The Diefenbaker Legacy: Canadian Politics, Law and Society Since 1957

Agar Adamson is the author of Letters of Agar Adamson, 1914–19 and former chair of the Department of Political Science at Acadia University in Nova Scotia.

In March 1997, the Diefenbaker Centre at the University of Saskatchewan
held a symposium to mark the 40th anniversary of John Diefenbaker’s
victory in the 1957 election. One of the results of that symposium was
this collection of 12 essays, which cover such topics as Canada–U.S.
relations, Canadian defence and security, political leadership, and
human rights.

One of the book’s biggest disappointments is the paper on nuclear
weapons, the issue that brought Diefenbaker down in February 1964;
Professor Simpson’s failure to give full consideration to the Harness
papers in this essay is mystifying, particularly for those of us who
lived through that crisis. Far more successful are R.M. Belliveau’s
insightful essay, “Parliamentary Democracy and the Canadian Bill of
Rights,” and David Stewart’s well-written and well-researched paper
on Diefenbaker’s relations with his party.

As is suggested by a paper Allan Cairns presented at the 1993 political
science meetings, Diefenbaker had a more positive impact on Canadian
politics and society than is implied by the authors of these essays. As
a result of Diefenbaker’s fight with his party, Canadian political
parties were opened up to the grassroots and became democratic
institutions. Diefenbaker brought the West, and Westerners, into the
mainstream of Canadian politics. His Bill of Rights, particularly after
the Daybones decision, alerted Canadians to the need for an entrenched
Charter of Rights. This book does not give this side of the Diefenbaker
legacy the attention it deserves.