John Diefenbaker The Last Old Tory Essay - 2229 Words

John Diefenbaker was the last â€Å"old Tory† to be the Prime Minister of Canada. He was a member of the Conservative Party with deep values as well as being a British loyalist who supported the Queen. Diefenbaker was also a man that was well known for not supporting anything he thought was anti- British. This sentiment was most evident when Diefenbaker criticized the Liberal’s refusal to support Britain in the Suez Canal crisis and sided with the Americans. This loyalty the Diefenbaker had to the British Commonwealth would not serve him well as Prime Minister of Canada. In 1958, Diefenbaker would win the largest majority government in Canadian history upsetting the new leader of the Liberal Party, Lester B. Pearson, who had taken over for St.†¦show more content†¦Kennedy, the President of the United States of America, which made it difficult for Canada and the United States to work together on different policies. These major events, which John Diefenbaker did not deal with effectively, caused the Prime Minister to lose the biggest majority government in Canadian history in 1963. In 1957, John Diefenbaker took the spot of the Official Opposition leader against the Liberal party who at the time was lead by St. Laurent. Diefenbaker did not support the new budget which was presented. This forced Parliament to dissolve in April of that year and have an election on June 10th. St. Laurent was extremely confident about winning the election as the Liberals had been in power since 1948. St. Laurent’s confidence was such that he did not even bother to make any recommendations to the Governor General to fill the 16 vacancies in the Senate before dissolving the government. During the election campaign Diefenbaker was portrayed to the country as a people’s person, who was honest with small town values. He was popular in the Prairie Provinces as he connected with the people. He had grown up in Saskatchewan and understood the culture o f the prairies. Three months before the election took place a census of how Canadians would vote was conducted. It showed that 46.8% of Canadians planned to vote for the Liberal party and only 38% for the Conservatives. In the next three months this would change considerably because of aShow MoreRelatedEssay on The Four Political Parties Of Canada4255 Words   |  18 Pages What is particularly interesting is that none of the latter three parties compose Her Majestys Official Opposition in the House of Commons. The Bloc Quebecois, a Quebec separatist party who only ran candidates in the province of Quebec in the last federal election in 1993, won 54 seats in that province, and claimed the title of Her Majestys Loyal Opposition over the Reform Party, who garnered only 52 seats. Because the Bloc ran candidates only in Quebec, it would be difficult to think of