Lester Bowles "Mike" Pearson, the 14th Prime Minister Of Canada (23 April 1897 – 27 December 1972) was a Canadian Professor, historian, civil servant, statesman, diplomat and politician. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 for organizing the United Nations Emergency Force to resolve the Suez Canal Crisis. During his time as Prime Minister, Pearson's minority government introduced universal health care, student loans, the Canada Pension Plan and the Order of Canada. Under his government Canada finally got its own flag, took steps toward recognizing Canada as a bilingual nation, created a ‘race free immigration policy’ and started to investigate the status of women. It was during his tenure that Canada refused to send troops to Vietnam. With these accomplishments, together with his groundbreaking work at the United Nations and in international diplomacy, Pearson is generally considered among the most influential Canadians of the 20th century.
Pearson was born in Toronto and was the son of a Methodist Minister and his wife. He excelled at both scholastic and athletics while at the University of Toronto. When the First World War broke out in 1914, he volunteered for service as a Medical Orderly with the University of Toronto Hospital Unit. In 1915, he undertook overseas service with the Canadian Army Medical Corps as a stretcher bearer with the rank of Private, and had a subsequent commissioning to the rank of Lieutenant. During this period of service he spent two years in Egypt and Greece. In 1917, Pearson transferred to the Royal Flying Corps (as the Royal Canadian Air Force did not exist at that time), where he served as a Flying Officer until being sent home with injuries from two accidents; while training as a pilot at an air training school in Hendon, England. It was as a pilot that he received the nickname of "Mike", given to him by a flight instructor who felt that "Lester" was too mild a name for an airman. Thereafter, Pearson would use the name "Lester" on official documents and in public life, but was always addressed as "Mike" by friends and family.
After his military service he returned to university and completed his degree. He then spent a year in Hamilton and Chicago working in the meat packing industry but decided that was not the life for him. He received the Massey Scholarship and went to Oxford to gain a second BA in Modern History and an MA by 1925. He returned to Canada and became a Professor at the University of Toronto and married Maryon Moodie with whom he had one daughter and one son.
In 1927, after scoring the top marks on the Canadian Foreign Service entry exam, he then embarked on a career in the Department of External Affairs. Pearson was posted to London in the late 1930s, and served there as World War 2 began in 1939, until 1942 as the second-in-command at Canada House, where he coordinated military supply and refugee issues, serving under High Commissioner Vincent Massey. Pearson returned to Ottawa and he was assistant under secretary from 1941 until 1942. In June 1942 he was posted to the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C. as ministerial counselor. He served as second-in-command for nearly two years. Promoted minister plenipotentiary, 1944, he became Canada's ambassador to the United States on January 1, 1945, until September 1946. He had an important part in founding both the United Nations and NATO. Pearson nearly became the first secretary-general of the United Nations in 1945, but this possibility was vetoed by the Soviet Union. In 1957, for his role in defusing the Suez Crisis through the United Nations, Pearson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The selection committee claimed that Pearson had "saved the world." The United Nations Emergency Force was Pearson's creation, and he is considered the father of the modern concept of peacekeeping. Leaders of the US, France, Great Britain and the Soviet Union, all had vested interests in the natural resources around the Suez Canal. Pearson was able to organize these leaders by way of a five-day fly-around, and was by effect responsible for the development of the structure for the United Nations Security Council. His Nobel medal is on permanent display in the front lobby of the Lester B. Pearson Building, the headquarters of the Department of Foreign Affairs in Ottawa.
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