Famous Canadians - Lester Pearson
One thing about living on Manitoulin Island, here at the top of Canada's Great Lakes - you run into a lot of people that have a high regard for a man by the name of Lester "Mike" Pearson. The Reeve of Billings Township was a close personal friend and I'm sure if you corner Aus Hunt in his general store or at the township office, he'll tell you some interesting stories.
Mike Pearson was a Member of Parliament for Algoma and served as Canada's Prime Minister for two terms. Canada flip flopped between Mike Pearson and a Conservative by the name of John Diefenbaker.
Canada remembers Diefenbaker for the cancellation of the Avro Arrow, but one of Pearson's most-remembered successes was his
Nobel Peace Prize.
In addition to his two terms as Canada's 14th prime minister, Pearson was Canada's foremost statesman in a distinguished 20-year career with the Department of External Affairs. His crowning achievement was winning the Nobel Peace Prize for his creation of the United Nations peacekeeping force during the 1956 Suez Crisis.
The world today could use Mike Pearson.
