The Birth of a Statesman

John G. Diefenbaker

“I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind.”

• My abiding interest is your interest; my guiding principle is the welfare of the Average Canadian.
• It is so strange that such a great honour should come to a small man like me.
• He who would be chief among you must first be servant of them all.
• The prime minister has all the responsibilities and does all the joe-jobs.
• I cut down on social functions. No prime minister can carry out his responsibilities when he’s going to dinner every night. Dinners are not a substitute for statesmanship.
• Too much and too many of the moneys extorted and squeezed from the Canadian people are being wasted by the parasites of extravagance.
• The heresy of yesterday is the Liberal orthodoxy of today.
• The Liberal Party has become a hodgepodge of discordance, a cacophony of political nonsense.
• No Canadian can but be proud that through the warp and woof of our constitution are the golden threads of our British heritage.
• Freedom grows in the practice of good citizenship. It withers or decays in the apathy or neglect of the citizens of the country.

We , in Canada have our own Abraham Lincoln, Kennedy and Martin Luther King in a 

Prime Minister who genuinely loved his country and his people.

He left no heirs although one did pop up thinking that he might be one.

He spent his whole life serving our country , got the biggest popular vote and no one talks about him

because he did not smoke pot or do the pirouette.

When we speak of  honorable members of Parliament, we can include John Diefenbaker as

one who lived up to this honor.

He spoke English rather well too. ;)

John's first contact with politics came in 1910, when he sold a newspaper to Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier, in Saskatoon to lay the cornerstone for the University's first building. The present and future Prime Ministers conversed, and when giving his speech that afternoon, Sir Wilfrid commented on the newsboy who had ended their conversation by saying, "I can't waste any more time on you, Prime Minister. I must get about my work."

Even as a child Diefenbaker was a very busy young man taking life seriously and even impressed the Prime Minister of Canada.

Life unfolds itself as it should.
xoxoxoxoxo