Rogue Tory
Page 100
123 Montreal Gazette, September 29, 1965
124 Globe and Mail, October 11, 1965
125 Toronto Star, October 12, 1965
126 Globe and Mail, October 13, 1965
127 English, Worldly, 306-11; CAR 1965, 86-95; Newman, Renegade, 355-57, 365-74
128 Montreal Gazette, October 11, 1965; Globe and Mail, October 30, 1965; CAR 1965, 85-86
129 Debates, January 31, February 23, 28, 1966, 426, 1681-83, 1877-90; OC 3, 270-71
130 Debates, March 4, 1966, 2206
131 Ibid.
132 Ibid., 2209
133 Ibid., March 4, 1966, 2211
134 Ibid., 2227-31
135 Ibid., March 4, 7, 1966, 2241-44, 2293-98
136 Ibid., March 7, 1966, 2298-99
137 CAR 1966, 13-14; Globe and Mail, March 9, 1966; Van Dusen, The Chief, 175-76
138 For discussion of the Spence Commission’s creation and terms of reference, see the Debates, March 14, 1966, 2613-31, 2663-82; March 15, 1966, 2685-702; Nielsen, The House, 54-59; English, Worldly, 350-57; OC 3, 266-73; Globe and Mail, March 16, 1966; Van Dusen, The Chief, 178-82.
139 CAR 1966, 12-17; Newman, Distemper, 387-406
140 The inquiry and the Spence report are reported at length in Van Dusen’s The Chief, 165-229. See also CAR 1966, 32-33; OC 3, 272-73. Diefenbaker’s main files on the inquiry are contained in JGDP, VII/214,216/A/1991.2, 1991.10; XII/86/D/141,142; XII/122/F/420; and XIV/14,15/E/145,172. The Fulton Papers contain full files of the inquiry in volumes 108 and 109.
141 Johnston, The Party’s Over, 72-74
142 Ibid., 89
143 “Report of General Caucus of April 20th 1966”; “Report of Special Committee of Caucus,” May 4, 1966; JGD, “Memorandum re: Miss Flora MacDonald,” JGDP, XII/80/D/30, XII/119/F/384; Johnston, The Party’s Over, 82-83
144 Camp, Points of Departure, 16-17
145 Ibid., 18
146 Globe and Mail, Telegram, September 22, 1966; Goodman, Life, 124-25; Johnston, The Party’s Over, 110-19; OC 3, 273; CAR 1966, 41-43
147 Johnston, The Party’s Over, 112-13
148 CAR 1966, 43-44; “A Record of Editorial Opinion Regarding Mr. Camp’s Stand,” nd, JGDP, IX/38/B/87.2
149 Johnston, The Party’s Over, 118-34; CAR 1966, 44-46
150 Goodman, Life, 124-31; Johnston, The Party’s Over, 124-46
151 Johnston, The Party’s Over, 152
152 Ibid., 154-55
153 Montreal Gazette, November 16, 1966. Nicholson reported that Camp’s organizers had “drilled, rehearsed and positioned an effective commando force” in the hall, with detailed instructions to avoid applause and to heckle and boo frequently. Diefenbaker repeated this account in his memoirs. Orillia Packet-Times, November 24, 1966; OC 3, 276-77
154 Johnston, The Party’s Over, 154-55; OC 3, 276-78. Diefenbaker’s outline notes for the speech were contained in four brief pages, in which he reasserted his commitment to “the fundamentals on which Sir John A. Macdonald laid the cornerstone”: equality of opportunity through public education; medicare; assistance to free enterprise and the elderly; and promotion of agricultural and resource sales. The notes conclude with a promise to “transfer the mantle of leadership and responsibility” to any younger leader who commits himself to fulfil these pledges and fights “to prevent this great Conservative Party from becoming one of reaction and inaction.” Most of the message was never delivered. JGD, “Notes for opening speech,” November 13, 1966, JGDP, XII/119/F/381
155 Quoted in OC 3, 279
156 Johnston, The Party’s Over, 157-62; CAR 1966, 47
157 OC 3, 301; Johnston, The Party’s Over, 162; Winnipeg Free Press, November 26, 1966
158 There are several variations. Diefenbaker identifies the author as “Sir Andrew Barton, an Elizabethan soldier.” The lines appear as “Johnnie Armstrong’s Last Goodnight” in Dryden’s Miscellanies of 1702: “Fight on, my merrie men all,/ I’m a little wounded, but I am not slain;/ I will lay me down for to bleed a while,/ Then I’ll rise and fight with you again.” OC 3, 279-80
159 “Resolution passed - Conservative Party Annual Meeting, November 16th - Carried. 563-186,” JGDP, VII/193/A/1819; Johnston, The Party’s Over, 163-65; CAR 1966, 47-48
Chapter 14 “An Old Man Dreaming Dreams”
1 Johnston, The Party’s Over, 166-67
2 Ibid., 172-74
3 Quoted ibid., 175; CAR 1967, 24-25
4 Goodman, Life, 132-34; Johnston, The Party’s Over, 177-80; CAR 1967, 24-25; James Johnston, Memorandum for executive committee meeting, January 25, 1967, JGDP, VII/193/A/1819, 122386-90
5 Diefenbaker’s threat was that he would refuse to provide a message or a picture for the conference program, and would not attend the convention, unless his demand was met. JGD to E.A. Goodman, June 21, 1967; E.A. Goodman to JGD, July 19, 1967; E.A. Goodman to JGD, August 21, 1967; “Johnston Message Re Leadership Convention Nomination Times Memo,” August 1967, JGDP, XIV/18/E/225, XII/91/E/52, XII/120/F/391; Johnston, The Party’s Over, 180-89
6 Diefenbaker had also made some desultory efforts over the winter to interest the mayor of Montreal, Jean Drapeau, in contesting the leadership as his chosen successor. Drapeau was grateful to Diefenbaker for promoting Expo 67 for Montreal, but he was not interested in the Tory leadership. CAR 1967, 24-32; Johnston, The Party’s Over, 191-216; JGD, “Re Mr Stanfield,” May 16, 1967, JGDP, XIV/16/E/210
7 CAR 1967, 179; Vancouver Province, August 29, 1967; “I am a Canadian,” RCA Victor CC-1027
8 Goodman, Life, 135-36
9 Quoted in Van Dusen, The Chief, 245-46
10 Toronto Star, Globe and Mail, September 7, 1967; Johnston, The Party’s Over, 225-29; CAR 1967, 34-35; Goodman, Life, 136-37
11 Goodman, Life, 137
12 Johnston, The Party’s Over, 228
13 In his concentration on the flow of language, Rill missed Diefenbaker’s meaning here. The six million he referred to were not French-speaking Canadians, but Canadians from neither the English- nor French-speaking charter groups.
14 Globe and Mail, September 9, 1967
15 Victoria Daily Colonist, September 8, 1967
16 JGD, press statement, September 8, 1967, JGDP, XII/121/F/392. Diefenbaker’s assistant Tom Van Dusen had prompted the Youth for Dief organizers to obtain nomination papers for him in August, and found the necessary twenty-five delegate signatories before Diefenbaker himself indicated his willingness to stand. Van Dusen, The Chief, 244-52
17 “The Charade Is Recognized,” Globe and Mail, September 9, 1967. After his Thursday speech, Diefenbaker had received a telegram of support for his “two nations” stance from the Social Credit premier of Alberta, Ernest Manning, and a similar telephone call from the Social Credit attorney general of British Columbia, Robert Bonner. Van Dusen, The Chief, 251
18 Goodman, Life, 137-38; Globe and Mail, September 11, 1967
19 Globe and Mail, September 11, 1967
20 Johnston, The Party’s Over, 239-40
21 Ibid.
22 Globe and Mail, Fredericton Daily Gleaner, September 11, 1967
23 Quoted in Stevens, Stanfield, 195. Diefenbaker remembered the words as “I think I can get along with this fellow, Camp.”
24 JGD, “Memorandum Re: Conversation with Premier Stanfield, Royal York Hotel, Monday, September 11, 12.00 noon to 12.30 noon,” JGDP, XII/121/F/392
25 JGD, “Memorandum Re: Phone conversation with Hon. Gordon Churchill, Winnipeg, Monday, September 11, 1.25 P.M.,” ibid.
26 JGD, “Memorandum Re: Phone conversation with Mayor McFarland, Picton, 1.10 P.M., Monday, September 11, 1967”; JGD, “Memorandum Re: Phone conversation with Hon. Gordon Churchill …”; JGD, memorandum, September 12, 1967, JGDP, XII/121/F/392, IX/41/B/165
27 Van Dusen, The Chief, 253-54
28 Spencer, Trumpets, 126-27
29 Ibid., 114, 129-36; O’Sullivan, Both My Houses, 28-30
30 Spencer, Trumpets, 140-43
31 Ibid., 143-44
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br /> 32 Quoted in Stevens, Stanfield, 228
33 Ibid., 229-34; CAR 1969, 8-11
34 Toronto Star, September 10, 1970; Stevens, Stanfield, 234-35
35 Globe and Mail, September 10, 1970
36 Toronto Star, October 16, 20, 1969, November 26, 1989
37 Ibid., March 26, 1970
38 Harold Macmillan to John Gray, October 9, 1969, enclosing JGD to Harold Macmillan, October 2, 1969, and Harold Macmillan to JGD, October 9, 1969 (copies in the author’s possession). The two academics were W.F.W. Neville and the author, assisted by John O. Stubbs and Colin Wright. The interviews are those referred to in this text as JGDI, 1969 and 1970.
39 Van Dusen, The Chief, Coates, The Night of the Knives; Johnston, The Party’s Over
40 English, Worldly, 391-92
41 The reporter was Stewart McLeod, who told this story at the fifteenth anniversary celebration of the Diefenbaker funeral train, held in August 1994 in the Railway Committee Room of the House of Commons.
42 Hayden, Seeking a Balance, 249. In cooperation with the National Archives, a major project of reorganizing and classifying the Diefenbaker Papers for public use was begun in 1980. It was completed, after a series of financial vicissitudes, in 1994. The centre’s initial financing by governments and university did not survive the economy drives of the 1980s, and by 1995 it was being funded by a private foundation, the Diefenbaker Society. The society raises a substantial part of its annual income from participation in the Western Canada Lottery, which would have shaken - or tickled -John Diefenbaker’s Baptist soul.
43 Spencer, Trumpets, 146-64
44 Ibid., 165-71
45 Ottawa Journal, January 2, 1976
46 “One of the Queen’s men,” Globe and Mail, January 2, 1976
47 Toronto Star, March 30, 1976. Diefenbaker’s annoyance with Trudeau for suggesting a Canadian role in the affair may have reflected embarrassment over a distant incident. In 1959, when Vincent Massey retired as governor general, Diefenbaker was consulted by the queen about awarding Massey a retirement honour. Diefenbaker replied that during his prime ministership, as had been the custom since 1939, no Canadians should receive United Kingdom honours. Massey did not receive his reward. In the second volume of the memoirs, which he was completing at the time of his award, Diefenbaker commented that he had been “obliged to advise the Queen” not to honour Massey, and added somewhat curiously: “I personally was in the position where I might have received high and prestigious honours, but I made it clear I could not accept them. For example, in 1958 when I was in Malaya, Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman offered me his country’s highest decoration. I automatically turned it down.” If Trudeau had graciously suspended Canadian policy to recommend or concur in Diefenbaker’s Companion of Honour, Diefenbaker might not have wished to be reminded of his own decision. OC 2, 59
48 Toronto Star, March 31, 1976
49 Ibid., April 2, 1976
50 Globe and Mail, April 3, 1976
51 Ibid.
52 Quoted in Stephen Smith, “Interview with Graham Glockling,” March 1995, in author’s possession.
53 Gilbert, Never Despair, 1347
54 Ottawa Citizen, December 24, 1976; Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, December 23, 1976
55 “Memo to Mr. Diefenbaker: Re Burial - in Saskatoon,” September 11, 1978; “Rough Notes re Funeral of Mr. Diefenbaker,” November 24, 1978; “Re Funeral arrangements,” November 30, 1978, JGDP, XII/82/D/56; Smith, “Interview with Graham Glockling,” March 1995. The reference to the order of precedence in heaven for two wives is from Spencer, Trumpets, 175.
56 Spencer, Trumpets, 174-78
57 Ibid., 180-81
58 Ibid., 181-82
59 Ibid., 188-91
60 Flora MacDonald, Goodman Lecture, University of Western Ontario, September 28, 1994
61 JGD to Keith Martin; JGD to Senator David Walker, August 1, 1979, JGDP, XII/82/D/56
62 Ottawa Citizen, August 16, 1979; O’Sullivan, Both My Houses, 159-60
Chapter 15 A Burial on the Prairie
1 Ottawa Citizen, August 16, 1979; Globe and Mail, August 18, 1979; Brian McGarry, “Rt. Hon. John Diefenbaker Funeral,” Hulse, Playfair & McGarry files
2 “Order of Service, State Funeral, John G. Diefenbaker, 1895-1979,” August 19, 1979
3 Globe and Mail, August 23, 1979
4 Ibid.
5 Ottawa Journal, August 18, 1979
6 Diefenbaker first raised the question of a gravestone modelled on that of Churchill in a memorandum about his will written in March 1969, and he repeated his preference when he met the director of special events in the mid-1970s. JGD, “Confidential Memorandum,” March 13, 1969, JGDP, XIV/8/D/13.2; Smith, “Interview with Graham Glockling,” March 1995
7 Sean O’Sullivan put the total cost of the funeral at $1 million; and Robert Sheppard, writing on the occasion of Richard Nixon’s funeral in 1994, used the same figure. The Diefenbaker funeral, he commented, was more elaborate than Nixon’s. O’Sullivan, Both My Houses, 163; Globe and Mail, April 27, 1994; McGarry, “Rt. Hon. John Diefenbaker Funeral”
8 “The last will and testament of the Rt. Hon. John G. Diefenbaker, made this 7th day of August, 1979,” JGDP, XII/83/D/67
9 Globe and Mail, August 28, 1979
10 Ibid., September 15, 1979
11 For early correspondence on the trust fund, see Henry Langford to Dr D.M. Baltzan, August 9, 1962; Dr D.M. Baltzan to Henry Langford, August 11, 1962, JGDP, XIV/18/E/232.3; Henry Langford to JGD, November 8, 1962; Dr D.M. Baltzan to JGD, January 11, 1963; K. Burn to JGD, September 15, 1967; JGD, “Note,” September 20, 1967; JGD, “Re Senator Brunt Fund,” nd, JGDP, XII/83/D/66, XII/29/B/11. In his 1970 interview with Michael Wardell, John Bassett mentioned occasions in 1957, 1958, and 1962 when he approached Diefenbaker with donations he had raised for Diefenbaker trust funds (the latter two each involving a cheque for $100,000 from Garfield Weston). Diefenbaker vehemently refused the gifts, and suggested that any donations should go directly into the party’s accounts for its general use. Bassett said that Diefenbaker was “a man of incontestable probity” in financial matters, which seems to be true. Michael Wardell, “John Bassett at Toronto, Friday & Saturday, November 20/21, 1970,” JGDP, XIV/16/E/219; Globe and Mail, May 16, 1981
12 Reception Program, August 16, 1994; Ottawa Citizen, August 17, 1994
Bibliography
A note on sources
The major primary source for a Diefenbaker biography must be the collections in the Diefenbaker Centre Archives at the University of Saskatchewan. These collections contain the public and personal papers of John Diefenbaker, and the private papers of his parents, William and Mary, his brother, Elmer, and his wives, Edna and Olive, arranged in twenty-two separate series. The papers in this large collection have been carefully organized and indexed by the archivists of the centre, and the relevant series have been reviewed for security clearance by the National Archives of Canada. Some documents have been withheld on security grounds, but the collection nevertheless offers a near-comprehensive record of the private life, legal practice, and public career of John Diefenbaker. Diefenbaker himself was a compulsive collector of records, including his own random notes, memoranda, letters, press clippings, speech texts, photographs, and reference materials, all of which now reside in the centre along with his books and collected artifacts. The centre also contains an extensive oral history series of taped interviews with Diefenbaker’s friends and political associates, and a large photograph and slide collection. For the prime ministerial period, documents relating to most major subjects remain scattered in separate files and series that reflect the haphazard filing and numbering practices of Diefenbaker’s office, and they must be searched out in the indexes under all related titles. The main files for the prime ministerial period are contained in series VI - Prime Minister’s Office Numbered Correspondence; series VIII - Prime Minister’s Office Unnumbered Correspondence; series XII - Personal and Confidential, 1957-79;
and series XFV - Memoirs. For students of Canadian history, politics, law, foreign relations, prairie settlement, and political psychology, the centre is a vast treasure-trove of original materials.
The National Archives of Canada is a second essential source. It contains the cabinet records of the Diefenbaker government, departmental records, and the collected papers of many members of the King, St Laurent, Diefenbaker, and Pearson cabinets. The National Archives also has microfilm copies of the Diefenbaker Papers from the Diefenbaker Centre collection. The audio-visual division of the archives includes a large collection of radio and television tapes covering John Diefenbaker’s political career.
In the United States, the most useful sources for the Diefenbaker period are the US National Archives in Washington, the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library in Boston, Massachusetts, and the published volumes of Foreign Relations of the United States. Substantial parts of Kennedy’s presidential papers dealing with the tempestuous relationship between Kennedy and Diefenbaker remain restricted on security grounds, but access to restricted materials can frequently (though slowly) be gained by “mandatory review” of the presidential papers in the Kennedy Library - a process still distinct from normal review under the US freedom of information law.
In the United Kingdom, cabinet and prime ministerial records are available in the Public Record Office. Access to minutes of the Commonwealth prime ministers conferences of 1960 and 1961 relating to South African membership in the Commonwealth, however, is unaccountably closed until well into the twenty-first century, even though that dark phase of South African history has passed and the republic has re-entered the Commonwealth. For those meetings, the records available in the Diefenbaker Papers are sufficient to establish the Canadian position in detail.
Private papers consulted in other archival collections are listed below.
Interviews and correspondence
Agar Adamson, Robert Becker, Richard Bell, Ruth M. Bell, Ian Bickle, Pamela Branch, Jeffry V. Brock, Dalton Camp, Gordon Churchill, John G. Diefenbaker, E. Davie Fulton, Edwin A. Goodman, Gowan Guest, Christine Hammond, Douglas Harkness, Clyne Harradence, J. Francis Leddy, Cynthia McCormack, Flora MacDonald, Brian McGarry, Brian Mackey, Keith Martin, John A. Munro, Marjorie (Bunny) Pound, Peter Roberts, H. Basil Robinson, Benjamin Rogers, Mitchell Sharp, Marion Wagner, Lorne Whitty