonial dinners. “The Dress suit has been sent to you,” he wrote to his brother on October 15. “Please look inside the inside pocket and remove the ticket showing my name on it (if there is one) before you send it to the Tailor. Tell him that you have grown since it was made for you so that it doesn’t get out as to the origin of the suit … You will have to get another suit (and a good one) - not one which costs $25 on sale! (As Uncle Ed says Ha! Ha!).” JGD to Elmer Diefenbaker, October 15 (1958), JGDP, V/4, 1872-75. Diefenbaker later dated this 1959, which appears to be incorrect.
74 Robinson, Diefenbaker’s World, 55-56
75 Ibid., 56-57
76 Ibid., 59-60
77 Ibid., 60
78 High Commission, Ottawa, to Commonwealth Relations Office, No. 1140, 20 October 1958, PRO, PREM 11/2606. These dispatches were routinely copied to the prime minister’s office and to Buckingham Palace. The final judgment, that Diefenbaker did not intend to engage in serious political discussion, was wrong, as his pointed conversations later proved. He did not believe that he needed advice from External Affairs to guide him.
79 High Commission, Ottawa, to Commonwealth Relations Office, No. 1084, 3 October 1958, ibid.
80 This was a trip Diefenbaker had hoped to make in December 1957 at the time of the NATO Council meeting in Paris.
81 Robinson, Diefenbaker’s World, 63-64
82 Daily Express, November 5, 1958. The Express had a large circulation, and tirelessly boosted Beaverbrook’s special cause of Commonwealth free trade. But it had little political influence. See also the Globe and Mail, November 5, 1958.
83 Quoted in Canadian High Commission, London, to External Affairs, Telegram 4172, November 4, 1958, 2, JGDP, XII/112/F/214
84 Daily Express, November 5, 1958
85 The first meeting, on October 31, was a private one between the two leaders, after which Macmillan prepared his own notes. The record of the second meeting, on November 3 - which included officials - was kept by the British and cleared with Basil Robinson. It covered a sweeping nine-point agenda, including de Gaulle’s NATO proposal, arms sales to Israel and the Middle East balance of power, Pakistan, the presence of British troops in Jordan, Cyprus, the law of the sea, potential BOAC landing rights in Toronto, Commonwealth trade, and Diefenbaker’s promotion of a world food bank. Diefenbaker also met privately with the British foreign secretary, the Earl of Home, for a still more detailed exchange on November 4, mostly on Asian and Chinese affairs. Home advised Diefenbaker to reassure Pakistan, India, Ceylon, and Malaya about the US desire for peace, and to encourage firmness against Chinese pressures. “Note by the Prime Minister of his conversation with Mr. Diefenbaker on Friday, October 31, 1958”; “Record of a meeting held at 10 Downing Street … on Monday, 3rd November 1958 at 11 am …”; “Record of conversation between the Secretary of State and Mr Diefenbaker on November 4, 1958,” PRO, PREM 11/2606
86 Macmillan to JGD, November 4, 1958; Macmillan to JGD, November 6, 1958, ibid.
87 See Robinson, Diefenbaker’s World, 64-69.
88 Robinson noted that Diefenbaker could have been briefed as effectively on European military matters “from sources within the Canadian official family,” but often preferred to hear from “distant, or at least different, voices.” Ibid., 67-68
89 Ibid., 64-67
90 Ibid., 67; telegram, Macmillan to JGD, November 6, 1958, PRO, PREM 11/2606
91 “Itinerary, 2 (F) Wing, Grostenquin, 6-7 Nov 1958,” JGDP, XII/42/B/366
92 OC 2, 101
93 Ibid., 100
94 Ibid., 103
95 Diefenbaker had insisted that the official tour should be limited to Commonwealth countries, and he took naturally in his speeches to the evangelist’s role as advocate of the Commonwealth’s values. He saw the multiracial association as the external counterpart of his own, ideal Canada. In Kuala Lumpur, for example, he said: “As I move around this Commonwealth … I feel that we have been able to achieve that which never before in history has been attained. It used to be said … that unless you belong to the same race or unless you have affinities in religion or unless you inhabit a given area where you have similar geographic or historical backgrounds, you have the beginnings there of strife. We in this Commonwealth have proven the contrary. Diverse in every way, we have been able to bring about the feeling of comradeship and brotherhood which I have felt everywhere I have been. We can see eye to eye; we have a common heritage; we have a common objective - the maintenance of peace in freedom. Let us march forward together in the future as we have in the past.” “A New Concept of the Commonwealth,” November 28, 1958, DEA Statements and Speeches, 59/13
96 Robinson, Diefenbaker�
�s World, 74
97 OC 2, 103-05
98 JGD to Macmillan, November 15, 1958, PRO, PREM 11/2606. According to Robinson, Diefenbaker was notably influenced in his judgments of Ayub Khan by the positive views of the Canadian high commissioner, Herb Moran.
99 Macmillan to JGD, November 23, 1958, JGDP, XII/35/B.152.1
100 The words are from his typewritten “Notes for Prime Minister’s Report to Parliament on his World Tour, 1958,” which were not delivered to the House. JGDP, XII/125/F/495
101 Robinson, Diefenbaker’s World, 73
102 Ibid., 74. Meanwhile, British diplomats around the world were watching Diefenbaker’s progress from their typically lofty heights. The British high commissioner in Ottawa, Joe Garner, replying to a long report on the tour from the Commonwealth Relations Office, commented: “On the whole, given Mr. Diefenbaker’s passion for publicity and his desire to hit the headlines, his public remarks on the tour, though occasionally framed in somewhat blunt language have been a good deal better than one might have expected and I have no doubt that some of this is a reflection of the guidance he received in London.” Garner wondered whether Diefenbaker might more wisely have stayed at home: “He has really had no rest or respite since the election campaign in the middle of last year and has been living on his nerves ever since. A period of relaxation at home in which he could have had time to ponder on some of the big problems that face him might have been more helpful before the Parliamentary melee begins again in January.” Joe Garner to Sir Gilbert Laithwaite, Commonwealth Relations Office, November 27, 1958, PRO, PREM 11/2606
103 Robinson, Diefenbaker’s World, 75
104 OC 2, 110
105 Robinson, Diefenbaker’s World, 77
106 OC 2, 111
107 Ibid., 111-14; Robinson, Diefenbaker’s World, 78-80
108 Robinson, Diefenbaker’s World, 79
109 R.H. Scott to Sir Gilbert Laithwaite, CRO, December 5, 1958, PRO, PREM 11/2606
110 Quoted in Robinson, Diefenbaker’s World, 80; OC 2, 114-15
111 Nash was the New Zealand prime minister. G. Mallaby to Sir Gilbert Laithwaite, CRO, January 8, 1959, PRO, PREM 11/2606; see also OC 2, 118-19; Robinson, Diefenbaker’s World, 82-83. Robinson wrote that Diefenbaker and Menzies “were anything but soulmates” despite their shared loyalty to the Commonwealth, that neither one liked listening to the other, that Diefenbaker “felt uncomfortable in the presence of Menzies’ polished wit and jovial sophistication,” and that Menzies was perhaps jealous of Diefenbaker as a rival Commonwealth leader. At the Commonwealth conference of 1957 Menzies had been reported as making a slighting comment about Diefenbaker, and Robinson speculates that his hospitality in 1958 may have been intended to make up for that. Ibid., 81-82
