Canada: Pearson’s Retreat

Ever the diplomat, Canada’s Prime Minister Lester Pearson broke the news in a characteristically understated way. Toward the end of a humdrum Cabinet meeting in Ottawa last week, as his ministers were about to consider an inconsequential industrial-aid item, Pearson rose and declared, quite deadpan: “Speaking of ‘adjustment assistance,’ I want to read you a letter.” To the Cabinet’s astonishment, the letter was, indeed, a matter of adjustment. In it, Lester Pearson announced that he will resign as head of Canada’s ruling Liberal Party.

At 70, “Mike” Pearson, Canada’s 14th Prime Minister, its seventh Liberal Party leader and its first Nobel Peace Prize laureate (for helping resolve the 1956 Suez crisis), intends to retire from public life early next year. His announcement was the second big upheaval in Canadian politics this year. Only three months ago, Pearson’s bitter septuagenarian foe, John Diefenbaker, was forced by his colleagues to yield the Conservative leadership.

Great Compromiser. Though the Liberals’ lately flagging public image obviously needs rejuvenation, Pearson had not been expected to announce his retirement until after a constitutional conference next February. This critical meeting will take up the increasingly nagging question of how French-speaking Quebec’s aspirations can be fulfilled within the legal framework of the predominantly English-speaking confederation. Pearson, in his lame-duck role at the conference, hopes to be even more influential as the great compromiser between Canada’s two language blocs.

Pearson will continue in office until the Liberals pick a new parliamentary leader, probably next April. The front-running candidates: Transport Minister Paul Hellyer, 44, who as Defense Minister recently rammed through the unification of Canada’s armed forces; Finance Minister Mitchell Sharp, 56, who has been trying to pull Canada out of an inflationary spiral with stiff taxes; and External Affairs Secretary Paul Martin, 64, an urbane lawyer, canny debater and Commons dean of 32 years’ political experience. If the Liberals decide to stress youth and, in some degree, French-English unity, they might turn to Quebec’s John Napier Turner, 38, the handsome bilingual Registrar General (TIME, April 14).

Pearson’s successor could technically hold office without presenting himself to the voters until the parliamentary term expires in 1970, but the newly resurgent Tories, under Nova Scotia’s Robert Stanfield, 53, will certainly try to force national elections before then. After 40 years of public service, Pearson himself intends after retirement to stay aloof from the impending political bickering, retreating instead to the quieter fields of lecturing and writing.