Dief did have this romantic view of Macdonald that he was a nation builder and that he was really the only Conservative leader that he had any respect for and that all of those who had intervened after Macdonald until he became leader weren't up to it. So that he quite naturally looked on Macdonald as his real predecessor as leader of the Conservative Party. In '57 and '58 his talk about Macdonald was part of his effort to create confidence and to renew confidence of Canadians in the future of the country by saying, "This is the second phase of creating a nation sea-to-sea, and Macdonald began it, and I've come to finish the job." He talked as though he was the incarnation of Macdonald and probably half believed it.
