Notes

Full citations for secondary sources are given in the Bibliography, and short references only are used in the notes.

Abbreviations

CC	Cabinet Conclusions, Canada
FRUS	Foreign Relations of the United States
JGD	John G. Diefenbaker
JGDI	John G. Diefenbaker interview
JGDP	John G. Diefenbaker Papers, Diefenbaker Centre Archives
OC 1	One Canada: Memoirs of the Right Honourable John G. Diefenbaker: The Crusading Years, 1895-1956
OC 2	One Canada: Memoirs of the Right Honourable John G. Diefenbaker: The Years of Achievement, 1957-1962
OC 3	One Canada: Memoirs of the Right Honourable John G. Diefenbaker: The Tumultuous Years, 1962-1967

Chapter 1 A Prairie Youth

1     See OC 1, 9-68. There may have been ten homes altogether. Nicholson writes that the family also lived in Port Elgin, Ontario, in 1897. Nicholson, Vision, 16

2     OC 1, 12-13

3     Ibid., 13-14; The Globe, November 6, 1900. The returning veterans of the South African Corps were members of the Royal Canadian Regiment, who had left for war in October 1899. Many other local units, including the 48th Highlanders, marched with them in the welcoming parade. Although the main ceremonies took place at the armouries on University Avenue, the parade did pass the city hall en route. Some of Diefenbaker’s memories of his early life seem to have been stimulated by photographs; there is one elegant studio portrait of John and Elmer in their sailor suits “about 1902.”

4     OC 1, 14

5     Ibid., 10

6     Ibid., 14-15.

7     OC 1, 1-2. Diefenbaker knew that the account of his ancestry in the memoirs was wrong, since he had learned that a cousin, George Brandt of Waterloo, Ontario, had given the correct one to reporters in 1958. Brandt’s story was confirmed through records in the Waterloo County Registry Office by a reporter for the Hamilton Spectator. By placing the family’s arrival one generation earlier, Diefenbaker seemed to be sustaining the story he had used in his campaigns for the leadership, emphasizing both the length of his Canadian ancestry and the possibility that the Diefenbakers had arrived in Canada via the United States as “Pennsylvania Dutch.” There were Diefenbakers of American origin in the Hawkesville area, but they were apparently unrelated. On the spelling of his name, Diefenbaker notes only that his grandfather retained the original spelling throughout his life. Hamilton Spectator, December 20, 1958

8     OC 1, 7

9     JGDI, December 11, 1969

10   OC 1, 7

11   Ibid., 8, 18. In a 1958 interview with Pierre Berton, Barbara Moon, James Bannerman, and Hugh MacLennan, Diefenbaker said that his father was “a great student” of history, no disciplinarian, and “quite an accomplished musician,” who encouraged his students to enter public service. But he refused to say whether William had advised him to enter law or politics, or to comment on the balance between his mother and his father. When Barbara Moon asked what William was like as a father, Diefenbaker replied testily: “I have said it was a normal home. If you think I am going further than that, your questions in that direction do not merit the answer that you want.” “Verbatim Proceedings … February 10, 1958,” JGDP, VII/85/A/772.1, 49923-51, esp. 49924-27

12   OC 1, 7-9, 17-18

13   Ibid., 9

14   See Nicholson, Vision, 15.

15   See, for example, Nicholson’s comments, which were based on interviews in the late 1950s with John, Elmer, and Mary Diefenbaker. Nicholson, Vision, 15

16   JGDI, December 11, 1969

17   OC 1, 2-5

18   Ibid., 10-15, esp. 15

19   Ibid., 16

20   Ibid., 18; note from Elmer, undated, in JGDP, V/3, 1349-52; William A.R. Thomson, The Macmillan Medical Cyclopedia, 918; JGDI, December 11, 1969. Consumption was the popular name for pulmonary tuberculosis. There is no subsequent family record of William’s illness, and the following year seems to have been an extraordinarily active one for the whole family. It may be that the diagnosis, or John Diefenbaker’s memory of it, or the accepted family story was incorrect.

21   Quoted in Nicholson, Vision, 16

22   OC 1, 19-20

23   Ibid., 20-21

24   Ibid., 22; note from Elmer, undated, in JGDP, V/3, 1349-52

25   OC 1, 23

26   Ibid., 23-24, 34. Diefenbaker also describes this schoolhouse home in “My First Prairie Christmas,” Reader’s Digest, December 1976, 49-52

27   OC 1, 31-32

28   Quoted in Nicholson, Vision, 17. See also OC 1, 35-40; JGDI, December 11, 1969. In the memoirs, Diefenbaker mistakenly places registration of the homestead in the autumn of 1905, after a visit to the land. The Dominion Lands Office records show that this actually occurred in 1904. William Diefenbaker’s shortage of capital was common among homesteaders. Most immigrants were forced to seek second, paying jobs or to barter their skills in order to raise the estimated $1000 (or its equivalent in kind) needed to develop a quarter section. See Archer, Saskatchewan, 78, 100.

29   OC 1, 38-39

30   Ibid., 39; Archer, Saskatchewan, 133-38; Smith, Prairie Liberalism, 3-24

31   OC 1, 40-41

32   The memoirs suggest that this move took place in August 1906, while Edward Diefenbaker (in a brief biographical note prepared at John’s request in May 1959 and edited in John’s handwriting) says that it occurred in October. OC 1, 40; Ed. L. Diefenbaker, “Biography,” JGDP, III/96, 66981-91, esp. 66983

33   OC 1, 41. Nicholson estimates the cost of materials for the house at $250. He adds that “its sufficiency as a home is perhaps best described by the fact that a tenant of the homestead in later years used it as a grain store.” Diefenbaker suggests in the memoirs that he and his father built a one-room shack on the land in the summer of 1905 and apparently added to the building in 1906. Nicholson says that the shack was built in 1906 and then enlarged. In 1965 the Saskatchewan government moved the building to Wascana Centre in Regina as a historic site. OC 1, 39-40; Nicholson, Vision, 18

34   OC 1, 41-42; JGDI, December 11, 1969

35   OC 1, 42-43. Elmer remembered that his mother produced about ten pounds of butter per week and sold the surplus: “It fetched fourteen cents a pound, commanding a premium of two cents on account of its high quality.” Quoted in Nicholson, Vision, 18

36   Archer, Saskatchewan, 140-41

37   Ibid., 141

38   OC 1, 49; Archer, Saskatchewan, 141

39   OC 1, 43

40   Ibid., 44

41   The writer was Lila A. Pope, who provided Diefenbaker in the 1970s with three short, undated reminiscences of Borden and the Halcyonia school. They can be found in JGDP, XIV/1/A/3. The description also appears in her contribution to the Borden and District local history, Our Treasured Heritage, 395.

42   JGDI, December 11, 1969

43   Ibid.

44   The chronicler Lila Pope, writing in 1980 about the Halcyonia school, wrote of this episode: “Fortunately John suffered no worse than frost bitten toes, or we might never have had him for our Prime Minister.” JGDI, December 11, 1969; OC 1, 49-51; Our Treasured Heritage, 395

45   OC 1, 51

46   Ibid., 51-52

47   Ibid., 45-52

48   OC 1, 32, 44-54, 65; JGDI, December 11, 1969; Nicholson, Vision, 19. In his 1958 interview with Berton, Moon, Bannerman, and MacLennan, Diefenbaker said that, despite his father’s small income, “in those days there was no book of any importance in history or biography or the like that was not bought.” But he could not remember any book that had particularly influenced him, beyond an encyclopedia of biography. He had never read fiction or science, and could think of no title that he specially treasured. He refused to answer questions about his reading of the Bible on the ground that “that is very much my personal life, and something that I would prefer not to discuss.” Several times he referred with admiration to the exploits of Gabriel Dumont, “this Indian fighter, the greatest of them all,” whose story “has to be written.” “Verbatim Proceedings … February 10, 1958,” JGDP, VII/85/A/772.1, 49923-51, esp. 49930-35, 49944, 49948

49   OC 1, 67

50   Ibid., 66-68

51   OC 1, 41, 68; Garrett Wilson and Kevin Wilson, Diefenbaker, 12. The Wilsons note that William’s “ability to acquire government employment so readily must indicate well-established credits with the Liberal Party, given the politics of the day.” William kept his homestead land and eventually willed it to John and Elmer. On his father’s death, John transferred his share to Elmer, and inherited it again on Elmer’s death in 1971. William rose gradually from the position of gauger to preventive officer to assistant appraiser. In 1925 John wrote in his father’s name to the provincial minister of public works, the Liberal A.P. McNab, noting his employment record in the Customs Office, by inference making the case for an increase in salary. Although Customs was a federal department, Diefenbaker seemed to expect that the appeal would make its way up Liberal patronage channels from Regina to Ottawa. Since John’s political affiliation was already Conservative in this most partisan province, his covering note to William bore a conspiratorial tone. “I was afraid to be more definite,” John wrote, “as if the letter got into some one else’s hands it might be hard to explain.” In 1933, with Conservative governments in both Regina and Ottawa, Diefenbaker made a direct and urgent appeal to Premier Anderson to intercede on William’s behalf to prevent his compulsory retirement at the age of sixty-five. “You will appreciate my position in this matter,” Diefenbaker explained. “Those of the opposite political Faith are commencing to pour ridicule on me now and will continue so to do. Surely under the circumstances of this case and of the service which I have rendered for the Party something can be done towards preventing his retirement … Anything you can do will be appreciated.” Anderson and other Saskatchewan Conservatives successfully intervened, and William remained in the public service until July 1937, when he retired at the age of sixty-nine. JGDP, V/30, 20250, 20273-74, 20278-90

52   OC 1, 71-73. If his estimates are correct, in 1910-12 John and Elmer were earning at an annual rate above that of their father. He records that, in July 1912, at the height of the land boom, he and Elmer were able to buy lots in River Heights on margin, as their father had done earlier on Victoria Avenue. When the boom collapsed in October 1912, all three lost their investments.

53   OC 1, 69; Nicholson, Vision, 21. Nicholson describes the bank as the Northern Grain Bank.

54   OC 1, 65

55   Ibid., 66

56   Telegram, Elmer to John Diefenbaker, June 17, 1957, JGDP, V/3, 1634

57   Nicholson, Vision, 14. A childhood acquaintance, C.J. Golding, wrote in 1980 that John had boarded on his family’s farm in the summer of 1914 “while he was doing harvest work for a neighbouring bachelor.” The date may actually have been 1913. Golding recalled that “Mr. Diefenbaker slept in the granary with me and at that time he told me he would be prime minister of Canada some day.” Our Treasured Heritage, 123

58   OC 1, 75-76; JGDI, December 11, 1969. The Saskatoon Daily Phoenix’s account of the cornerstone laying makes no mention of Laurier’s conversation with a newsboy. Nicholson quotes Diefenbaker as saying that “he paid me a dime, five times the price of a paper.” The story was immortalized in 1972 when a plaque was placed on the Canada Building, opposite the entrance to the old Canadian National station in Saskatoon, quoting from the Joseph Schull biography of Laurier about the meeting of the prime minister and the newsboy. In 1990 the legend turned to bronze on the same site, when the Star-Phoenix donated a statue of Prime Minister Laurier and Master John Diefenbaker by the sculptor Bill Epp. Schull’s source for the story was probably Diefenbaker. Daily Phoenix, July 30, 1910; Nicholson, Vision, 20-21

59   Quoted in Nicholson, Vision, 20. In his address to a civic reception in the Saskatoon ice rink that evening, Laurier spoke memorably about his desire to unite Canadians of all races and origins: “My days now must be short. You can see my hairs are grey, and I cannot hope to live many years; but when I am gone I want to feel sure that it will have to be admitted by my bitterest enemy that during fourteen years at least Canada made progress as she never made it before, united people, upon all races which have been brought here … In addition to this, when my last day comes, if my eyes can close on a policy, if I can look upon them as true Canadians, all preserving the pride of their race, but putting the pride of Canada first, I will feel that my life has not been lived in vain and I shall die happy.” Daily Phoenix, July 30, 1910. These words may have been an early source of Diefenbaker’s public attitudes.

60   A program for the Third Annual Elocution and Oratory Contest of the Saskatoon Collegiate Institute, April 1, 1912, lists John G. Diefenbaker’s proposed speech on “The Progress of Canada during the Past Century.” The student newspaper for May 1912 notes that he participated but did not win. Doris C. Haynes’s 1967 memoir is the source of the story that Diefenbaker forgot his lines. JGDP, II/8, 6097a; XIV/1/A/3

61   OC 1, 70-71; JGDI, December 11, 1969. In 1969 he told a student that he wanted to become prime minister because “I felt the challenge of being able to do something to ensure that whatever racial origin, creed or colour they might be, all Canadians should be equal subjects, with equal constitutional rights. This came about as I saw people from all parts of the world coming into western Canada, most of them feeling, with reason, that those of other origins than English, in a citizen sense, or of French, were hyphenated Canadians. I decided I was going to do my part to bring about one Canada, and that became the subject of my continuous advocacy, both in the Saskatoon Collegiate Institute and University of Saskatchewan. I have pursued my objective. It took me almost half a century to bring about the enactment of the Bill of Rights in 1960.” JGDI, December 11, 1969

62   Kerr and Hanson, Saskatoon, 84-86

63   OC 1, 77-78

64   Ibid., 78. His lecture notebooks, on the other hand, suggest a conscientious and orthodox undergraduate, dutifully recording without comment or question the outlines of the lectures he attended. See, for example, lecture notebooks, JGDP, II/9, 10, 7335-8054

65   OC 1, 78, 83

66   Ibid., 80-81

67   Some of his university notebooks and essays are preserved in his papers at the Diefenbaker Centre. They appear to be incomplete. His notes for Economics 17 (Canadian Economic History) include materials on statistics and statistical method, the history of banking and banking in Canada, and introductory sociology. They contain little Canadian economic history. See also Wilson, Diefenbaker, 15-16.

68   OC 1, 78, 82-83. The Wilsons, however, suggest that Diefenbaker was leader of the opposition in the mock parliament of 1914-15, that the debates were non-partisan, and that he appeared as head of “an untitled party,” not the Conservative Party.

69   The dispute is recounted in Wilson, Diefenbaker, 13-15, from records in the Department of Education archives. The Diefenbaker Papers contain the daily register of attendance for the Wheat Heart School District for the year ending December 31, 1914, in which John Diefenbaker has signed the monthly attendance report from May through September, and Edward L. Diefenbaker has signed the reports from October through December. JGDP, II/12, 9963-74

70   OC 1, 81-82. The story of the incident passed down in one family, whose two boys were members of Diefenbaker’s class that summer, is slightly different. A great niece, Cynthia (Krivoshein) McCormack, writes: “Some of the books say he was outside shooting - that is the part my Krivoshein relatives deny. The talk around the table was that ‘J.D.’ was inside the school shooting out the windows - my great uncles were outside to run and pick up what was shot. The bounty then was one cent for gopher tails and two cents for crows’ feet.” Cynthia McCormack to author, May 10, 1992

71   Kerr and Hanson, Saskatoon, 147-59

72   His papers record courses in economic history; money, banking and taxation; municipal and company law; sales law; and contracts and jurisprudence. Academic notebooks, JGDP, II/8,9,10

73   The Sheaf April 1915; OC 1, 82-83

74   The John A. Hertel Company, Canadian Bulletin No. 10, July 7, 1915, JGDP, II/9, 8086-87; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 17. The saturated village was apparently Watrous.

75   OC 1, 84-85; The John A. Hertel Company, Field Echoes and Pointers to Success, December 24, 1915, JGDP, II/9, 8088; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 16-19.

76   Wilson, Diefenbaker, 19. Mighton later practised law in North Battleford.

77   Elmer to JGD, July 13 and 19, 1915, JGDP, V/3, 1393, 1389

78   Academic notebooks, JGDP, II/8,9,10; JGD to Mary Diefenbaker, April 16, May 16, 1916, JGDP, V/32, 248, 245; Certificate of Military Qualification, “Probationers,” 27 May 1916, JGDP, II/12/166, 10024; OC 1, 85; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 19-20. There is no apparent basis for the claim made in the memoirs that “there was, I fear, no lack of evidence to show that commissions were excessively handed out on the basis of political and personal friendship. I had to wait for mine.” The commission was issued nine days after Diefenbaker wrote his examinations.

79   OC 1, 85-86; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 20; JGD to Col. Edgar, DOC, MD No. 12, Regina, August 21, 1916; telegram, DOCMD12 to JGD, August 22, 1916; Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, August 26, 1916, JGDP, II/13/167, 10025-26, 10029

80   JGDP, II/13/167, 10170-72. Hugh Aird and Allan McMillan had been classmates of Diefenbaker in high school and university, took officers’ training with him, and were also articling law students. McMillan was killed in action and Aird was wounded. “Sadie” was Sadie Bridgeman, a sister of Mary Diefenbaker.

81   JGDP, II/13/167, 10172-75

82   Diary, September 14, 16, 18; Capt. E.H. Oliver to Mrs Diefenbaker, September 18, 1916, ibid., 10177-78; II/12/166, 10034

83   Diary, September 20-October 6, 1916; JGD to Mary Diefenbaker, September 21, 1916; White Star Line Passenger List, SS Lapland, From Halifax, NS, to England, September 23, 1916, JGDP, II/13/167, 10178-83; V/1, 243; II/12/166, 10036-39; OC 1, 86-87; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 20-21

84   Diary, October 3-6, JGDP, II/13/167, 10182-83; OC 1, 86

85   OC 1, 88-89

86   Ibid., 89-90

87   JGDI, November 28, December 12, 1969; Biographical sketch, nd, JGDP, II/2, 803-05; Nicholson, Vision, 22; Newman, Renegade, 47

88   Diary, October 6-November 4, 1916, JGDP, II/13/167, 10183-91

89   Diary, November 5-10, 1916; Charing Cross Hotel pamphlet and ticket stub 4617, “H.M. Forces, Officer on leave, Charing Cross to Shorncliffe, First Class 11/8,” ibid., 10192-93, 10063-119

90   Diary, November 13-16, 1916, ibid., 10194-95

91   Diary, November 17-26, ibid., 10195-98

92   Diary, December 6-12, ibid., 10200-02

93   Diary, December 18-29, ibid., 10204-08. The February 1917 order for Lieutenant Diefenbaker’s return to Canada is addressed to him at the 19th Reserve Battalion. Ibid., II/12/167, 10122

94   Diary, December 29, 1916-January 1, 1917, JGDP, II/13/167, 10207-08; OC 1, 89

95   Diary, February 7-20, 1917, JGDP, II/13/167, 10166-69

96   Ibid., II/12/167, 10124-33. In an interview in 1969, Diefenbaker told the author: “I tried my best. They wouldn’t have it and they sent me back. Then - after about six months, not that long, five months - I then tried to get into the RAF and I thought I was going to be alright there … but that was out because … there was a recurrence of the haemorrhage when I got up … when I got up to 5000 feet I started to bleed.” This account appears to have been a brief flight of fancy. JGDI, December 12, 1969

97   Board of Pension Commissioners for Canada to JGD, April 9, 1918; certificate issued with War Service Badge to JGD, May 25, 1918, JGDP, II/13/167, 10142, 10138-39

98   In the First World War the Canadian Army acknowledged 15,500 “neuropsychiatric disabilities,” including 9000 cases defined as “shell shock and neurosis.” The terms were imprecise, as they remained by 1940. General E.L.M. Burns wrote of the army’s straightforward approach to human behaviour in 1914-18: “At that time a man did what he was told, encouraged by the kindly admonitions of his sergeant or sergeant-major - or else. If he reported to the medical officer with nothing visibly the matter with him, he was malingering, a crime under the Army Act.” Terry Copp and Bill McAndrew add chillingly that “it seems plausible that at least some of the 25 Canadians and 346 British soldiers executed for cowardice or desertion were dysfunctional psychoneurotics.” They comment on the approach of medical boards at the opening of the Second World War, taking up where they had left off in 1918: “If the medical board had doubts about an individual’s mental fitness its job was to reject him, not to diagnose him.”

The Canadian government’s neuropsychiatric advisers in 1939 were concerned above all to confront “the pension question”: “After World War 1 large numbers of veterans received pensions on the basis of neuro-psychiatric disability. There was a strong belief that such pensions, by formally recognizing the existence of a psychoneurosis, reinforced the condition instead of helping to cure it.” By that reasoning, the Pension Board’s rejection of the Diefenbaker claim in 1918 could be regarded as therapeutic.

Dr Colin Russel, who had been a leading neuropsychiatrist in the First World War at the Ramsgate Special Hospital for Nervous Cases, held that all “fear reactions” could be handled successfully with “rest, food and an understanding appreciation.” For him the more serious problem was “a large class, which became larger, the further one got away from the front, who exhibited all the evidences of conversion hysteria - the so-called shell shock.” He believed that this hysteria was caused by “extraordinary suggestibility” or the lack of “high moral standards.” During the Second World War, as one of the Canadian Army’s leading consultants, he treated such cases with electric shock, psychotherapy, reclassification, or reassignment. His patients from 1940 to 1942 displayed “a wide variety of symptoms - strong fear reactions, chronic headaches, enuresis, gastric illness, uncontrollable restlessness, exaggerated physical weakness, muscle tics, obsessions, phobias - the list was almost endless.” Alarming numbers of British and Canadian soldiers who had not faced combat were invalided out in 1940-41 with “gastric, mental and nervous problems.” There were more than 100,000 cases in the British Army. Diefenbaker seems to have marched in a large shadow army. See Copp and McAndrew, Battle Exhaustion, 13-17, 67-68.

99   “Officer’s Declaration Paper, Canadian Over-seas Expeditionary Force … Certificate of Medical Examination, August 26, 1916,” contained in Lieutenant J.G.B. Diefenbaker’s military personnel file (MPF)

100 “Medical Case Sheet, 26/11/16, Crowborough Camp,” MPF

101 The diagnosis was “ametropia”; it was treated with corrective lenses. Casualty and hospitalization records, Lieutenant J.G.B. Diefenbaker, C.M.S. (196th Bn.); “Medical Case Sheet, 26/11/16, Crowborough Camp,” MPF

102 The full case description reads: “This officer suffered a great deal from symptoms of weakness and partial loss of compensation before enlistment. Immediately after enlistment he was given ten days leave owing to heart trouble and weakness. He cannot double, climb a hill or do physical training owing to dyspnoea difficulty in breathing and general weakness. He has a blowing systolic refurgitant—–[unintelligible word] considerable cardiac hypertrophy. Diffuse apex beat. Weak sight corrected by glasses. Weak physique, and has dyspnoea upon exertion.” “Medical Case Sheet, 26/11/16, Crowborough Camp,” MPF

103 Macmillan Medical Dictionary (1906, 1958), 226, 294

104 “Proceedings of a Medical Board, Saskatoon, 27th day April 1917,” MPF

105 DOC, MD #12, to Adjutant-General, Canadian Militia, Ottawa, May 25, 1917; DOC, MD #12, to Secretary, Militia Council, Ottawa, August 29, 1917, MPF

106 “Medical History of an Invalid,” August 4, 1917, MPF. It is clear from later correspondence that Diefenbaker’s previous medical records from England were not available to the medical board in Saskatoon in August. They were finally forwarded from Canadian militia headquarters on October 30, 1917, after Diefenbaker had been retired. DOC, MD #12, to Secretary, Militia Council, Ottawa, September 28, 1917; Adjutant-General, Canadian Militia, to GOC, MD #12, October 9, 1917; Cablegram, Records Ottawa to Canrecords London, October 6, 1917; Adjutant-General, Canadian Militia, to GOC, MD #12, October 30, 1917, MPF

107 Ibid.

108 “Medical History of an Invalid,” October 10, 1917, ibid. The Oxford Companion to Medicine describes one type of valvular heart disease as “incompetence,” when a defective valve fails to prevent retrograde flow. Black’s Medical Dictionary suggests that “the detection of valvular disease unfits a person for entrance upon any public service, and renders him subject, if he becomes a candidate for life assurance, either to refusal or to a heavily increased premium.” For treatment, Black’s continues, “the subject of such disease must lead a quiet and well-regulated life, avoiding, as far as may be, excitement, worry, and sudden strains, although methodical attention to business, and even hard, steady work, are quite well done.” Oxford Companion to Medicine (1986), 1416, 1522; Black’s Medical Dictionary (34th ed., 1984), 438-40

109 DOC, MD #12, to Secretary, Militia Council, Ottawa, October 26, 1917, MPF

110 Adjutant-General, Canadian Militia, to DOC, MD #12, November 13, 1917, ibid.

111 In Pearson’s case, the affliction was described as “neurasthenia.” See the account in English, Shadow, 42-47.

112 Taylor, English History, 70

113 OC 1, 87; the story was also recounted in JGDI, December 12, 1969.

114 Diary, November 30, December 6, 8-12, 1916, February 10, 1917, JGDP, V/13, 10198, 10200-03; JGDI, December 12, 1969. Diefenbaker also said in the 1969 interview that he had heard parliamentary speeches at the time by Winston Churchill, Sir John Simon, Asquith (while still prime minister), Arthur Balfour, Stanley Baldwin, and Ramsay MacDonald.

115 Wilson, Diefenbaker, 24; OC 1, 92

116 “Robert Service,” JGDP, XIV/1. The manuscript is described by Diefenbaker in a covering memo of May 1965 as “personal notes I made on Robert Service in February of 1918.” This appears to be Diefenbaker’s earliest remaining reference to Olive Freeman.

117 The Sheaf, April 1919

118 Seven persons received the degree of Bachelor of Laws. They included Emmett Hall, who had articled with Diefenbaker at Lynd and Yule. The convocation program noted that sixty-six former students of the university had been killed, died of wounds, or were missing in action. J. Kelso Hunter to JGD, September 28, 1918; Law Society of Saskatchewan, Law Examinations, nd, 1919; University of Saskatchewan, Eighth Annual Convocation, May 1, 1919, JGDP, I/26, 7308, 7313, 9997-10007; OC 1, 91-92, 96-97; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 24, 26

Chapter 2 Choosing a Party

1     OC 1, 96-97; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 26-29

2     Diefenbaker’s lease on the property commenced on August 1, 1919, for a seven-month term at a nominal rent of one dollar. In 1971 the local Lions’ Club built and furnished a replica of the office building, although on a different site. Michael Stechishin completed his articles with Diefenbaker in 1921 and then practised law in Yorkton. In 1940 he was appointed to a district court judgeship. JGDP, I/26, 8749-50; OC 1, 97-98, 101-02; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 27-33

3     Wilson, Diefenbaker, 4-5

4     JGDP, I/26, 6704-25; OC 1, 98-100; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 1-9; Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, August 8, 1919; Wakaw Recorder, August 13 and October 22, 1919. The uncertain or casual spelling of Ukrainian names in Saskatchewan in 1919 was reflected in seven versions of the name of the accused in court documents, letters, and newspaper reports: Chernyski, Charnecki, Czerneski, Charnecky, Chenoski, Cheniski, Chernesky.

5     This account of an acquittal on his birthday is related by Newman, Nicholson, and Diefenbaker himself. Newman, Renegade, 47-48; Nicholson, Vision, 22; OC 1, 98-100. Apparent confirmation of that date appears in the Diefenbaker Papers on two photocopies of the Wakaw Recorder’s story of the trial, dated in handwriting “Sept 18 1919”; but this is actually the Recorder story of October 29. The formal charge on the trial day is dated October 23, 1919, and other correspondence confirms that the trial occurred in late October. Emmett Hall also notes in his oral history interview for the Diefenbaker Centre that the trial did not occur on Diefenbaker’s birthday. The author and date of the handwritten dating of the story are not clear. See JGDP, I/7/A/135, 6736-37, 6747, 6751-52; XVIII/OH/41 (Acc. 126), May 19, 1986.

6     The original of Hall’s note is in the Diefenbaker Papers, JGDP, I/7/A/135, 6750; a slightly edited version appears in Wilson, Diefenbaker, 7.

7     Wilson, Diefenbaker, 8

8     JGDP, I/8/A/154,155, 8170, 8197-202; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 33-34; OC 1, 101-02

9     Manager, Bank of Montreal, Wakaw to JGD, June 7, 1920; JGD to manager, June 9, 1920, JGDP, I/8/A/155, 8194-95

10   JGDP, I/8/A/154, 8170; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 34-37

11   OC 1, 134-35

12   Aileen Stobie Baldwin, quoted in Holt, Other, 100; see also 99-100; OC 1, 134.

13   The Freemans were United Empire Loyalists descended from Mayflower Pilgrims who had emigrated to Massachusetts Bay in 1620. Her grandfather, who was also a Baptist minister, was one of the founders of Acadia University, and her father was an Acadia graduate. See the biographical sketch of Olive by John H. Archer in OC 3, xv-xxiii.) The date when John reestablished contact is not clear. Soon after his election to the House of Commons in 1940 he was corresponding with Olive’s brother Hal, who taught at McMaster University in Hamilton. Hal mentioned Olive, invited John to visit “one or both,” and offered Diefenbaker tuition in French. Diefenbaker commented: “Your offer to coach me in French is very gratifying to me. It has always been my opinion that, in order to make an effective member, one should know the French language to the extent of at least being able to follow the debates, and, when I see you, I will go over this matter with you.” There is no record that anything came of this. Hal and Gertrude Freeman to JGD, nd, 1940; JGD to Hal Freeman, May 4, 1940, JGDP, II/11, 9074-75

14   Holt, Other, 74-75

15   Ibid., 103

16   Holt writes that Beth was buried in “the wedding gown she had made for her marriage to John Diefenbaker. That was her last wish” (ibid., 103-04). Holt’s source for this story was Dorothy Cleveland Little, the daughter of the Newells’ neighbours who had nursed Beth until her death. Emmett Hall, however, rejects the claim “that there was any serious relationship” between Diefenbaker and Newell. He recalled in 1986 that Beth Newell suffered from tuberculosis “as early as the fall of 1918 and was practically confined to her bed.” Mrs Newell, he said, occasionally telephoned him “to provide Beth with some company - this was the extent of JGD’s association with her as well.” JGDP, XVIII/OH/41

17   In the memoirs, Diefenbaker recounts the story of an auto race from Prince Albert to Saskatoon in which his competitor, an “eccentric Hungarian,” drove off a Saskatchewan river ferry into the river. When the man surfaced above his car and shouted “Damn, hell, what you believing in! Don’t worry, J., I standing on the cushion,” Diefenbaker says he “laughed until the haemorrhaging that I had suffered overseas began again. Back in hospital for a major operation, I had a narrow escape.” He does not date this incident. OC 1, 135-36; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 41

18   Boutin et al. v. Mackie, (1922) 2 Western Weekly Reports 1197 (Sask.); OC 1, 120-21; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 37-39; LePatriote de l’Ouest, May 1922

19   Diefenbaker discusses the early years of his legal career in chapters six and seven of his memoirs, OC 1, 93-124. For accounts of some of his major cases, see Wilson, Diefenbaker, passim.

20   OC 1, 102-03; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 40-41

21   OC 1, 136-37

22   Wilson, Diefenbaker, 39-42; OC 1, 137

23   OC 1, 74-75

24   Ibid., 75; JGDI, December 11, 1969

25   OC 1, 75; JGDI, December 10, 1969

26   Subsequently, he blamed the electoral frauds of 1917 on the Conservative minister of the interior, Arthur Meighen, who was also sponsor of the Wartime Elections Act. Meighen, he claimed, had directed the chief electoral officer to shift overseas votes among designated constituencies to assure the election of Unionist candidates. Diefenbaker said in 1969 that his source for this claim was a senator, who told him that he had personally delivered the message from Meighen to the chief electoral officer. The issue was raised at the Liberal Convention of 1919, and Meighen did not deny the accusation. In 1969 Diefenbaker commented: “I don’t claim to be pious or anything of the kind, but that’s wrong, no matter how you look at it.”JGDI, December 11, 1969

27   OC 1, 91, 126-27

28   OC 1, 132-33; JGDI, December 10, 1969. In the more vivid language of the interview, Diefenbaker’s story was: “I came back on the Monday and said, ‘Who in the hell did this? Here’s your bloody papers and it’s all over with.’ ”

29   Wilson, Diefenbaker, 51

30   JGDI, December 10, 1969

31   Wilson, Diefenbaker, 50-52

32   Ibid., 52-53

33   OC 1, 140

34   Ibid., 58-64, 139-41; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 50-55

35   Prince Albert Herald, October 15, 1925, quoted in Newman, Renegade, 49

36   JGDI, August 14, 1969

37   OC 1, 141-43; Newman, Renegade, 49-50

38   OC 1, 143

39   Ibid., 141

40   Ibid., 140-41; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 52-53

41   OC 1, 143. There is no published record that he visited Wakaw. The local newspaper supported the Liberal Party, despite threats from Conservative advertisers that they would boycott its pages if it did so. Wilson, Diefenbaker, 54

42   Quoted in Wilson, Diefenbaker, 54

43   OC 1, 143-44. Nevertheless, as compared with the 1921 results, Conservative candidates on the prairies shared votes lost by the Progressives with the Liberals and polled more votes in total than either the Liberals or Progressives. See the Reports, Chief Electoral Officer, Fourteenth General Election, and Fifteenth General Election, 360-90, 429-532.

44   Herald, December 1, 1925; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 55

45   Diefenbaker writes: “The Conservative Party, as such, decided not to run a candidate in that by-election, but they did not want Mr. King to go unopposed. I received a telegram suggesting that an Independent candidate run. I was standing, this telegram in hand, looking out from my window at the traffic on Central Avenue below. It was a cold, blustery day in January 1926. Across the street I saw Dave Burgess. I sent one of my staff to ask him to come up. I knew Burgess well, and respected his ability. His war record in the Royal Flying Corps was outstanding. When he came into my office I said, ‘You have often told me that you’d like to be in Parliament. Well, how about running as an Independent?’ Without hesitation, he agreed to do so. It was: ‘Dave Burgess, M.C., for M.P.’ King, of course, was a shoo-in; to defeat the Prime Minister in a by-election is almost an impossibility.” There is no record in the Diefenbaker Papers of this telegram. Liberal newspapers noted during the contest that “the witness to Mr. Burgess’ nomination paper was formerly employed in the office of J.G. Diefenbaker, Conservative candidate on October 29,” and reported local gossip that a federal party emissary had visited Prince Albert carrying “a little black bag” containing “a round sum to support any candidate who would allow his name to go forward.” But later in the year the Toronto Telegram reported that the decision not to nominate formally against King was taken on federal orders and against the instincts of the local party. In that case, the Burgess nomination might suggest local defiance. The paper also noted that in the general election of September 1926, Arthur Meighen did not speak in Saskatchewan and left Diefenbaker to fight King alone in Prince Albert. “Why was King let down so easy?” the Telegram asked. “That is one of the mysteries of the late debacle in the west.” OC 1, 160-61; Saskatoon Phoenix, February 9, 1926; Toronto Telegram, October 21, 1926

46   Wilson, Diefenbaker, 55-56; OC 1, 144

47   Quoted in Wilson, Diefenbaker, 66

48   Phoenix, February 17, 1926; OC 1, 145-48; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 56-57

49   Gray, Bennett, 263-64; OC 1, 146-54

50   OC 1, 148

51   Ibid., 151-53

52   Herald, August 9, 1926; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 57-59

53   “An appeal to base prejudice,” Phoenix, August 12, 1926

54   JGDI, June 27, December 11, 1969; OC 1, 148-50

55   Quoted in OC 1, 149

56   “Prince Albert’s Conservative Candidate,” St. Peter’s Messenger, Meunster, August 11, 1926. Diefenbaker’s companions on the platform, Strong and MacDougall, had been the two main speakers at the banquet honouring him in Prince Albert on December 1, 1925. See Herald, December 1, 1925.

57   Quoted in OC 1, 149; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 58

58   The source of Diefenbaker’s claim may have been an advertisement in the Ukrainian Voice of August 16, 1926, over the name of F.W. Wright, the official agent for W.L. Mackenzie King. The advertisement quoted a Conservative candidate in Ontario as saying that “no person not of British birth should be given a right to vote in Canada,” and interpreted this to mean that the Meighen government, if re-elected, would remove that right from all naturalized Canadians. This piece of electoral hyperbole may have been matched (or surpassed) by Diefenbaker’s imaginative leap from the removal of voting rights to deportation one by one.

The campaign was crude in other ways as well. Diefenbaker later charged that agents of the provincial police, acting under political direction, had attempted to set him up for charges on a liquor offence during the campaign. He said that while being driven to a public meeting in Parkside, he discovered a bottle of illegal home-brew on the seat beside his travel bag. He threw the bottle away. That evening, he said, all the cars outside the meeting hall were searched by special detectives of the liquor squad, and one officer confessed to him: “I should tell you that they wanted me to plant liquor on you there and I refused … I was directed by the inspector of police to do that.” After the Conservatives came to power in September 1930, Diefenbaker said that he gained access to the attorney general’s files and discovered that the liquor police had been in Parkside that night. Diefenbaker asked that one member of the police force (by then, the RCMP) should be dismissed for his responsibility in the affair, but the minister of justice refused and had him transferred instead to the National Parks service. Wilson, Diefenbaker, 58; JGDI, June 27, 1969; and Herald, August 31 and October 1, 1926

59   The vote in Prince Albert constituency was King, 8933; Diefenbaker, 4838. OC 1, 153-54; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 59; Newman, Renegade, 50

60   OC 1, 154; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 59

61   Gray, Bennett, 279-85; OC 1, 155-56

62   Quoted in Gray, Bennett, 284

63   OC 1, 155-57, 161-62

64   The short but spectacular history of the Klan in Saskatchewan is recounted in Robin, Shades, 1-86; Kyba, “Ballots and Burning Crosses,” and Calderwood, “Rise.”

65   Robin, Shades, 59

66   The statistics are cited in detail, ibid.

67   J.F. Bryant to R.B. Bennett, March 16, 1928, Bennett Papers, 24954-55; Robin, Shades, 60-61

68   J.G. Gardiner to W.L. Mackenzie King, August 23, 1927, quoted in Robin, Shades, 62

69   W.L.M. King to J.G. Gardiner, August 30, 1927, quoted ibid., 64

70   Ibid., 63-65

71   “Platform adopted at the Saskatchewan Conservative Convention. At Saskatoon. March 14th and 15th, 1928,” Bennett Papers, 24974-77. Bryant, in his first letter to Bennett reporting reassuringly on the convention, quotes a slightly different version of the resolution. J.F. Bryant to R.B. Bennett, March 16, 1928, ibid., 24954-57

72   J.F. Bryant to R.B. Bennett, March 16, 1928, ibid. See also Wilson, Diefenbaker, 77-79.

73   See, for example, A.G. MacKinnon to R.B. Bennett, March 28, 1928; J. Harvey Hearn to R.B. Bennett, March 28, 1928; J.J. Leddy to R.B. Bennett, March 28, April 12, April 17, 1928; M.A. MacPherson to R.B. Bennett, April 7, 1928; J.A.M. Patrick to R.B. Bennett, April 21, 1928; M J. Perkins to R.B. Bennett, May 23, 1928, Bennett Papers, 25003-06, 24987-90, 24992-93, 25019-20, 25029-33, 24994-5001, 25035-38, 25074-76

74   J.F. Bryant to R.B. Bennett, May 31, 1928, ibid., 25113. Soon after the convention, one of the absconding Klan officials, Pat Emmons, was arrested in the United States, waived his rights under extradition, and was returned to Regina and Moose Jaw, where he was tried on charges of fraud and misappropriation of funds. Emmons testified that he had met with J.T.M. Anderson to coordinate Klan and Conservative Party campaigns against the Liberal government, and that Anderson had tried to seize control of the Klan. The criminal charges were dismissed, but the political evidence intensified the party conflict. Emmons followed up by publishing affidavits about his meetings with Conservative leaders and speaking at a noisy public meeting in Regina. He was then hustled secretly out of the country. Although R.B. Bennett suggested to Anderson that he should sue to clear his name, Anderson neither sued nor denied that he had met with Emmons. Conservatives complained, with good reason, that the affair had been orchestrated by the Gardiner government. F.R. MacMillan to R.B. Bennett, May 7, 1928; R.B. Bennett to J.T.M. Anderson, June 20, 1928, ibid., 25056-57, 25130; Robin, Shades, 73-78

75   See especially R.B. Bennett to J.J. Leddy, November 6, 1928, Bennett Papers, 25187. Bennett advised Leddy to accept the situation “with equanimity,” and remembered what he saw as a similar example of political prudence or cynicism: “You will, perhaps, recall that it was the Liberal Party that came to power through the Manitoba school issue in 1896, and Sir Wilfrid Laurier was content to retire behind the lines of torres vidras [sic]. Might it not be well for us to emulate the example of so great a tactician?” Bennett’s allusion was to Wellington and the Peninsular War. Torres Vedras was the solid British defensive line before Lisbon where the French under Massena approached and then turned back in October 1810, marking the turning point in the war.

76   J.F. Bryant to R.B. Bennett, April 11, 1928, ibid., 25014-18; Robin, Shades, 300 n120. The other possibility was that MacKinnon’s name appeared on the typed list, but was omitted at the platform when the names were read to the convention. Dr J.F. Leddy, the son of J.J. Leddy, who became president of the University of Windsor, recalled being told emphatically by his father that Diefenbaker had played a part in blackballing the two Catholic nominees at the convention. Private information

77   J. Harvey Hearn to R.B. Bennett, March 28, 1928, Bennett Papers, 24988

78   Wilson, Diefenbaker, 79

79   Ibid.; McLeod, “Politics,” 139-40

80   J.J. Leddy to R.B. Bennett, October 29, 1928, Bennett Papers, 25185-86; Regina Morning Leader, October 19, 1928; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 81

81   OC 1, 157

82   Morning Leader, October 22, 1928; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 81-83; OC 1, 157-58. Diefenbaker’s account of this incident in the memoirs is drained of all content; without any mention of the nature of his questions, it becomes a long and amusing anecdote about Gardiner’s agility in evading answers. This notable gap is perhaps an indication of Diefenbaker’s subsequent unease about the attitudes of the Saskatchewan party in the late 1920s - and his own role in it.

83   The by-election result was Liberal 2764, Conservative 2705. Manitoba Free Press, October 26, 1928; Ward and Smith, Gardiner, 98; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 82

84   Quoted in Wilson, Diefenbaker, 83

85   Ward and Spafford, Politics, 114-23; Archer, Saskatchewan, 209-12

86   Wilson, Diefenbaker, 84-85

87   OC 1, 150-51. The memoirs offer two more insights into Diefenbaker’s state of mind about the Klan and its attitudes. He admits that he was once consulted briefly by J.J. Maloney about the Klan’s legal affairs; and he speculates that, if he had won the seat in 1929 and become attorney general, he probably would have supported the Conservative government’s legislation to ban a Catholic presence in public schools. “That would have been my destruction. I would have been irredeemably associated in the public mind with the religious and racial bigotry of the period.” OC 1, 151. By good fortune, he implies, his ambivalent relationship to the Klan was in fact forgotten. In an undated, tape-recorded dictation from the 1960s, Diefenbaker makes the unsubstantiated claim that “I took a strong stand against the activities of the Ku Klux Klan which at that time was flourishing and had for a year or so earlier.” “Dictation found on a tape purchased by Mr. Garnet C. King of Perth, Ontario, and presented to Mr. Diefenbaker on July 21st, 1970,” JGDP, XIV/1/A/3

88   Ward and Spafford, Politics, 120-23; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 85; Archer, Saskatchewan, 211-12

89   T.C. Davis to J.G. Gardiner, October 29, 1936, Gardiner Papers, 41289, quoted in Ward and Smith, Gardiner, 146-47

90   Wilson, Diefenbaker, 48

91   Ibid., 49

92   The Prince Albert Daily Herald reported that Cousins had died in his sleep and that “the doctor stated that death was due to natural causes, probably the result of being gassed during the war.” Daily Herald, June 9, 1927; OC 1, 137; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 65

93   An outline of Elmer’s career can be traced in the Diefenbaker Papers. One of his enterprises, for which John acted as lawyer and financial guarantor, was the Acme Storage Company. From May 1931 until January 1933 this company held a franchise as the Prince Albert beer bottle exchange. The business was a financial failure and folded in dispute among the three partners after it lost the city franchise. See JGDP, I/1/A/1, 44-84.

94   Wilson, Diefenbaker, 65

95   OC 1, 137

96   Holt, Other, 106

97   Quoted ibid., 108

98   Ibid, 109-10. Much of Holt’s information about Edna and the Diefenbaker family in this period comes from Edna’s niece Sheila Brower, who became a frequent visitor in the Diefenbaker homes from 1927 onwards and remained a close and fascinated observer of family relationships throughout her aunt’s life. In Edna’s later life she confided at length in Sheila.

99   Ibid., 111

100 Ibid.; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 69; JGD to William Diefenbaker, July 19, 1928, JGDP, V/1, 6; Holt and the Wilsons say that both William and Mary made the trip, but John’s postcard to William suggests, “You are lucky you didnt come along. Nearly froze to death last evg. Between tires and bad roads have not had such a wonderful trip.”

101 Holt, Other, 113-14

102 Quoted ibid., 117

103 See ibid., 118

104 Ibid., 119

105 Ibid., 120

106 Betty Andrews Davis, quoted ibid., 121. She was the wife of Ted Davis, the new editor of the Prince Albert Herald.

107 Ibid., 127

108 Ibid., 124-33. There is no direct evidence of the reasons why John and Edna had no children, and no basis, even, for plausible speculation. Holt intimates that John’s preoccupation with his political career meant that he would not accept the distractions of raising a family; but in the absence of firm evidence, there is no way of telling whether such suggestions on his part were statements of intention or rationalizations.

109 Wilson, Diefenbaker, 60-65; Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, September 22, 1927

110 R. v. Olson, (1929) 1 Western Weekly Reports 432, 23 Saskatchewan Law Reports 321, 51 Canadian Criminal Cases 122, (1929) Dominion Law Report 300 (CA); Wilson, Diefenbaker, 70-73

111 Wilson, Diefenbaker, 95. “One of the enduring legends of the Saskatchewan bar,” they write, “is of E.C. Leslie, K.C., opening a case in the Court of Appeal: ‘My Lords, this is an appeal from a judgment of Mr. Justice Taylor. But there are other grounds.’ ”

112 Wilson, Diefenbaker, 100

113 Daily Herald, November 22, 1929; Star-Phoenix, March 4, 1930; JGD case notebook, JGDP, I/7, 8486-502; Diefenbaker & Elder to minister of justice, telegram, undated; undersecretary of state to John J. Diefenbaker [sic], March 4, 1930, ibid., 8560-61; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 89-109

114 R. v. Wysochan (1930) 54 Canadian Criminal Cases 172 (Sask. CA)

115 Morning Leader, March 19, 1930, quoted in Wilson, Diefenbaker, 114

116 The case is reported on the front page of the Star-Phoenix, March 21, 1930.

117 The Diefenbaker Papers contain a transcript of the appeal judgment, as well as correspondence and telegrams to the minister of justice seeking a stay of execution and petitioning for a new trial on evidence of Wysochan’s intoxication. But W.G. Elder wrote to Diefenbaker on June 17, 1930: “I have absolutely no hope whatsoever of any consideration at the hands of the Department. However, for your personal information I might say that after speaking to a great number of people … I have somewhat changed my mind in respect to the case. I don’t think that we should lose any sleep over the matter whatever.” Elder apparently accepted Wysochan’s guilt. See JGDP, I/9, 9528-31, 9535-36, 9549, 9552; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 110-24.

Chapter 3 A Provincial Life

1     Archer, Saskatchewan, 211-15; Smith, Prairie Liberalism, 195-99; Ward and Smith, Gardiner, 107-21, 143-44

2     Wilson, Diefenbaker, 125-26

3     OC 1, 156-61. In the late winter of 1930 Diefenbaker made an insurance claim seeking compensation for absence from his office from February 13 to March 13, 1930, supported by a medical certificate, on the ground that he had suffered an “attack of influenza” resulting from exposure, and noting that he had had no illness lasting more than two weeks in the previous five years. The record does not make clear whether this was the same illness Diefenbaker referred to in the memoirs, where he reported that “my haemorrhages had recurred, and the doctors ordered me to take a long rest.” JGDP, II/10/135, 8597-606; OC 1, 156

4     OC 1, 160-61; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 126-27; Courtney, Voting in Canada, 18. W.D. Cowan served one undistinguished term in the House, where he spoke occasionally against bankers, freetraders, socialists, Liberal immigration policies, and the absence of federal aid to Saskatchewan. He said in June 1931 that despite hardship, the typical Saskatchewan resident was still “cheery and goodhumoured. If he has nothing but oatmeal porridge he is content.” The maverick Liberal back-bencher J.-F. Pouliot referred to Cowan as “the nightshirt from Long Lake” and told the House that Cowan had received a salary of $2170 in 1929 as treasurer of the Saskatchewan Klan. Cowan responded later that he did not mind Pouliot’s teasing and promised he would stand one day at the pearly gates in a Klan outfit and pull Pouliot in, out of gratitude for Pouliot’s criticism of the farmer-labour group in the House. Debates, March 24, 1931, 242-53; June 12, 1931, 2589-92; March 28, 1933, 3498-501

5     Report of the Royal Commission to Inquire into Statements Made in Statutory Declarations and Other Matters, 1930; The Saskatchewan Record, published by the Liberal-Conservative Party of Saskatchewan, April 1931; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 127-32; OC 1, 129-30

6     Wilson, Diefenbaker, 131-32

7     Archer, Saskatchewan, 213-19; Friesen, Canadian Prairies, 382-406

8     JGDP, II/10, 8302-505; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 139; JGDI, August 14, 1969. The Diefenbaker Papers suggest a certain lack of order, or casualness, in the financial records of the Diefenbaker law office. In 1935, 1936, 1937, and 1938, for example, Diefenbaker either submitted inconsistent federal and provincial income tax returns or resubmitted revised statements. His net taxable income for 1936 was shown on various forms as $3546, $3935, $4568, or $3537.

9     JGDI, August 14, 1969; JGDP, I

10   JGD to the Manager, Banque Canadienne Nationale, Prince Albert, May 12, 1933, March 29, 1935, JGDP, II/10/131, 8214-15, 8220

11   Wilson, Diefenbaker, 149

12   OC 1, 138; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 150-51

13   Holt, Other, 139-40; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 148

14   Holt, Other, 140-44; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 153-54. Holt gained her information and comments on these relationships from Sheila Brower, Mary Louise (Connell) Hose, Helen Brunt, Emmett and Belle Hall, Priscilla McCloy, and Molly Parrott, among others.

15   Holt, Other, 155

16   Ibid., 150-51;JGDP, II/10/135, 8606

17   From the mid-1920s to the 1940s, for example, Diefenbaker was a member of the Prince Albert Canadian Club, the Young Men’s Chamber of Commerce, the Kiwanis Club, the Prince Albert Horticultural Society, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Loyal Orange Lodge, the Shriners, and was a modest contributor to a wide range of local charities. He was an elected member of the Senate of the University of Saskatchewan from 1932 to 1938, and was active in the Canadian Bar Association throughout this period.

18   Wilson, Diefenbaker, 151

19   Quoted ibid., 155-56

20   In his memoirs Diefenbaker said that civic bonds with a face value of $100 were being bought “for twenty-five dollars or less” by “members of the Davis clique,” who naturally opposed him in the election because he wanted the city to buy up the discounted bonds. But he reflected on his defeat: “Of course, had I won in 1933, I would not have been in a position to accept the leadership of the provincial Conservative Party in 1936 … In retrospect, there seems almost a logic which was not apparent at the time.” By 1975 the invisible hand guiding Diefenbaker’s career seemed as sure in hindsight as the one guiding Mackenzie King’s. Wilson, Diefenbaker, 156; OC 1, 168-69

21   Wilson, Diefenbaker, 156-57

22   Ibid., 157-58; Ward and Smith, Gardiner, 165-72. The Conservative Party lost seats disproportionately in the three-way fight: the Liberals won 48 percent of the popular vote, the Conservatives 27 percent, and Farmer-Labour 24 percent.

23   OC 1, 162; JGDI, December 10, 1969

24   OC 1, 162

25   Ibid.

26   JGDI, December 10, 1969

27   Ibid.

28   Ibid.

29   Ibid.

30   The occasion for Diefenbaker’s conversation with Bennett over Stevens’s future is uncertain; Diefenbaker suggested that it was in October 1934, apparently just before Stevens’s resignation. In 1934 Diefenbaker had no reason to notice, but the secretary of the price spreads commission and eventual author of the commission’s report was a young External Affairs officer named L.B. Pearson. OC 1, 163-64; English, Shadow, 168-69; JGDI, December 10, 1969

31   OC 1, 162-63

32   The genesis of the speeches is traced in the J.W. Dafoe Papers, Grant Dexter to J.W. Dafoe, January 4, 1935; Dafoe to Chester Bloom, January 11, 1935; Bloom to Dafoe, January 14 and January 30, 1935; Dexter to George Ferguson, May 11, 1935; Bloom to Dafoe, September 18, 1935. See also the Canadian Annual Review, 1935-36, 3.

33   JGD to Robert Weir, January 10, 1935, JGDP, II/1/25, 455-56

34   Ibid.

35   See J.W. Dafoe to John A. Stevenson, May 17, 1935; Grant Dexter to Dafoe, May 20, 1935; Dafoe to Tom King, May 30, 1935; Dexter to Dafoe, June 3, 1935, Dafoe Papers.

36   JGD to Senator Huey P. Long, January 22, 1935, JGDP, II/11/141, 9150

37   JGD to D.L. Burgess, March 26, 1935, ibid., 9021

38   Friesen, Canadian Prairies, 399-400; Ward and Smith, Gardiner, 182-88

39   According to the memoirs, Diefenbaker “was in line” for appointment to the Saskatchewan Court of King’s Bench in 1935, but, in the absence of a vacancy, Bennett sounded Diefenbaker out during the election campaign on a district court judgeship. Diefenbaker was not interested. OC 1, 164, 169; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 178

40   Prince Albert Daily Herald, July 23, 1935; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 178

41   OC 1, 164. J.M. Barrie, in a rectorial address at St Andrew’s University in 1922 entitled “Courage,” said: “Courage is the thing. All goes if courage goes.” Diefenbaker was also on the platform for Bennett’s campaign speech in Saskatoon the next night, September 26, 1935. JGDP, II/11/142, 9233, 5812

42   Ward and Smith, Gardiner, 189-94; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 178-79

43   Courtney, Voting in Canada, 18-19; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 179; Ward and Smith, Gardiner, 193-94

44   Gardiner’s labyrinthine negotiations with King over the appointment are laid out in Ward and Smith, Gardiner, 195-202.

45   “Excerpts from Speech delivered by Rt. Hon. R.B. Bennett March 4, 1938 to the Conservative Conference at Ottawa,” JGDP, II/1/26, 516-18. The caption is in Diefenbaker’s handwriting.

46   JGDI, December 10, 1969. A slightly different wording appears in the Diefenbaker memoirs. OC 1, 164-65

47   OC 1, 166; JGDI, December 10, 1969

48   Wire, JGD to R.B. Bennett, January 26, 1939, JGDP, II/1/25, 461

49   Quoted in Wilson, Diefenbaker, 137

50   Wilson, Diefenbaker, 137-38

51   Quoted ibid., Diefenbaker, 164. Cookson later served for seventeen years as the Regina chief of police.

52   Ibid., 165

53   Ibid.

54   Ibid., 166

55   According to Arthur Cookson, the boy’s first lawyer, Alfred Svoboda, who was displaced by John Diefenbaker at the request of Bohun’s father, had refused to give up the shirt to Diefenbaker for use in the trial. Ibid., 170

56   Winnipeg Free Press, October 2, 1933

57   Quoted in Wilson, Diefenbaker, 171-72

58   Daily Herald, February 22, 1934; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 172

59   Wilson, Diefenbaker, 172-73; Daily Herald, March 8 and 9, 1934

60   Daily Herald, November 4-9, 1935; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 180-89

61   Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, December 2, 1935

62   Ibid., February 12 and April 28, 1936; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 185-89

63   Regina Daily Star, February 5, 1936, quoted in Wilson, Diefenbaker, 202

64   R. v. Harms, (1936) 2 Western Weekly Reports, 114 (Sask.); Daily Star, February 5 and 6, 1935; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 190-202

65   Daily Star, April 20, 1936; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 203

66   Wilson, Diefenbaker, 204

67   Regina Leader, May 14, 1936

68   JGD to R.L. Hanbidge, October 2, 1936, JGDP, II/3/38.4, 2908-10. In the memoirs, Diefenbaker wrote that “I did not have it in mind to become Party Leader, nor did I campaign in any way for the office. But as President, it was difficult to resist the demands of E.E. Perley, M.P. from Qu’Appelle, and of R.L. ‘Dinny’ Hanbidge from Kerrobert, and of other leading Conservatives that I allow my name to go forward.” OC 1, 166. The source of the claim seemed to be this letter to Hanbidge of October 2; Diefenbaker ignored or missed evidence from later in the month that he had, indeed, sought the leadership.

69   In The Other Mrs. Diefenbaker, Holt wrote that Diefenbaker, at a dinner party in the fall of 1936, “was effusive about Hitler’s leadership, his ability in restoring Germany’s economy. He described the German dictator as a ‘spellbinder,’ referring to the opening of the Games, Hitler’s showcase of the triumphs of Naziism, and the supremacy of the pure Aryan race.” She suggests that Edna silenced Diefenbaker, and told him later of critical press reports about Nazi atrocities. Holt, Other, 153-54

70   There are a number of items from the “Vimy and Battlefields Pilgrimage, July 1936” in the Diefenbaker Papers. Diefenbaker’s presence in Berlin is recorded in postcards to Edna on August 9, 1936, and to his father on August 12, 1936. The speech was made in Melfort, Saskatchewan, on March 1, 1937; the reference to the Nazi system appears in a letter to Laura S. Martin of April 9, 1940; and the exchange with Franz Rosenow of Berlin occurred from October 21, 1936, to April 21, 1937. See JGDP, II/13, 15, 18674-91; 11694; 9179-80; 9243-48; Melfort Journal, March 2, 1937.

In the memoirs, Diefenbaker wrote that he attended the Games and “saw Hitler, Goering, Goebbels, and Dr. Funk. They were within thirty or forty feet of me. I saw at first hand the curse of militarism renewed in the German people.” OC 1, 201.

In June 1937 the Western Producer published a letter from one O. Reidell, alleging that Diefenbaker had attended a rally of the Nazi party in Nuremberg in September 1936 and that he maintained “regular and intimate” contact with the Nazis. Diefenbaker wrote to Reidell and the newspaper denying the allegations and threatening legal proceedings in the absence of retractions. Diefenbaker said that he had no doubt Reidell “is but a tool for others who will remain anonymous, using him for the propagation of false propaganda.” Reidell withdrew his charges, and the Western Producer published Diefenbaker’s letter on June 24, 1937, along with an editorial note saying that “we regret most sincerely the contribution we made to spreading this canard and that, having discussed the matter with Mr. Diefenbaker, we do not believe there is a scintilla of evidence to support the charges made by Mr. Reidell.” Western Producer, June 3 and 24, 1937; JGDP, II/7/97, 5525-26; II/16/234, 12147-56; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 215-16

In June 1937 Prime Minister King was received by Adolf Hitler in Berlin, and the editor of the Western Producer commented to Diefenbaker that “I would imagine now, after Mr. King’s long interview with Hitler, that anybody who was going to use this material against you is going to run into a boomerang.” A.P. Waldron to JGD, July 6, 1937, JGDP, II/7/97, 5526

71   R.L. Hanbidge to JGD, September 25, 1936, JGDP, II/3/38.4, 2903-04

72   JGD to R.L. Hanbidge, October 2, 1936, ibid., 2908-10

73   See, for example, JGD to Mr & Mrs William Roberts, Zealandia, October 21, 1936, ibid., 2924; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 209-13.

74   Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, October 29, 1936; see also Regina Leader Post, October 29, 1936; Daily Star, October 29, 1936.

75   Daily Star, October 29, 1936

76   J.F. Anderson to JGD, August 10, 1937, enclosing a copy of his letter to R.B. Bennett, JGDP, II/3/33.2, 1598-600

77   JGD to J.F. Anderson, August 11, 1937; copy, J. Earl Lawson, MP, to H.E. Keown, August 10, 1937, JGDP, II/3/33.2, 1601, 1604

78   Just after the election, Diefenbaker wrote to an Ontario MP: “I put in about seventeen months without any salary and am naturally very discouraged. I received no assistance from the East, other than generous personal help from Mr. Bennett.” Within days of the 1938 defeat, the provincial party office received a contribution of $5000 from Ottawa. JGD to Denton Massey, MP, June 19, 1938, JGDP, II/15/218, 11627-28; OC 1, 176

79   OC 1, 174. The deposits of twenty-two candidates cost Diefenbaker $2200. In a letter written in early April, Diefenbaker said: “I am hopeful that the Conservatives will have about 35 candidates in the field.”JGD to R.W. Ward, Edmonton, April 8, 1938, JGDP, II/1/1, 2

80   Smith, Prairie Liberalism, 233-43

81   Edmonton Journal, April 27, May 27, 1938; Today and Tomorrow 3, May 12, 1938; Helen Orpwood, “The Saskatchewan Election,” Canadian Forum, August 1938, 136-37; Free Press, May 17 and 19, 1938; OC 1, 174-76; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 217-21

82   Regina Leader Post, May 19, 1938, quoted in Smith, Prairie Liberalism, 239

83   Wilson, Diefenbaker, 217-22; OC 1, 173-77

84   Smith, Prairie Liberalism, 239-43; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 221; OC 1, 176

85   JGD to G.S. Thorvaldson, June 18, 1938,JGDP, II/1/23.2, 360-62

86   JGD to E.E. Perley, June 17, 1938, ibid., 343

87   Diefenbaker quickly and graciously acknowledged such indications of support. He had already taken note of the significance of Hnatyshyn’s commitment to the party when he wrote to E.E. Perley in February 1938 that Hnatyshyn “has done much to alter the antagonistic attitude towards the Conservative Party which has heretofore characterized the Ukrainian people in this Province.” JGD to E.E. Perley, MP, February 9, 1938; John Hnatyshyn to JGD, June 11, 1938; JGD to John Hnatyshyn, June 10 and June 18, 1938, ibid., 501, 10788-89, 10815

88   OC 1, 173-74; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 221; JGD to Alex H. Reed, December 9, 1938; JGD to J.H. Currie, June 6, August 30, 1939, JGDP, II/3/33.2, 1669-71, II/4/40, 3403, 3407

Chapter 4 Seats of the Mighty

1     OC 1, 177

2     Quoted in Holt, Other, 173. Holt also reports that Diefenbaker’s Prince Albert friend and political supporter Violet Chisholm recalled his expressed intention to leave politics after the 1938 defeat. Ibid., 174

3     These signs were evident to her maid Florence Pelletier and her niece Sheila Brower, among others. In his memoirs Diefenbaker notes only that “my wife was not well.” OC 1, 176-77

4     See Holt, Other, 175-83.

5     See JGD to Château Laurier, wire, June 17, 1938; Château Laurier to JGD, wire, June 17, 1938; JGD to R.F. Pratt, June 18, 1938; R.F. Pratt to JGD, June 20, 1938; JGD to J.R. MacNicol, June 20, 1938, JGDP, II/1/26, 354-55, 357, 359, 366.

6     J.R. MacNicol to JGD, June 21, 1938, ibid., 372

7     JGD to A.E. Whitmore, June 15 and June 22, 1938; JGD to M.A. MacPherson, June 22, 1938; JGD to Mrs W.M. Roberts, June 25, 1938; JGD to J.R. MacNicol, June 27, 1938; J.R. MacNicol to JGD, June 27, 1938; H.A. Stewart to JGD, June 27, 1938; JGD to H.A. Stewart, June 30, 1938; George McLean to JGD, June 28, 1938; JGD to George McLean, June 29, 1938, JGDP, ibid., 292-93, 375, 387, 373, 390-92, 401-03

8     The vote was Manion 830; MacPherson 648; Harris 49; Massey 39. Lawson had withdrawn after the first ballot. See Granatstein, Survival, 10-17; OC 1, 177-79; Courtney, Selection, 187-88.

9     E.E. Perley, MP, to JGD, May 12, 1939; Arthur Kendall to JGD, May 12, 1939; JGD to John R. Anderson, June 6, 1939, JGDP, II/1/26, 591-92, 599-600

10   George W. McLean and Mrs A.R. Robinson to JGD, nd; JGD to Mrs A.R. Robinson, June 6, 1939; W.B. Kelly to JGD, June 5, 1939; JGD to W.B. Kelly, June 8, 1939; JGD to John R. Anderson, June 6, 1939, ibid., 595-600

11   OC 1, 180-81

12   Saskatoon Phoenix, June 16, 1939; OC 1, 181-83; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 231-32; JGDI, August 14, 1969. Kelly, the president of the constituency association, perpetuated the local party’s historic link with the Ku Klux Klan. In the late 1920s he had been the Kligrapp (or branch president) of the Imperial unit of the Klan. Wilson, Diefenbaker, 231-32. He was Diefenbaker’s official agent during the 1940 campaign.

During the 1956 leadership contest, Diefenbaker gave a slightly different story of the nominating convention to the Toronto Globe and Mail: “Now, he recalls with feelings of dismay at the close call, that he had gone to Imperial just to thank the voters who had vainly cast their ballots for him in the provincial election. His late wife, Edna, was with him, quite pleased at the thought that politics was being relegated to the background in their life.” Globe and Mail, November 12, 1956. His arrival at a federal nominating convention, and his subsequent nomination, were entirely unexpected. Here was a double twist: Not only was the story of the accidental nomination fanciful but in 1956 he feigned dismay that if he had not made the trip to thank his constituents, he would not have become an MP, and by implication would not have been a candidate for the leadership. The fates were obviously with him. His mention of Edna’s feelings sustains the view that one reason for his show of reluctance was his need to persuade her to accept his continuing political career.

13   OC 1, 182-83; JGDI, August 14, 1969; and see, for example, copious correspondence and campaign materials in the file “Conservative Party: National - Organization, Lake Centre,” from June 16, 1939, to September 1, 1939, JGDP, II/1/27, 604-762.

14   OC 1, 179-80

15   E.E. Perley to JGD, June 23, 1939; Arthur Kendall to JGD, July 20, 1939; JGD to R.G. Manion, July 20, 1939, JGDP, II/1/27, 632, 687-88, 621

16   JGD to A.E. Whitmore, July 27, 1939; JGD to Major G. Dunn, August 29, 1939; J.M. Robb to JGD, September 16, 1939, JGDP, II/1/27, 543-45

17   Granatstein, Survival, 30-35

18   Diefenbaker was acting as respondent in the case on behalf of the crown in an action to compel officials and ministers to carry out the law for the benefit of subjects. After winning at trial and appeal, Diefenbaker lost the case in the Supreme Court on a split decision. E. Swain et al. v. R. Ex relatione Adolph Studer, (1941) Supreme Court Records 40; OC 1, 183

19   OC 1, 183-84

20   The case is recounted in Wilson, Diefenbaker, 232-48; OC 1, 183-84; Holt, Other, 186-90. See also the Prince Albert Herald and Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, October 6 and December 5, 1939, February 13-19, 1940; Prince Albert Herald, October 17, 1940; Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, October 18, 1940; R. v. Emele, (1940) 2 Western Weekly Reports, 545, 74 Canadian Criminal Cases 76 (Sask. CA).

21   Quoted in Wilson, Diefenbaker, 233

22   Ibid., 246

23   Diefenbaker dates the second trial incorrectly; it took place on October 16-17, 1940. OC 1, 184; Prince Albert Herald, October 17, 1940; Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, October 18, 1940; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 252-59

24   JGD to R.J. Manion, wire, January 29, 1940, JGDP, II/1/27, 549

25   The proposal for a coalition was made without notice at the Conservative caucus meeting on January 26, 1940, by Earl Rowe, MP. It received unanimous approval and was publicly announced by Manion immediately afterwards. This caucus also reaffirmed the party’s opposition to conscription for overseas service. Granatstein notes that, since the prospect of a winning alliance with Duplessis in Quebec was already gone, the decision “can only be interpreted, therefore, as reflecting a Conservative desire to maintain national unity and as a reaction to what was believed to be the mood of the electorate.” Granatstein, Survival, 42-47

26   OC 1, 184-92; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 249-52; JGD to W.B Scarth, April 4, 1940; JGD to G.S. Thorvaldson, April 4, 1940; JGDP, II/1/27, 563, 565

27   “John Diefenbaker,” mimeo, nd, JGDP, II/1/27, 804-05. Brownridge had joined the Diefenbaker office as an articling student, but his duties in 1939-40 were mostly political.

28   OC 1, 187-88; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 250-51

29   OC 1, 191-92; Wilson, Diefenbaker, 251-52; Holt, Other, 191-92

30   Mary F. Diefenbaker to JGD, April 1, 1940, JGDP, V/1, 543. Mary’s spelling, punctuation, and syntax have been left (in this and other letters) as in the originals, except that periods in the middle of sentences, where the sense seems to indicate, have been replaced by commas.

31   William T. Diefenbaker to JGD, April 1, 1940, JGDP, V/1, 55-60

32   Keegan, The Second World War, 64-81

33   James Sinclair’s recollections of the meeting are recounted in Holt, Other, 192-93.

34   Quoted ibid., 193

35   Ibid., 194-95

36   Interview with Clyne Harradence, November 3, 1991. According to Harradence, who packed the boxes in Prince Albert in the 1950s, Diefenbaker left most of the files untouched both in Prince Albert and Ottawa.

37   Nicholson, Vision, 28

38   Ibid.

39   R.A. Bell to JGD, March 29, 1940, JGDP, III, 305

40   J.M. Robb to JGD, March 28, 1940, ibid., 555

41   JGD to Mary F. Diefenbaker, April 2, 1940, JGDP, V/1, 304

42   Mary F. Diefenbaker to JGD, April 10, 1940, ibid., 311-12

43   Ottawa Evening Citizen, May 13 and 14, 1940

44   JGD to Mary F. Diefenbaker, May 15, 1940, JGDP, V/1, 316-A-B-C

45   Mary F. Diefenbaker to JGD, May 24, 1940, ibid., 317-19. The reference to “hunks” is garbled. “Bohunk” was an insulting western Canadian epithet for Poles or Slavs, undoubtedly familiar to Mary Diefenbaker. But in this context it is confusing and seems to mean “Huns,” the common pejorative term for the German enemy. The Grits were the Liberal enemy. William Diefenbaker might have cringed at his wife’s references to the “cruel, bloodthirsty nation” of his ancestors, who would get what was coming to them in the end. If her comments reflected a deeper attitude, as the letters suggest, they may help to explain John’s unusual sensitivity over his German surname.

46   OC 1, 193-94

47   Evening Citizen, June 13, 1940

48   House of Commons, Debates, May 27, 1940, 238-39; OC 1, 220-21

49   “Report to the House,” Special Committee on the Defence of Canada Regulations, August 1, 1940, JGDP, III/89, 72083-91. In the cabinet reorganization that followed the death of Norman Rogers, Ilsley become minister of finance on July 8, 1940.

50   OC 1, 195. In the memoirs Diefenbaker does not mention the content of the speech.

51   Debates, June 13, 1940, 748-51

52   The Liberal member for Parry Sound, Arthur Slaght, another nominee to the special committee, also spoke in favour of the death penalty for spies and saboteurs. Evening Citizen, June 13, 1940; “Report to the House,” Special Committee on the Defence of Canada Regulations, August 1, 1940, JGDP, III/89, 72083; “An Act Respecting Treachery,” typewritten draft, containing handwritten comments and amendments in Diefenbaker’s hand, ibid., 71956-63. Diefenbaker spoke in the House in the bill’s support. Debates, July 25, 1940, 1938-40

53   Granatstein, Survival, 58-62; Granatstein, Canada’s War, 98-99; Pickersgill, Mackenzie King Record 1, 102

54   For Diefenbaker’s comments on the House of Commons and its members during the 1940s, see OC 1, 193-272.

55   Debates, February 28, 1941, 1141. In their leaderless and discouraged condition, Conservative MPs even canvassed the possibility of Bennett’s resurrection as party leader. H.A. Bruce wrote twice to Bennett in the autumn of 1940, seeking his agreement to return and noting that George McCullagh, publisher of the Globe and Mail, believed that Bennett was “the one man to strike terror in the heart of Mackenzie King.” Bruce gave up his quest after Lord Beaverbrook told him in January 1941 that Bennett “has settled down in England and made his home in its countryside. And there he means to abide.” H.A. Bruce to Rt Hon. R.B. Bennett, December 6, 1940; Beaverbrook to H.A. Bruce, January 4, 1941, Bruce Papers

56   See, for example, his contribution to the debate on the throne speech, Debates, November 19, 1940, 224-29. One of his views - in favour of the death penalty for treason - was consistent with his wartime patriotism and anxiety over subversion, but perhaps surprising in light of his later opposition to the death penalty. See the Debates, July 25, 1940, 1938-40.

57   Ibid., January 30, 1942, 180-87

58   Ibid., February 25, 1942, 835-39

59   For Diefenbaker’s speech on amendment of the Mobilization Act to permit, but not to require, compulsory overseas service, see ibid., June 15, 1942, 3329-35.

60   Ibid., July 2, 1942, 3888

61   Ibid., July 2, 1942, 3888-91

62   OC 1, 197

63   Ibid., 199-200. As happens frequently in the memoirs, Diefenbaker personalizes this encounter. But H.A. Bruce reported the outburst, second hand, to Beaverbrook as though it had been an attack on Hanson, or the Conservative caucus, rather than on Diefenbaker: “One day at a private meeting arranged between Mr. Hanson and two of his colleagues with King and four of his Cabinet … he suddenly got into a rage and shouted hysterically, almost in tears - ‘You are always talking about Churchill - What has he done that I have not done. I trust in God, follow my conscience and work day and night,’ and ended by saying, ‘I hate you Hanson, I hate you.’ It is only fair to say that some of his colleagues who were present were heartily ashamed of his exhibition of temper and petulance.” H.A. Bruce to Beaverbrook, June 25, 1941, Bruce Papers

64   OC 1, 200

65   Ibid., 207

66   Ibid., 6, 208. This was a family story told to John by his mother. In the memoirs Diefenbaker refers to the loyal soldier both as his grandfather and his great-grandfather.

67   Pickersgill, Mackenzie King Record 1, 405-06

68   OC 1, 208; Debates, 4782-89

69   Mary F. Diefenbaker to JGD, March 22, 1941,JGDP, V/1, 199-203

70   William T. Diefenbaker to JGD, March 27, 1941, ibid., 82-86

71   William T. Diefenbaker to JGD, March 20, 1941, ibid., 80

72   William T. Diefenbaker to JGD, May 13, 1942, ibid., 356-61

73   Mary F. Diefenbaker to JGD, May 15, 1942, ibid., 367-68

74   Granatstein, Survival, 68-69

75   Ibid., 70-72

76   See Graham, No Surrender, 95

77   Granatstein, Survival, 73-81. Meighen’s words are from a letter to Murdoch MacPherson, August 7, 1941.

78   Graham, No Surrender, 97-107; OC 1, 249-50; Granatstein, Survival, 82-96; JGDI, November 14, 1969

79   Pickersgill, Mackenzie King Record 1, 277-78

80   For the York South campaign, see especially Graham, No Surrender, 107-31; Granatstein, Survival, 94-112.

81   Pickersgill, Mackenzie King Record 1, 348

82   Quoted in OC 7, 251. King’s statement does not appear in the House of Commons Debates. But at one point during the evening session the Speaker commented, “There should be less conversation in the chamber … I ask hon. members to refrain,” to which the MP then addressing the House responded: “Apparently the election returns are on the minds of all hon. members rather than what I am trying to say.” As a matter of course, the Debates did not record parliamentary banter. It could be that King said something like this; or perhaps Diefenbaker’s reference in his memoirs is based on King’s own entry in his diary, as it appeared in the Mackenzie King Record. See the Debates, February 9, 1942, 425.

83   Diefenbaker’s emerging vision was reflected later that year in his address accepting nomination at the party’s leadership convention in Winnipeg.

84   Granatstein, Survival, 114-15; Graham, No Surrender, 132

85   Debates, June 10, 1942, 3244; July 2, 1942, 3329-35; Granatstein, Survival, 115-19

86   Granatstein, Survival, 119-25

87   For a detailed account of the conference’s background, genesis, and proceedings, see ibid., 125-35.

88   Ibid., 134

89   Meighen to H.R. Milner, October 17, 1942, quoted in Granatstein, Survival, 135

90   Ibid., 136-37

91   The insight about Meighen’s purpose is that of Roger Graham in his No Surrender, 139.

92   Meighen to Bracken, November 17, 1942, quoted ibid., 142

93   Ibid., 144

94   David J. Walker to JGD, October 10, 1942, JGDP, III/72, 58535

95   “George McG” to JGD, November 20, 1942, ibid., 58546-53

96   Ottawa Citizen, December 8, 1942. The editor of the Winnipeg Free Press, John W. Dafoe, reported his account of the fix (as told to him “right from the horse’s mouth”) in a letter to his Ottawa correspondent Grant Dexter. In his telling, the arrangement involved the withdrawal of Murdoch MacPherson’s candidacy but not those of Diefenbaker and Green, who “wd be allowed to submit their names but the machine wd see to it that their votes did not amount to anything … My informant tells me they think the thing is as good as settled, saving the remote possibility of a blow-up at the convention. Meighen has figured out that there will not be time to organize a bolt, as the delegates will arrive uninformed and will be taken into camp by the managers.” According to Dafoe, MacPherson was furious about this prearrangement. He subsequently decided to repudiate it and accept nomination. J.W. Dafoe to Grant Dexter, November 28, 1942, Dexter Papers

97   “George” to JGD, Monday (undated), JGDP, III/72, 58502-05

98   Granatstein, Survival, 144-46

99   Diefenbaker’s account recalls that David Walker’s remarks were spontaneous and that his words were: “What are you doing here? You’re not a Conservative. You’re just like the camel who got into the Arab’s tent,” and to the audience: “You can boo. You don’t bother me.” OC 1, 254. Walker’s doubts about Diefenbaker’s candidacy meant that he came to Winnipeg prepared to nominate Sidney Smith for the leadership. He remained ready to do so until the last-minute nomination of Bracken, and Smith’s decision not to contest it. The description of Howard Green’s collapse is by Evelyn S. Tufts, quoted in Granatstein, Survival, 147-48. See also Graham, No Surrender, 149-50; Newman, Renegade, 58-59; JGDI, June 27, August 14, 1969.

100 The first quotation is from Evelyn S. Tufts, quoted in Granatstein, Survival, 148; the second is from Newman, Renegade, 59.

101 Convention address (mimeographed),JGDP, III/72, 58506-23

102 Granatstein, Survival, 148-50; Graham, No Surrender, 150-51

103 He said in 1969: “Of course there never was any chance for me being elected. I had no campaign in forty-two whatever. I just turned up, and I had a lot of votes! “JGDI, June 27, 1969

104 But Diefenbaker was lukewarm about the change of party name, which he believed unnecessary - or perhaps irrelevant. He noted that it had previously called itself the Liberal-Conservative Party, the National Liberal-Conservative Party, and the Conservative Party -until 1940, when it campaigned as the National Government Party. “I have always,” he wrote, preferred the name Conservative.” JGDI, June 27, December 11, 1969; Leonard W. Fraser to JGD, December 16, 1942, Donald M. Fleming to JGD, December 18, 1942, JGDP, III/72, 58636-37; OC 1, 254-55

105 OC 1, 254

106 Granatstein, Survival, 153-55; OC 1, 256-57; Pickersgill, Mackenzie King Record 1, 477

107 OC 1, 257. Granatstein writes that “the results of this informal poll are unknown.” Granatstein, Survival, 154

108 JGDI, August 14, 1969. Diefenbaker suggested that Earl Rowe was the leader of “that group from Toronto” who opposed him. He told this story in the aftermath of his 1967 leadership defeat, which may add to its sardonic tone. As with his other defeats, he rationalized this one in retrospect by suggesting that success would mean that “King would have walked all over me,” presumably crushing his prospects for the permanent leadership. In his memoirs he told the same story in somewhat less detail, noting similarly that “Fate moves in its peculiar way.” OC 1, 258. His claim to have displayed his vote for Graydon was substantiated by Rodney Adamson, who wrote in his diary that evening: “At 8.30 Caucus reconvenes and Gordon is chosen leader by one vote over John Diefenbaker. John voted for Gordon and Gordon voted for himself. This is a swell situation.” Rodney Adamson, Diary, January 27, 1943, Adamson Papers; also quoted in Granatstein, Survival, 155

109 See, for example, Mary F. Diefenbaker to JGD, “Just a line to let you know that everything is O.K. only we cant get anything done. The garden is not plowed yet, and the storm windows are still on, and the big man of the house sits on his back bone and wonders, waiting for some one to come and begg to have the work to do. he just sits looking at his hands and saying over and over, my hands has been so bad, so bad. he is going to see the Dr today, and for the life of me I cant see there is anything to trouble about”; also Mary F. Diefenbaker to JGD, March 19 and June 20 (no year), JGDP, V/1, 160-62, 174-76, 189-91.

110 William T. Diefenbaker to JGD, March 14, 1944, ibid., 118-23

111 Mary F. Diefenbaker to JGD, March 19 (no year), ibid., 189-91

112 Mary F. Diefenbaker to JGD, April 19, 1944, ibid., 391-93

113 Mary F. Diefenbaker to JGD, May 2 (1944), ibid., 394-96

114 JGD to Elmer Diefenbaker, May 5, 1944, JGDP, V/3, 1456. The incident is also described in Robertson, More, 236-37.

115 Incomplete traces of this incident, and of Elmer’s military career, appear in the Diefenbaker Papers, but there are no references to it in any remaining correspondence from either John or Elmer Diefenbaker. In 1946 Elmer was granted a 5 percent disability pension for partial deafness, which was increased in 1964 to a rate of 30 percent disability ($54 per month) and in 1966 to 40 percent (or $80 per month). The previous pattern of John’s care for Elmer suggests that he acted for Elmer in seeking the pension. JGDP, V/43, 28796-945

116 “Certified Copy of Registration of Death,” March 22, 1945, JGDP, V/14, 9309

117 What follows is based upon evidence in the Diefenbaker Papers, the Adamson Papers, the Bruce Papers, Holt, Other, and Robertson, More.

118 See, for example, Mary F. Diefenbaker to JGD, February 8 [1942], in which she comments: “Glad to hear Edna was feeling so much better.” JGDP, V/1, 326-30

119 In February 1941, for example, their mutual friend and fellow MP Rodney Adamson recorded in his diary that “Mrs. Diefenbaker is soothed down over dinner at Government House.” Diary, February 19, 1943, Adamson Papers

120 Sheila Brower told Holt that Diefenbaker could not distinguish green from brown, and thus needed help coordinating the colours of his clothing. Holt, Other, 249; Robertson, More, 236

121 See Holt, Other, 183-84

122 Diary, May 13, 1942, Adamson Papers. Adamson recorded the intimacies of his own life in the diary with unusual frankness; he was one of the Diefenbakers’ close friends and seemed to have no conceivable reason for commenting inaccurately about what Edna told him.

123 Ibid., May 21, 1943

124 Ibid., February 7, 1944

125 This episode is related in Holt, Other, 242-50. It is based on Holt’s interviews with Sheila Brower, Priscilla McCloy, Virginia O’Brien, and Dorothy Fraser.

126 Ibid., 250-51. Clyne Harradence also mentions this incident in his oral history interview for the Diefenbaker Centre. JGDP, XVIII/OH/45, November 17, 1985

127 Howland’s first letter in the Diefenbaker files is dated July 10, 1945, but he begins it by commenting that “I think we are becoming regular correspondents.” A telegram and a second letter remain, dated respectively in July 1945 and on February 27, 1946. According to Holt, Diefenbaker’s secretary in Prince Albert received correspondence in the office about Edna’s illness in this period, and recalls that Diefenbaker sometimes destroyed such letters. JGDP, V/10, 9139-40, 9145; Holt, Other, 256-63

128 Dr Goldwin W. Howland to JGD, July 10, 1945, JGDP, V/10, 9140. In this letter Howland does not offer a diagnosis, but in a letter of February 1946 he writes of “an extreme case of an obsession.” The electroconvulsive therapy she received in that month - a short series of five treatments - suggested a diagnosis of mild rather than severe depression, or some other relatively mild mental condition. It is not clear from the available record why Howland described this as one of his “hardest cases.” Dr Goldwin W. Howland to JGD, February 27, 1946, ibid., 9145

129 See below, Edna to JGD (undated), from Homewood Sanitarium.

130 JGD to Edna Diefenbaker, April 25, 1945, JGDP, V/10, 7076. Newsreels of the audience at the opening ceremony show Diefenbaker in the audience, glowing in self-awareness.

131 Goldwin W. Howland to JGD, July 10, 1945, JGDP, V/10, 9140

132 Diefenbaker was apparently planning to see Edna soon after this letter, but later in the month Howland wired him to suggest that he should postpone a visit until August 1. Telegram, Dr Goldwin W. Howland to JGD, July 20, 1945, JGDP, V/10, 9139

133 Wilson, Diefenbaker, 172

134 Dr Goldwin W. Howland to JGD, July 10, 1945, JGDP, V/10, 9140

135 Electro shock therapy, or electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), was a controversial treatment for a range of mental disorders including schizophrenia and depression, introduced in Italy in 1938 and widely practised in North America by the mid-1940s. The treatment consisted of short bursts of electric current applied through electrodes on the temples to induce convulsions. Patients were given muscle relaxants and anesthetized before treatment. They suffered varying degrees of memory loss, but usually recovered memory over time. ECT was used in varying clinical circumstances and without generally accepted controls, more frequently in private psychiatric hospitals than in public ones. The records of its success tended at this time to be anecdotal and impressionist rather than scientific. There were immediate and continuing questions over its long-term effects, both beneficial and damaging, and over the ethics involved in its use. Since its physical effects were unknown, and its psychological effects unpredictable, the use of ECT on humans was, in effect, a dubious form of experimentation. The practice later came under intensive critical study among psychiatrists. By the 1970s, despite more limited and controlled application, it remained a subject of professional controversy. See, for example, Electroconvulsive Therapy: Task Force Report 14 (American Psychiatric Association, September 1978); Peter Roger Breggin, Electro-Shock: Its Brain-Disabling Effects.

136 Edna Diefenbaker to JGD (undated), JGDP, V/10, 7077-85

137 Bruce makes reference to Edna’s illness and her presence at Guelph in letters to Diefenbaker on January 10, February 21, and April 5, 1946. The originals do not appear in the Diefenbaker Papers, but copies can be found in the Bruce Papers. Bruce’s interest was prompted both by his friendship with Diefenbaker and by his role as an informal medical adviser.

138 Dr Goldwin W. Howland to JGD, February 27, 1946; The Homewood Sanitarium to JGD, March 31, 1946, JGDP, V/10, 9145, 9151; H.A. Bruce to JGD, April 5, 1946; H.A. Bruce to Miss Gladys Dudley, April 10, 1946, Bruce Papers; Holt, Other, 261. The Diefenbaker Papers do not reveal who authorized the use of ECT, or even whether specific consent was sought. Edna’s letter (quoted above) seems to suggest her willingness to receive shock therapy as a means of escaping from hospital. Dr Howland wrote in February 1946 that “she is getting her own way” in receiving the treatments, but added that “I, personally, am pleased she is going to take them … the main hope is in shock treatment.” The treatment was bound to be frightening for the patient, and probably a matter of confusion for a medical layman like her husband.

The accounts for Edna’s six months in Homewood Sanitarium amounted to $8.50 per day for regular care and treatment, plus sundry personal expenses, plus $37.50 for electro shock treatment. At an estimated $300 per month, the bills reached close to $2000.

139 Dr Glen Green, JGDP, XVIII/OH/37, February 20, 1986

140 The McGregor quotation is from Holt, Other, 265-66.

Chapter 5 New Name, Old Party

1     Diefenbaker had known Bracken since his own first year at the University of Saskatchewan in 1912, when Bracken had joined the faculty briefly as professor of field husbandry. Diefenbaker recalled in his memoirs: “I followed his career. I watched him on the stump; he had an amazing capacity for meeting people. I do not think I have ever known anyone more effective with a farm audience. He understood their problems, and the farmers knew it. No one in public life knew more about agriculture, both theoretical and practical. John Bracken was a man of good character; his word was his bond. He was also blessed with a wonderful wife who ably assisted him through his years of public service.” OC 1, 256. But privately, in retrospect, Diefenbaker’s memories were less generous, hinting at a long memory of grievance from the period of Bracken’s choice as leader.

2     The occasion referred to was apparently at Manitou Beach, Watrous, on August 7, 1943. In the memoirs Diefenbaker mistakenly identifies the location as “a small town between Regina and Moose Jaw.” The meeting was widely advertised, but there seemed to be no newspaper reports of the incident. OC 1, 256; M.L. Hargreaves to JGD, August 26, 1943, and enclosures, JGDP, III/13/147, 9139-43

3     Pickersgill, Mackenzie King Record 1, 478

4     Granatstein, Survival, 155-58

5     Ibid., 165-67. The members of the proposed national organization committee were to be Henry Borden as chairman, J.H. Gundy (who was already Bracken’s finance chairman), E.W. Bickle (Drew’s fundraiser), James S. Duncan, Alex McKenzie (Drew’s chief organizer), and Richard Bell.

6     Richard Bell, “Problems of Organization,” nd [1944], quoted in Granatstein, Survival, 159

7     Pickersgill, Mackenzie King Record 1, 564-603, 630-36; Granatstein, Survival, 163-65; Granatstein, Canada’s War, 249-93

8     Granatstein, Canada’s War, 276

9     House of Commons, Debates, February 4, 1944, 188

10   OC 1, 152-53

11   Diary, July 26, 1944, Adamson Papers

12   Debates, July 27, 1944, 5460

13   Diary, July 27, 1944, Adamson Papers

14   Herbert Bruce’s comment about a bribe was judged unparliamentary by the Speaker, and when Bruce refused to withdraw the charge, he was named and suspended from the House for the day. Debates, July 31, 1944, 5677; H.A. Bruce to Gordon Graydon, July 20, 1944, Bruce Papers; Toronto Globe and Mail, August 10, 1944; Granatstein, Survival, 169

15   Debates, July 28, 1944, 5527-28

16   Quoted in Granatstein, Survival, 173

17   Debates, February 10, 1944, 365

18   Ibid., July 10, 1944, 4668

19   Granatstein, Survival, 177-78

20   Diary, July 24, 1944, Adamson Papers

21   Debates, July 10, 1944, 4672-73. Diefenbaker’s speech appears in the Debates, July 10, 1944, 4667-72.

22   Ibid., July 10, 1944, 4673

23   The complex story of the conscription crisis is told, inter alia, in Dawson, Conscription; Stacey, Arms; Ward, Party Politician; Pickersgill and Forster, Mackenzie King Record 2.

24   Ward, Party Politician, 170

25   Debates, November 23 and December 5, 1944, 6539-43, 6805-10. Diefenbaker shared the party’s view that conscription should apply to Pacific as well as European service. But by the time of the June 1945 general election, with the European war at an end, his keenness on compulsory assignment in the Pacific theatre had cooled to match the sentiments of prairie voters. He wrote in his memoirs that 7000 envelopes containing “highly decorative literature for distribution in my constituency,” calling for the transfer of Canada’s European forces to the Pacific, were summarily destroyed as soon as he had read the message. OC 1, 258-59

26   Granatstein, Survival, 183-84; Canada’s War, 389-94

27   Granatstein, Canada’s War, 404

28   Mackenzie King to the People, 126, quoted in Granatstein, Canada’s War, 408

29   Quoted in Williams, Conservative Party, 169

30   Quoted in Granatstein, Canada’s War, 405

31   Some of his campaign material mentions that he had seconded a House motion to make all home service conscripts available for Pacific service. OC 1, 258-59; JGDI, August 14, 1969; Typescript, “May I review some salient matters …” undated, JGDP, III/45/498, 35395

32   A handwritten memo on “the Elbow Dam,” apparently in Elmer’s handwriting, proposes a slightly different slogan: “It will be a dam site surer and sooner, if you re-elect John Diefenbaker.” OC 1, 260-61; JGDI, August 14, 1969; Memo, “Publish an elaborate pamphlet …” undated, JGDP, III/84/1048, 67001-04

33   Diefenbaker received financial support for his campaign from his friends David Walker and Bill Brunt in Toronto and Mickey O’Brien in Vancouver. Walker was especially helpful, providing a cheque for $1000 and covering the cost of Diefenbaker’s recorded radio addresses. J.F. Anderson to JGD, May 21, 1945; “List of meetings to be held week of May 28th, 1945”; “Week of June 4th/45”; Notice of radio addresses, May-June 1945; David J. Walker to JGD, May 31, 1945; Memo, “Cheques handed by Mr. Diefenbaker to his Official Agent, August 3, 1945,” JGDP, III/45/498, 35408-09, 35424, 35434, 35401, 35426, 35439

34   Pickersgill and Forster, Mackenzie King Record 2, 399

35   OC 1, 263

36   Public Opinion Quarterly 9 (summer 1945): 234

37   Williams, Conservative Party, 169-70, 199; Granatstein, Canada’s War, 409-10; OC 1, 260-63

38   OC 1, 263

39   Fleming, Near 1, 107-08, 111-12, 135. Fleming himself was a vain and ambitious MP, but he was also an accurate witness who could honestly report in his memoirs that caucus members described him as an “Eager Beaver” because of his capacity for work and his tenacity in debate.

40   Fulton interview, September 24, 1993

41   See my Diplomacy, 129-30.

42   Pickersgill, Mackenzie King Record 3, 136. These events are treated at length in the King diaries and in my Diplomacy, 94-136.

43   Debates, March 21, 1946, 135-40

44   Ibid., March 21, 1946, 137-38

45   Pickersgill, Mackenzie King Record 3, 156-57; Smith, Diplomacy, 135

46   Debates, April 2, 1946, 510-11. The bill was the product of a compromise in the Liberal cabinet, fashioned by Mackenzie King and Paul Martin, which established Canadian citizenship but maintained that “a Canadian citizen is a British subject.” That offended some nationalists, both French- and English-speaking, but was necessary to assure the support of many Liberals. Diefenbaker criticized the bill for requiring that British and Commonwealth immigrants would have to apply for citizenship through citizenship courts like all other immigrants, and Martin subsequently altered the draft to allow British subjects to file directly for citizenship with the secretary of state. See Martin, Very Public 1, 445-53.

47   Debates, April 2, 1946, 511. Diefenbaker’s phrase, “unhyphenated Canadians,” probably had an American source as well. Decades before, Woodrow Wilson had attacked immigrants as “hyphenated Americans”; and in the 1920 presidential campaign, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, Franklin Roosevelt, had appealed to xenophobic voters with the claim that his party wanted “all-American votes only.” Roosevelt’s family was already long enough established in America to remove him from the hyphenated class. See Cook, Eleanor Roosevelt 1, 280.

48   Debates, May 3, 1946, 1177. Despite suggestions in his memoirs that he had been an advocate of the Japanese Canadians in the House during their wartime internment, this appears to be the first parliamentary reference Diefenbaker made to their plight. His postwar intervention was less troublesome in caucus than it would have been in wartime, when west coast MPs were fanatically committed to expulsion and internment; but Diefenbaker was careful to limit his protest at this time to the government’s attempt to arrange deportations. Nevertheless, even in 1946 members of the Conservative caucus from British Columbia, including Davie Fulton, took a less critical position.

49   Debates, May 6, 1946, 1310-14

50   Ibid., May 6, 1946, 1311; Martin, Very Public 1, 450-51

51   Debates, May 6, 1946, 1311-12

52   Globe and Mail, May 10, 1946; Winnipeg Free Press, May 20, 1946; Martin, Very Public 1, 448-51. Diefenbaker persisted at third reading of the citizenship bill by seeking to attach another amendment requiring a House of Commons resolution favouring a bill of rights, to be examined by a select committee “properly representative of the entire population of Canada.” The proposed amendment was ruled out of order by the Speaker, a ruling sustained on Diefenbaker’s appeal to the House. Debates, May 16, 1946, 1575-79

53   See Berger, Fragile Freedoms, 170-75.

54   Debates, May 16, 1947, 3148-49

55   Ibid., May 16, 1947, 3149-59

56   Ibid., 3158-59

57   “The Week on Parliament Hill,” May 20, 1947, JGDP, III/66, 52755-56

58   Elmer Diefenbaker to JGD, May 24, 1947, JGDP, III/3/29.5, 1472-76, esp. 1472-73. Elmer continued the letter with a three-page description of his latest venture as salesman for a pipe with a built-in lighter, previously unknown in Saskatchewan. “Once it catches on it will move,” he assured John, although “I went out with it yesterday but had trouble making appointments, but those who saw it really talked.” He was also selling wagons and kiddy cars, thanks to an agency arranged by Bill Brunt which “has great possibilities.”

59   JGD to Glen How, July 14, 1947; JGD to H.R. Harrison, August 5, 1947, JGDP, III/3/29.5, 1558, 1556; Belliveau, “Diefenbaker,” 51-55

60   The committee did, however, recommend that the existing limitation on appeals to the Supreme Court of Canada requiring that cases must involve monetary disputes should be removed. Diefenbaker believed that this change would mean that the “need for a bill of rights while not remote would be materially reduced.”JGD to H.R. Harrison, August 29, 1952, JGDP, III/4/29.11, 2366; Belliveau, “Diefenbaker,” 54-55

61   These included A.R.M. Lower, F.R. Scott, and Eugene Forsey. They differed, however, over whether a federal statute would be sufficient, and whether it would apply to provincial as well as federal actions.

62   Belliveau, “Diefenbaker,” 59. This is the form that Diefenbaker’s bill took, when it became law ten years later.

63   Debates, July 10, 1946, 3328-29

64   Ibid., 3328

65   OC 1, 240-47

66   See Ward and Smith, Gardiner, 284-86.

67   OC 1, 261-2. Diefenbaker mistakenly suggests that Gardiner was responsible for a small revision of constituency boundaries before the 1945 general election, intended to ensure his defeat in that election. But that change actually occurred as part of the major readjustment of 1947, described by Diefenbaker as a “Jimmymander.”

68   Boundary adjustments were also made, it appeared, to reduce electoral prospects for four other prominent Conservatives: Davie Fulton in British Columbia, John Bracken in Manitoba, J.M. Macdonnell in Ontario, and George Black in the Yukon. Black did not contest the 1949 election, while Bracken and Macdonnell were defeated.

69   Debates, July 14, 1947, 5598-99

70   Ibid., July 15, 1947, 5667

71   Ibid., 5669-70. Diefenbaker was defensive when asked why he had signed the subcommittee report recommending the boundary changes. “There is a fine question,” he replied, “I have heard that before. It was once raised as a defence by a highwayman who stuck a gun into the face of a victim and said, ‘Your money or your life’; and then afterwards said, when charged, ‘Why did he consent?’ ” The subcommittee, he suggested, had responded to some of his complaints and threatened that it would revert to the original scheme if he did not sign; so he did. Ibid., July 14, 15, 1947, 5600, 5646-47, 5664-67

72   The Conservatives had conducted their own gerrymander in 1932, as Diefenbaker pointed out, when Mackenzie King’s Prince Albert boundaries had been altered by the Conservative majority. King had pleaded with Prime Minister Bennett for fairness then, just as Diefenbaker did with King now. Ibid., July 15, 1947, 5643-45, 5667-69

73   Holt heard the account of Diefenbaker’s apology from Walter Tucker. Holt, Other, 279

74   OC 1, 262

75   See, for example, Hugh C. Farthing to H.A. Bruce, July 29, 1948; H.A. Bruce to Hugh C. Farthing, August 10, 1948, Bruce Papers. On Bracken’s decision to resign, see also Perlin, Tory Syndrome, 64; Fraser, “Blair Fraser Reports”, 14-16.

76   JGD to David J. Walker, July 13, 1948, JGDP, III/72, 58673-74. Diefenbaker’s isolation in the caucus is reflected in this comment. He seemed to know nothing of the advice to retire then being offered to Bracken by Davie Fulton, Richard Bell, and J.M. Macdonnell. See Fraser, “ Blair Fraser Reports ”, 14-16.

77   JGD to M.J. O’Brien, July 23, 1948; JGD to David Walker, August 4, 1948, JGDP, III/73, 58699, 58722

78   JGD to David Walker, August 28, 1948, ibid., 58843

79   JGD to J.F. Anderson, September 16, 1948, ibid., 58996

80   JGD to J.F. Anderson, September 16, 1948, ibid., 58996; Hugh C. Farthing to H.A. Bruce, September 10, 1948, Bruce Papers

81   JGD to J.F. Anderson, July 30, 1948, JGDP, III/73, 58717

82   Hugh C. Farthing to H.A. Bruce, September 10, 1948, Bruce Papers

83   David Walker to JGD, August 13, 1948, JGDP, III/75, 60565

84   Globe and Mail, September 11, 1948. Parliament had recently adopted the Combines Investigation Act, which Diefenbaker had criticized for what he saw as its excessively lenient penalties for corporate lawbreakers.

85   Toronto Star, August 31, 1948

86   Globe and Mail, September 14, 1948

87   Toronto Star, September 21, 1948

88   Globe and Mail, September 18, 1948

89   Ibid.

90   R.J. Gratrix to W.R. Brunt, August 31, 1948; JGD to Mary F. Diefenbaker, September 17, 1948, JGDP, III/73, 58890; V, 419-20

91   David J. Walker, quoted in the Toronto Star, September 17, 1948

92   Globe and Mail, September 18, 1948. In the following days there were press reports that two pro-Diefenbaker delegates had been omitted from the Ontario list of delegates-at-large. But Diefenbaker himself took the high road and “dissociated himself from charges that the convention was being ‘fixed.’ ” Globe and Mail, September 20, 1948. In retrospect, Diefenbaker charged that the national director of the party, Richard Bell, had acted improperly in selecting delegates-at-large: “His attitude to me in the forty-eight convention in the choice of delegates was just unbelievable, totally biased, prejudiced and without any compunction as to the need of maintaining reasonable fairness.” JGDI, August 14, 1969. In his memoirs, Diefenbaker suggested that the convention organizers were “one hundred per cent dedicated to ensuring that Drew would be the Leader,” and that delegates-at-large were selected solely to assure Drew’s victory. “Anyone suspected of supporting me was removed from the list of authorized delegates-at-large. For that purpose, there were people stationed outside my hotel suite taking down the names of my visitors. This created needless bad feelings between my supporters and Drew’s.” OC 1, 267. There were 311 delegates-at-large, 237 ex officio delegates, and 765 riding delegates named to the convention. “Proposed Rules for the Conduct of the Election of Leader - Progressive Conservative National Convention – 1948,” JGDP, III/73, 59540-43

93   Toronto Star, September 24, 1948; Ottawa Citizen, October 1, 1948

94   Toronto Star, September 29, 30, 1948

95   Ibid., September 25, 1948

96   Ibid., September 29, 1948

97   Nellie L. McClung to JGD, September 22, 1948. Diefenbaker replied that he was “deeply honoured” by her letter. JGDP, III/73, 59054-55

98   A.R.M. Lower to JGD, September 29, 1948, ibid., 59125

99   J.B. McGeachy, “PCs in Convention,” Globe and Mail, October 1, 1948

100 Ottawa Citizen, October 1, 1948

101 Ibid.

102 Globe and Mail, October 1, 1948; Winnipeg Tribune, October 1, 1948

103 Tribune, Globe and Mail, Citizen, October 2, 1948

104 Citizen, October 2, 1948. The information that Diefenbaker’s ancestry was Dutch rather than German apparently came from Diefenbaker himself. He might equally have taken Mr Dooley’s advice to call himself Anglo-Saxon: “An Anglo-Saxon is a German that’s forgot who was his parents.” See Moynihan, Pandaemonium, 12. The Dutch label (as in “Pennsylvania Dutch,” who were German in origin) was an ingenious means of dealing with what was still a political liability in Canada: a name that was neither British nor French. The Dutch, who were heroic allies to Canada during the war and already popular postwar immigrants, were surely next best in the Canadian ratings.

105 Tribune and Citizen, October 2, 1948

106 The convention had voted in favour of outlawing the party.

107 Citizen, October 2, 1948

108 Ibid.

109 Tribune, October 4, 1948

110 Citizen, October 4, 1948

111 Ibid.

112 OC 1, 268. Diefenbaker failed to say that this coolness might have been a response to his own display of pique at the convention. According to Donald Fleming, “Diefenbaker and his wife made a conspicuous departure from the platform in very bad taste soon after the result of the balloting was announced.” Fleming, Near 1, 148

113 Paul Martin to JGD, October 7, 1948, JGDP, III/73, 59294

114 Bill Archer to JGD, October 7, 1948, ibid., 59290-91

115 Davie Fulton to JGD, October 7, 1948, ibid., 59284-87

116 Davie Fulton to JGD, October 7, 1948, ibid., 59282-83

117 G.S. Thorvaldson to David J. Walker, October 6, 1948, ibid.

118 JGD to Bill Archer, October 14, 1948; JGD to A.R.M. Lower, October 8, 1948, ibid., 59292, 59126

119 JGD to Jack Anderson, October 7, 1948, ibid. These figures suggest that Diefenbaker was hoping for something close to a dead heat between himself and Drew on the first ballot, and the need for a second ballot after the elimination of Fleming on the first.

120 Globe and Mail, October 8, 1948

121 JGD to the editor, Globe and Mail, October 15, 1948

122 See, for example, Graham, Frost, 135-37. Drew entered the House through a by-election in the Ottawa region constituency of Carleton on December 13, 1948. At least one Conservative friend of Diefenbaker referred to Drew privately as “Georgie Porgie.” Evelene Blakely to Edna Diefenbaker, July 12, 1949, JGDP, V/53, 34153

123 Grant Dexter, Mr. Drew in Action, quoted in Williams, Conservative Party, 212

124 Fleming, Near 1, 172

125 Bothwell et al., Canada, 116-17; OC 1, 268-69

126 Williams, Conservative Party, 173-74, 212

127 Ibid., 174; OC 1, 268

128 Bothwell et al., Canada, 117

129 James McCook, quoted in Williams, Conservative Party, 175

130 Perlin, Tory Syndrome, 53; Williams, Conservative Party, 180-81

131 Williams, Conservative Party, 179-80. In later editions the last line read “Vote St. Laurent.”

132 OC 1, 271

133 Ibid., 260-61

134 Ibid., 262

135 Bothwell et al., Canada, 117; OC 1, 262, 271; Williams, Conservative Party, 181-84

136 Edna indicates, in her letters from this time, that John was writing regularly to her as well as forwarding Hansard and newspapers. But these letters do not survive in the Diefenbaker Papers.

137 Edna to JGD, undated, JGDP, V/10, 7046-47

138 Edna to JGD, undated, ibid., 7056-59

139 Edna to JGD, undated, ibid., 7069-72

140 Edna to JGD, undated, ibid., 7091

141 Quoted in Holt, Other, 281

142 Nicholson, Vision, 29

143 Holt dates this move indefinitely in “late 1946 or early 1947,” but it seems to have been later. Holt, Other, 272-75

144 Van Dusen, The Chief, 8-9

145 The reporters included Frank Swanson of the Ottawa Citizen, Arthur Blakely of the Montreal Gazette, and Peter Dempson of the Toronto Telegram. Holt, Other, 273-77; Dempson, Assignment Ottawa, 88

146 The words are those of Frank Swanson, quoted in Holt, Other, 273

147 Frank Swanson also testified to the plentiful presence of liquor and wine at these parties, and insisted that Diefenbaker had “the odd drink” of scotch, despite his claims to be a teetotaller. Dempson, on the other hand, wrote that “Diefenbaker himself would wander among the guests with a glass of sherry in his hand, but I can’t recall ever seeing him take a sip.” Dempson, Assignment Ottawa, 88; Holt, Other, 274

148 Kate Aitken to Mrs John G. Diefenbaker, enclosing a transcript of her CFRB program, September 21, 1948, JGDP, V/53, 34148-50

149 Dempson recalled one disturbing encounter in the late 1940s when he interrupted a private argument in the MP’s office. Diefenbaker revealed that Edna wanted him to accept an offer to become counsel for a major oil company at a salary five times that of an MP, and asked Dempson for his opinion. Dempson faltered at this invitation to intrude in a personal dispute. He thought Diefenbaker should accept, but knew he would not do so. “Well, I finally blurted out, it’s an attractive offer. Financially, you’d be far better off. But I’m afraid you wouldn’t be happy, leaving public life.” Diefenbaker “snorted” his agreement and announced that he would reject the offer. Dempson, Assignment Ottawa, 84-85

150 Holt reported that James and Kathleen Sinclair and Alvin Hamilton, among others, noticed Edna’s jealousy. Edna’s reference to John’s secretary reads: “Who is your Stenographer you never said if you can have Mr. Gratrix or not.” Holt, Other, 312; Edna to JGD, undated, JGDP, V/10, 7069-72

151 Edna to JGD, all undated, JGDP, V/10, 7087-90, 7094-101

152 F. Lennon, The Battle Creek Sanitarium, Battle Creek, Michigan, to JGD, February 28, 1950, JGDP, V/14, 9155-A. The correspondence in the Diefenbaker Papers is incomplete and there is no indication of the outcome of his inquiries. The Battle Creek “San” is the subject of T. Coraghessan Boyle’s 1993 comic novel, The Road To Wellville, and the film of the same name.

153 Stephen Smith, “Cornflakes, love and money,” Toronto Star, July 24, 1993

154 Mary F. Diefenbaker to JGD, undated (dated by archivist April 1950), JGDP, V/1, 422-23

155 Mary F. Diefenbaker to JGD, June 1, 1950, ibid., 424-25

156 See, for example, Holt, Other, 291-92. There is evident heaviness or swelling in Edna’s neck in photographs from the summer and autumn of 1950.

157 JGD to Herbert A. Bruce, September 6, 1950, Bruce Papers

158 Edna Diefenbaker to Mary F. Diefenbaker, September 19, 1950, JGDP, V/1, 428

159 See Holt, Other, 295-98.

160 In Vancouver, he told his niece Sheila that Edna was being treated for shingles. Holt, Other, 297-98

161 JGD to Mary F. Diefenbaker, November 13, 1950, JGDP, V/1, 431

162 Holt, Other, 297-99; JGD to Mary F. Diefenbaker, November 13, 1950, JGDP, V/1, 431-32

163 JGD to Mary F. Diefenbaker, November 13, 24, 26, 1950, ibid., 431-39

164 JGD to Mary F. Diefenbaker, November 24, 1950, ibid., 433-34; JGD to Edna, November 15, 1950, quoted in Holt, Other, 298

165 Ibid.

166 The quotation is from JGD to Louis Breithaupt, January 22, 1951, JGDP, III/59, 47417-18; Holt, Other, 300-03.

167 Holt, Other, 303-04

168 Percy Philip to Edna Diefenbaker, January 31, 1951, JGDP, V/53, 34253

169 Dave Walker to Edna Diefenbaker, Saturday, undated, ibid., 34196-98

170 Martin, Very Public 2, 288-89; see also Holt, Other, 308-10.

171 Diefenbaker had also told his sister-in-law Susan Brower that his distraction over Edna’s illness made it impossible for him to focus on anything else. Diefenbaker relates his story of the incident in OC 1, 111-16; Holt’s account, based on interviews with Susan Brower, is in Holt, Other, 304-07.

172 Prince Albert Daily Herald, February 10, 1951 (also quoted in Holt, Other, 321-22). For the Laing, Green, and Gardiner tributes, see the Debates, February 7 and 9, 1951, 158, 161, 241. The “unelected member” is referred to by Douglas How of Canadian Press in the Ottawa Citizen, February 8, 1951; the “gay and lovable personality” is described by Margaret Aitken of the Telegram, both quoted in Holt, Other, 319, 323.

173 Holt, Other, 327-28; Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, February 10, 1951

174 Holt, Other, 323-24

175 Interment Order No. 15304, Woodlawn, City of Saskatoon, February 9, 1951, JGDP, V/ unnumbered

Chapter 6 The Big Fish

1     OC 1, 112-14; Holt, Other, 329-30

2     Quoted in Holt, Other, 129-30

3     OC 1, 114, 116

4     Ibid., 115

5     Ibid., 116

6     See, for example, the account of Donald Fleming in Near 1, 178-85.

7     House of Commons, Debates, May 21, 1951, 3253

8     Fleming, Near 1, 208

9     Ibid., 212

10   Diefenbaker mentions several of these factors in OC 1, 271. Blair Fraser’s phrase appears in a profile in his column in Maclean’s, December 1, 1953, reprinted in Fraser, “Blair Fraser Reports”, 53-62.

11   OC 1, 271

12   In 1953, aside from a hectic ten-week period of election campaigning, Diefenbaker made more than thirty speeches in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario to service clubs and PC associations. In August 1953 he was made Chief Eagle by the Duck Lake Indian band. Diefenbaker pocket diary for 1953, JGDP, III/24/312, 17217-310

13   OC 1, 271-72

14   House of Commons, Debates, June 30, 1952, 3983. Fleming calculated that the townships removed from the riding had given Diefenbaker 3447 votes in 1949, compared with 1166 Liberal and 2049 CCF ballots. Ibid., 3977

15   OC 1, 272-76

16   George Whitter to JGD, June 17, 1966, JGDP, XIV/1

17   Ibid. Although Diefenbaker received this account from Whitter in 1966, presumably in response to a request for information for his memoirs, it is not mentioned in One Canada.

18   The record does not make clear whether there were two separate fishing trips. It is possible that Whitter’s memory confused the chronology and that there was only one trip, to both Waskesiu and Lac La Ronge, as Elmer’s letter suggests. OC 1, 272-73; Elmer Diefenbaker to Mary F. Diefenbaker, July 26, 1952, JGDP, V/31, 20451

19   Brunt arranged with Diefenbaker’s Toronto friend George Johnston to provide Elmer with a $500 honorarium for several weeks in the constituency. “I have never met anyone,” Brunt wrote to Elmer, “who has the happy faculty that you have for being able to go into a Riding, size up the situation and then be able to tell a prospective candidate just what his chances are of being elected.” As late as April 15, 1953, Diefenbaker was still seeking guidance from friends in Lake Centre and had not ruled out renomination there. W.R. Brunt to Elmer Diefenbaker, October 29, 1952; JGD to Gus Mackay, April 15, 1953, JGDP, III/50/544, 39817-18, 39822

20   R.G. Green to JGD, February 10, 1953, JGDP, III/15/187, 10885-88

21   The formal nomination meeting of the Prince Albert PC Association took place on May 16, 1953, at Diefenbaker’s request. The local Conservative Orest Bendas noted that, although press reports said the nomination meeting was organized by the Diefenbaker Clubs, it was officially a Conservative nominating convention. Diefenbaker “did not try to separate himself completely from the party.” That was a matter of both courtesy and prudence. OC 1, 273-74; Prince Albert Daily Herald, November 28, 1952; Memo, “Executive meeting held at this office Nov. 26, 1952,” JGDP, III/15/187, 10872; JGD to M.J. O’Brien, February 19, 1953; JGD to George Drew, April 8, 1953, JGD to Gus Mackay, April 15, 1953, JGDP, III/75/958.12, 61076; III/79/969.7, 62677; III/50/544, 39822; III/24/312, 17247-60; XVIII/OH/749

22   JGD to Olive Palmer, quoted in Spencer, Trumpets, 9

23   See Fleming, Near 1, 223-31, esp. 225.

24   Ibid., 227. The other Conservative members of the committee were Rodney Adamson, Davie Fulton, Douglas Harkness, J.R. Macdonnell, and George Pearkes.

25   The classic account of the Liberal Party in this period of dominance is Whitaker’s Government Party. See especially chapter 5, “The Government Party Fulfilled, 1945-58,” 165-215. For the 1953 campaign, see Camp, Gentlemen, 133-39; OC 1, 274-75; Fleming, Near 1, 238-41.

26   OC 1, 275

27   Camp, Gentlemen, 136

28   George Whitter to JGD, June 17, 1966, JGDP, XIV/1

29   Diefenbaker pocket diary for 1953; “John Diefenbaker - Ontario Itinerary,”July 6-9, 1953; “John Diefenbaker - Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick Tour,” July 25-31, 1953, JGDP, III/24/312, 17264-84; III/49/539, 39220, 39254-55; Spencer, Trumpets, 10-16

30   Spencer, Trumpets, 15

31   Quoted ibid., 15

32   OC 1, 274-75; Holt, Other, 332

33   Marjorie (Bunny) Pound, JGDP, XVIII/OH/83.1-4, 84.1-2, July 11, 14, 1986; May 19, July 7, 1989. Camp reports one disconcerting occasion in the winter of 1955-56 when Diefenbaker, still a back-bencher, rebuked him for an imagined slight in failing to find Olive a place at a banquet headtable. “I know how these things happen,” Diefenbaker told Camp. “But I want you to know, you see, there will never be a next time. That’s all. If my wife can’t be there, then I won’t be there. Is that clear?” Camp excused himself, thinking “What a strange man.” Camp, Gentlemen, 195-96

34   JGD to Roy Hall, February 16, 1953; JGD to Clyne Harradence, May 22, 1954, JGDP, I/18/13.5, 16730, 16733; Royal Bank, Watrous to JGD, June 22, 1956, ibid., III/32, 23869-70; XVIII/OH/83.1-4, 84.1-2; XVIII/OH/45. Harradence had run as a Liberal candidate in the 1956 provincial election and believed that this may have been a factor in Diefenbaker’s reluctance to sort out his position in the law firm.

35   JGD to E. Cathro, December 1, 1955, JGDP, I/6, 6133

36   J.V. Clyne, Jack of All Trades, quoted in the Globe and Mail, October 26, 1985

37   Ibid.

38   Fleming, Near 1, 242

39   Ibid., 243

40   Ibid., 244

41   OC 1, 270

42   Its members were identified by Tom McMillan as Ellen Fairclough, George Nowlan, Clair Casselman, Earl Rowe, J. Waldo Monteith, J.M. Macdonnell, R.W. Mitchell, Leon Baker, R.A. Bell, and the journalist Grattan O’Leary. Tom McMillan, “The 1956 Conservative Leadership Convention,” unpublished paper

43   Camp, Gentlemen, 145

44   Ibid., 140-48; Perlin, Tory Syndrome, 53-54

45   Bruce Hutchison to Grant Dexter, April 7, 1955, Hutchison Papers

46   Bruce Hutchison to Grant Dexter, July 1, 1955, ibid.

47   W.L. Morton wrote that “beneath the surface, vague discontent and flickering uneasiness were stirring and taking form as criticism of the government.” Morton, Kingdom of Canada, 507

48   See Kilbourn, PipeLine, passim; Bothwell and Kilbourn, C.D. Howe, 283-316; Fleming, Near 1, 297-321. The financial scheme that allowed construction to proceed (involving initial government ownership of the northern Ontario section of the pipeline) was devised by Howe’s deputy, Mitchell Sharp.

49   Davie Fulton noted his coordinating role with Stanley Knowles in an interview with the author, September 24, 1993.

50   Hampden was one of the five members of the English parliament whose aborted arrest in the House of Commons by Charles I led to the English Civil War. He was one of Diefenbaker’s heroes.

51   Debates, May 25, June 4, 1956, 4344-52, 4661-62; Fleming, Near 1, 303-12; Kilbourn, PipeLine, 111. Fleming denied suggestions that the incident had been planned and intentionally provoked as “a wicked collection of falsehoods in every particular.”

52   Debates, May 17, 1956, 4031-44. One of Diefenbaker’s frequent correspondents on the pipeline issue was the Toronto advertising executive George Johnston, who criticized the official Conservative tactic of cooperation with the CCF and suggested that an alternative line running partly through the United States could be built quickly and without public subsidy. Diefenbaker followed Johnston’s advice about seeking information from other American gas distribution companies. Johnston seems to have influenced Diefenbaker’s tentative approach in his speech of May 17. George Johnston to JGD, February 23, 1956, JGDP, III/68/911, 54925-27

53   Interview with Davie Fulton, September 24, 1993. Diefenbaker’s brief but melodramatic account of the pipeline debate in his memoirs does not mention his reluctance to support the party’s tactics. Instead, he emphasizes the comparison to the Long Parliament’s defiance of Charles I that was implied in his remark about John Hampden; and he gives credit to the “valiant fighters” Drew, Fleming, Fulton, Green, and Coldwell. Fleming comments pointedly that, on an occasion when the CCF leader M.J. Coldwell, George Drew, Fleming himself, and other members stepped into the aisle to protest against an outrageous ruling by the Speaker, “At no time did John Diefenbaker leave his seat.” OC 1, 245-47

54   JGD to J.M. Cuelenaere, June 30, 1956, JGDP, I/18/13.5, 16694; Kilbourn, PipeLine, 136

55   Those present at the drafting of Drew’s letter of resignation, according to two of the participants, were Grattan O’Leary, J.M. Macdonnell, Léon Balcer, Earl Rowe, George Nowlan, Bill Rowe, Ellen Fairclough, Fiorenza Drew, and Dr Ray Farquarson (Drew’s physician). Stursberg, Leadership Gained, 5-7; Camp, Gentlemen, 205-11; Fleming, Near 1, 322-23; O’Leary, Recollections, 114-16; OC 1, 276

56   George Pearkes to JGD, September 22, 1956, JGDP, III/74/950, 59686-87

57   David J. Walker to JGD, September 24, 1956, JGDP, III/74/951.1, 59804-05

58   “I have to go along with the gang, Benbo,” Hees told Eddie Goodman. Hees brought with him the useful support of John Bassett and the Toronto Telegram, and the organizing talents of Eddie Goodman. As Dana Porter, the provincial treasurer of Ontario, pointed out to Diefenbaker, the Ontario government had supported Liberal policy on the natural gas pipeline as a participant and as a beneficiary. Diefenbaker’s relative passivity during the parliamentary struggle may thus have been a factor in Frost’s decision to support him for the leadership; it may even have been one of Diefenbaker’s own calculations during the debate. Goodman, Life, 72-75; Dana Porter to JGD, December 10, 1956, JGDP, III/74/14.5, 60259-60; Charlotte Gobeil, Interview with John Bassett, Political Memoirs, CTV, January 3, 1993

59   Memo, “For your information when calling Mr. Alex McKenzie,” nd, JGDP, III/74/14.5, 59696; Goodman, Life, 72-76; Fleming, Near 1, 324-26; Stursberg, Leadership Gained, 12-13; Peter Stursberg, “Desperate Search on for Tory Candidate to Oppose Diefenbaker,” Toronto Star, October 11, 1956

60   Nicholson reported that the Old Guard had also approached a British Conservative MP and expatriate Canadian, the notoriously pompous Sir Beverley Baxter, to come home to the leadership campaign. After these efforts had failed, party president Leon Balcer announced his own candidacy in late November, but withdrew it a few days later. Patrick Nicholson, “Old Guard Can’t Stop Diefenbaker,” Winnipeg Tribune, November 14, 1956; Windsor Daily Star, November 23, 1956; Winnipeg Tribune, December 3, 1956

61   Telegram, Gordon Churchill to JGD, October 3, 1956; “Summary of meeting of supporters of candidature of John Diefenbaker for leader of Progressive Conservative Party,” nd, JGDP, III/74/14.5, 59866, 59721-22

62   Leadership announcement, nd, JGDP, III/74/14.5, 59706

63   “Summary of meeting of supporters of candidature of John Diefenbaker for leader of Progressive Conservative Party,” nd, JGDP, III/74/14.5, 59721-22

64   Sévigny wrote long letters to Diefenbaker offering his opinions on a wide range of subjects such as sincere leadership, Quebec’s dislike of British domination, avoiding military support for the UN in the Middle East, a distinct Canadian flag, the priority of provincial rights, useless government spending, and opposition to dictatorship. He gave no indication of any activity to recruit Diefenbaker delegates in Quebec. Pierre Sévigny to JGD, November 16 and November 27, 1956, JGDP, III/74/14.5, 60036-40, 60108-10; Fleming, Near 1, 326-27

65   Fulton recalled that “this was my first overt action which brought me into conflict with John, and he could never understand why I had run … I think he was very disappointed: he had counted on my support. Whether my running was an error or not is very difficult for me to judge … But unfortunately he held it against me, there’s no question about that.” E.D. Fulton, interview with author, September 24, 1993; Stursberg, Leadership Gained, 14

66   “Diefenbaker Leads Field as Tory Leader in Poll,” Canadian Institute of Public Opinion, November 24, 1956

67   “Wars May Come and Go/ Party Lines Hold Firm,” Canadian Institute of Public Opinion, December 1, 1956

68   Bothwell et al., Canada, 127-29; English, Worldly, 107-45

69   The Egyptian government identified the Canadian forces with the British invasion army, at least partly because of the unit’s name. Extended negotiation resulted in a compromise, under which Canada would provide technical and logistical support units, while the entire UNEF operation would remain under command of the Canadian general E.L.M. Burns. The Queen’s Own returned from their way station in Halifax to home base in Calgary. Pearson reflected that the Egyptian reaction was “entirely predictable … In retrospect, this was not an unfriendly gesture on Nasser’s part, it was just being sensible.” Pearson’s biographer John English suggests that the affair strengthened Pearson’s interest in a distinctive Canadian flag. Pearson, Mike 2, 261-71; English, Worldly, 141

70   Debates, November 29, 1956, 139-44; OC 1, 280-81. Diefenbaker’s reference to his earlier proposal for a UN peacekeeping force was subtly misleading. In January, Diefenbaker had mentioned “something in the nature of an international force” to stand between the Arabs and Israelis, as suggested in reports of talks between President Eisenhower and Prime Minister Eden. Pearson, in reply, did not reject, but endorsed, the idea: “If that proposal were made … and if it became a matter for United Nations consideration, I am sure this country as well as other countries would want to do what they could to carry it into effect.” But he added that no such proposal had been made to the UN or the Canadian government, and that he was reluctant to commit the government’s hand in advance. This was diplomatic discretion rather than rejection. Debates, January 31, 1956, 723; February 1, 1956, 775-77

71   Debates, November 29, 1956, 139-44

72   Fleming, Near 1, 327; Globe and Mail, November 30, 1956; Winnipeg Tribune, December 3, 1956; Winnipeg Free Press, December 4, 1956

73   Camp, Gentlemen, 232

74   Goodman, Life, 76-77. Camp recalled that the Diefenbakers occupied a single room rather than a suite. Camp, Gentlemen, 254

75   On Camp’s advice, O’Leary had been bumped from his original position as keynote speaker to make way for Premier Robert Stanfield, the party’s new political hero from Nova Scotia. The change turned out for the best, in Camp’s view, because “O’Leary could not have done both the eulogy of Drew and the keynote address.” Coincidentally, Camp ghostwrote the Stanfield speech. Camp, Gentlemen, 233-37

76   Ibid., 235-37

77   See, for example, Ted Rogers to JGD, September 25, 1956, JGDP, III/74/14.5, 59826-29; Camp, Gentlemen, 233; Sawatsky, Mulroney, 41-47. Diefenbaker’s own insecurity was echoed among the nineteen delegates and alternates who attended the convention from Prince Albert. According to Dick Spencer, they had “nagging fears that somehow the westerners and their candidate might be outfoxed in the capital.” Spencer, Trumpets, 18

78   Camp, Gentlemen, 233, 238

79   Quoted in Stursberg, Leadership Gained, 15. Diefenbaker no doubt knew of Bell’s role some weeks earlier in the “Stop Diefenbaker” discussions, and thus believed he had reason to doubt Bell’s neutrality. Bell insisted that he “preserved a total impartiality and judicial approach as chairman.” Films of Diefenbaker’s nomination speech show Bell sitting, stony-faced and motionless, as others on the platform applauded Diefenbaker’s conclusion.

80   Sévigny, This Game, 37-41, esp. 41; Stursberg, Leadership Gained, 16-21; Camp, Gentlemen, 238-40; Meisel, Election 1957, 31-33; OC 1, 278-79. Pierre Sévigny saw Diefenbaker’s refusal to alter his plans as a sign of “terrible indecision,” while Churchill saw it as a sign of “courage and determination.” In his memoir, Sévigny wrote that Diefenbaker had invited him to second the nomination; the indecision came when Diefenbaker subsequently opted for Pearkes and failed to tell Sévigny. Sévigny insisted later that, when confronted with the dispute, Diefenbaker could not make up his mind, and finally left the decision to others. But Churchill and Hees credited him with decisiveness. Perspective, in this case, was all. Sévigny claimed that the choice cost Diefenbaker sixty votes or more at the convention, which seems doubtful. Meisel could find no plausible explanation for Diefenbaker’s gratuitous alienation of Quebec delegates.

81   Camp, Gentlemen, 28-30

82   Camp, the professional, judged that the speech had a “curious abjectness,” that it was “a poor speech, poorly organized and poorly spoken.” But he recognized that Diefenbaker had nourished long-starved hopes. J.B. McGeachy, Financial Post, December 22, 1956; Sévigny, This Game, 41-42; Fleming, Near 1, 328-29; Camp, Gentlemen, 247-48; Toronto Telegram, December 14, 1956; Globe and Mail, December 15, 1956

83   The Globe and Mail reported that Diefenbaker received 102 votes from Quebec delegates, or one-third of the total, but that seems doubtful. In a frank letter to Diefenbaker written shortly after the convention, Fleming attributed the figure to George Hees and called it “utterly preposterous … My best information is that neither you nor Davie obtained more than about a score of votes in Quebec.” Fleming, Near 1, 329; Sévigny, This Game, 42-43; Camp, Gentlemen, 250-52; Globe and Mail, December 15, 1956; “Acceptance Speech by Mr. Diefenbaker”; Donald Fleming to JGD, December 27, 1956, JGDP, XII/120/F/390