Lester Bowles Pearson, most significant Prime Minister

As voted by the readers of Life in Canada, the most significant Prime Minister of Canada was... Tony Blair. Okay seriously, chosen was Lester Bowles Pearson.

John A. MacDonald, taking almost all the votes, looked like a winner until Lester B. Pearson was in competition. Pearson was even when Trudeau was around but a late vote declared broke the tie to declare Lester the winner. It is no surprise that Lester Bowles Peason has been chosen as most significant Prime Minister of Canada. Pearson has done many great things for Canada and has represented Canada to the United Nations and developed the peacekeeping missions idea.

Pearson was born in Newton Brook, Ontario in 1897. His father was a Methodist Minister and moved frequently and Lester Pearson was schooled around rural Ontario.

In 1913, he went to the University of Toronto for a general BA. In 1914, when the war broke out he enlisted and was Lieutenant in the Canadian Army Medical Corps. In 1917, he switched to Flying Officer in the Royal Flying Corps. After the war he went to the University of Oxford where he got his BA in Modern History in 1923. Pearson was a fan of all sports and played rugby, lacrosse, and hockey at Oxford. He was so good at hockey he was put on Britain's Olympic hockey team in 1922 (his love of sports remained and an award was named after him in Hockey which is given to the best player voted by the other players). Afterwards he was a lecturer in History at the University of Toronto. In 1925, he Married Maryon Moody and had two children, a son and a daughter.

From 1928, he worked in the Department of Federal Affairs, where he worked until 1948. From 1945 to 1946 he was Canada's Ambassador to the United States.and in 1946 was named Under-Secretary of State for External Affairs. In 1951 he became the Chairman of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) Council. The next year he changed jobs to be President of the United Nations General Assembly. In 1957 for his work on thecreation of the peacekeeping missions, Pearson won the Nobel Prize for Peace.

He became leader of the Liberal Party in 1958 and was leader of the Opposition until he led the Liberals to victory in 1963. Once elected he created the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism. In 1965 he created the Canada Pension Plan, signed the Auto Pact with the United States, introduced his new (union-jack free) flag. In 1966 he created a Universal Medicare. He resigned in 1968.

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