June 21, 1957: Dief the Chief

June 21, 1957: John Diefenbaker takes office as Prime Minister of Canada. He was the only conservative (with a "small C") Prime Minister between 1935 and 1979, and the only one to serve at least one full year between 1935 and 1984.

John George Diefenbaker was born on September 18, 1895 in Neustadt, 107 miles northwest of Toronto. It was one of several places in the Province of Ontario with a German name where German immigrants, like his grandparents, had moved. These included a city outside Hamilton named Berlin, for Germany's capital. When World War I came, and prejudice against Germans hit the Allied nations, including the U.S. and Canada, the city of Berlin changed its name to Kitchener, after a fallen British hero of that war.

In 1910, the family moved west to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where Diefenbaker remembered being 15 years old and taking his first political action, selling a newspaper to the visiting Prime Minister, Wilfred Laurier. He became disgusted at the treatment of French and Indigenous Canadians, later telling an interviewer:

From my earliest days, I knew the meaning of discrimination. Many Canadians were virtually second-hand citizens because of their names and racial origin. Indeed, it seemed until the end of World War II that the only first-class Canadians were either of English or French descent. As a youth, l determined to devote myself to assuring that all Canadians, whatever their racial origin, were equal and declared myself to be a sworn enemy of discrimination. 

By the time he was 21, he had both a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts degree from the University of Saskatchewan. He later became the 1st student ever to receive 3 degrees from that school, earning a law degree in 1919. In between, he served in the Canadian Army during World War I, being sent to Britain, but never into combat on the European Continent.

At the time, Saskatchewan was heavily tilted toward the Liberal Party, but he was a member of the Conservative Party. After success as a lawyer, he first ran for the House of Commons in 1925, but lost. The next year, due to a quirk in the national election laws and a dispute between Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King and Governor-General Julian Byng, another election was held the next year, and Mackenzie King ran for the seat Diefenbaker had run for. An established political icon ran against a future one, and Mackenzie King won.

Diefenbaker ran for the Province's Legislative Assembly in 1929, Mayor of the city of Prince Albert in 1933, and the House of Commons again in 1938, having refused to run on 2 other occasions. Finally, in 1940, on his 6th try for public office and his 3rd try for Parliament, Diefenbaker won, despite his party having its worst election ever.

Canada's Conservative Party had become the Progressive Conservative Party in 1942, but hadn't had a Prime Minister since Richard Bennett lost to William Lyon Mackenzie King in 1935, and hadn't won a general election since Bennett beat Mackenzie King in 1930. Diefenbaker first ran for the PC Leadership in 1948, and won it in 1955. He stood as Party Leader in the general election of June 10, 1957, saying of his Party's program:

It is a program... for a united Canada, for one Canada, for Canada first, in every aspect of our political and public life, for the welfare of the average man and woman. That is my approach to public affairs, and has been throughout my life... A Canada, united from Coast to Coast, wherein there will be freedom for the individual, freedom of enterprise, and where there will be a Government which, in all its actions, will remain the servant and not the master of the people.

For the 1st time in 22 years, Canada had, and, for the 1st time in 27 years, elected, a conservative government: The Tories gained 61 seats, giving Diefenbaker a minority government, and forcing out the Liberal Party's Leader, Louis St. Laurent. "Dief the Chief" was the 1st Prime Minister from a riding (what America's House of Representatives would call a "District") from the Province of Saskatchewan -- indeed, the 1st from anywhere west of Ontario.

He called another election for March 31, 1958, and gained 96 seats to win the biggest majority any party has ever had in the country: 208 seats to the Liberals' 48. Canadian historian Conrad Black wrote, "He was very formidable; a deadly campaigner, an idiosyncratic but often galvanizing public speaker, a brilliant parliamentarian, and a man of many fine qualities. He was absolutely honest financially, a passionate supporter of the average and the underprivileged and disadvantaged person, a fierce opponent of any racial or religious or socioeconomic discrimination."

But Diefenbaker overplayed his hand. His aggressive conservatism made him more Canada's Barry Goldwater than its Dwight D. Eisenhower. He and "Ike" barely got along, and starting in 1961, he and John F. Kennedy couldn't stand each other. Nor could he and Harold Macmillan, whose tenure as Prime Minister of Britain coincided with his (January 10, 1957 to October 18, 1963), despite each of them leading his respective country's Conservative Party.

Canadian historian Robert Bothwell wrote, "By the time Diefenbaker left office, his conduct of foreign policy was reviled by an important and growing number of Canadians, while his relations with both the Americans and the British were disastrous."

Eventually, he alienated his own people, losing 89 seats and his majority in the 1962 election, 21 seats and the government entirely to Lester Pearson on April 22, 1963, and the Party leadership to Robert Stanfield in 1967.

Diefenbaker remained in Parliament until his death on August 16, 1979, from a heart attack at the age of 83, having lived to see Joe Clark become the 1st Prime Minister from the Progressive Conservative Party since himself. He is still revered by Canada's right wing, but only they seem to consider him to have been a positive force.

In 2003, the PCs merged with other, smaller right-of-center parties to become the new Conservative Party.

*

June 21, 1957 was a Friday. Berkley Breathed, the cartoonist who created and wrote Bloom County, was born.

These baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Chicago White Sox, 4-2 at Yankee Stadium. Johnny Kucks was the winning pitcher. Mickey Mantle went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Yogi Berra went 1-for-4.

* The New York Giants beat the Chicago Cubs, 12-10 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Bobby Thomson and Danny O'Connell hit home runs for the Giants in the top of the 10th inning. Willie Mays went 2-for-6. Ernie Banks went 1-for-5 with an RBI.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 2-0 at the 1st Busch Stadium (which was the last Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis. Von McDaniel pitched a 2-hit shutout. Stan Musial went 0-for-2 with a walk. Duke Snider went 1-for-4.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Kansas City Athletics, 4-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. Ted Williams went 0-for-2 with 2 walks.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-5 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Brooks Robinson did not play for the O's. Al Kaline did play for the Tigers, and went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The Washington Senators beat the Cleveland Indians, 6-3 at Griffith Stadium in Washington. Rooke Roger Maris went 1-for-3 with a walk for Cleveland.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cincinnati Reds, 3-2 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Hank Foiles singled Bill Mazeroski home with the winning run in the top of the 11th. Roberto Clemente went 0-for-5. Frank Robinson went 5-for-5, but had no RBIs.

* And the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Milwaukee Braves, 6-1 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Curt Simmons outpitched Lew Burdette. Hank Aaron went 1-for-4.