Populist-in-Chief

As he embarked on the federal election campaign in April 1957, John Diefenbaker was filled with doubts. He had led the Progressive Conservatives for just four months and didn’t think he had done well as opposition leader. The opinion polls were showing the incumbent Liberals miles ahead. He was concerned that he might even lose his own seat in Saskatchewan. The Liberals “are out to beat me at all costs,” he wrote to his brother, Elmer. “Gee it would be my end if I got defeated personally and I would be out for sure.”

The next two months would show just how wrong Diefenbaker had been to worry about disaster. He narrowly won that 1957 campaign, as the Liberals showed their fatigue after twenty-two years in office. The following year, he caught fire with voters in a way that’s rarely seen in this country, and the PCs won what remains the most massive victory in Canadian political history.

But Diefenbaker’s reputation hasn’t fared well in the decades...