I remember that Mr. Pearson started off as a professor. His wife was one of his students -- she became his wife after she was his student. In today's world that might have got him into trouble. But, he was a diplomat, and he was the best diplomat we had in the 20th Century. He was one of the world's great diplomats; he won the Nobel Prize, and so on. But he gave Canada an international stature that nobody else has given to Canada.
When he went into politics, he was still a diplomat. He was still building consensus, agreement, compromise. As a result, since he was always compromising, he never got credit for what he accomplished because he would always state Objective A, which was out there, and he'd be willing to settle for B. But in politics you've got to state B and get to A, and then you're a hero. If you have to retreat from A to B, you're a bum. So Mr. Pearson accomplished a great deal -- Medicare, the Canadian flag and so on -- [but] he never got the credit he deserved because he always backed into the decision.
He was very affable, but I had the highest regard for him. He brought me into the Liberal Party. He was a fun man to work for, but don't underestimate him -- he had an ego, and he had a temper too.
