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Lester B. Pearson

Prime minister of Canada
Alternative Title: Lester Bowles Pearson
Lester B. Pearson
Prime minister of Canada
Also known as
  • Lester Bowles Pearson

April 23, 1897

Toronto, Canada


December 27, 1972

Ottawa, Canada

Lester B. Pearson, in full Lester Bowles Pearson (born April 23, 1897, Toronto, Ont., Can.—died Dec. 27, 1972, Ottawa) politician, diplomat, and prime minister of Canada (1963–68), who was prominent as a mediator in international disputes. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1957.

  • Lester B. Pearson, 1963
    Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time Life Pictures/Getty Images

Pearson served in World War I (1914–18) and lectured in history at the University of Toronto (1924–28), after studying there and at the University of Oxford. He joined the Canadian foreign service in 1928 and became first secretary in the Department of External Affairs. He served on two royal commissions (1931) and as counselor of the Canadian high commissioner’s office in London (1935).

Recalled to Canada in 1941, Pearson then served as ambassador to the United States in 1945–46. He headed the Canadian delegation at the United Nations from 1948 to 1956, and he was president of the United Nations General Assembly in 1952–53. In 1948 he became secretary of state for external affairs in the Liberal government of Louis Saint Laurent, having entered Parliament for Algoma East. He represented Canada at the founding of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949, and in 1951 he was chairman of that organization. In 1957 he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to solve the Suez crisis of 1956.


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The new Liberal government that followed was led by Lester B. Pearson, who included talented figures in his cabinet, though many of them were inexperienced. He set out to launch “one hundred days of decision,” but he was stopped short when his finance minister, Walter Gordon, backed down from controversial proposals to reduce U.S. investment in Canada. This and other blunders and...
Reproduction of Canadian Prime Minister John Macdonald’s office.
...in his early years, but the party also retained pro-business policies and a complacent attitude toward increased economic integration with the United States. Led by Nobel Prize-winning diplomat Lester Pearson, the Liberals narrowly regained power in 1963. They once again expanded social insurance programs, introducing a comprehensive national health-care system. Pearson’s government also...
Pierre Elliott Trudeau, 1983.
Lester B. Pearson
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