Pave 4, The Herald, Friday, August 17, 1978 TERRACE/KITIMAT daily herald Published by Starling Publishers General Office - 635-6357 Clreulation - 635-6357 GEN. MANAGER - Knox Coupland EDITOR - Greg Middleton CIRCULATION- TERRACE - 635.6357 KITIMAT OF FICE - 632-2747 Published every weekday at 3212 Kalum Street, Terrace, B.C. A member of Verified Circulation. Authorized as second class mall. Registration number 1201, Postage pald In cash, return postage guaranteed, NOTE OF COPYRIGHT The Herald retains full, completa and sole copyright In any advertisement produced and-or any editorial or Photographic content published In the Herald. Reproduction is not permitied. Diefenbaker remembered for speeches John Diefenbaker was known as the master of barb, — one of the most adept at the art of slicing thé political jugular. His reputation for eloquence brought invitations by the thousands from public groups seeking a keynote er. 858,c0qling of some his comments about: HIS OPPONENTS: “Have you ever seen him kiss a farmer?,” referring to Pierre - Elliott Trudeau's “Kissing campaign” of 1968. . ‘The master of osculation (kissing) . talled Parliament back so he could kiss it goodbye,” when _ Trudeau dissolved Parliament for the 1968 electlon. “Tn the days of King, St. Laurent, Pearson and I (his two predecessors and his successor), we paid for our own cars,” objecting to the Trudeau government’s purchase of two $80,000 Cadillacs while the Liberals called for energy conservation. “No party can stand for something when it carries a banner carrying the design of ‘me too,” of Robert Stanfield, then Conservative leader, on Diefenbaker’s 80th birthday in 1975. | ss ‘You can't have a real Parliament when you have a third party with a leader who belched fire and brimstone before this sitting, then having met with his. pride of lions in caucus, becomes a cooing dove,” September, 1973, of David Lewis, then NDP leader. “The House of Commons has become a mental - hoapital operated by its own inmates," June 10, 1972, after procedural wrangles had halted most Commons business that day. a “He has been guilty of an articulate lack of skill,” of Dalton Camp, national party leader who sought a leadership review that led to the 1966 leadership convention, Diefenbaker’s downfall: * ~ : “When you have government that tries to turn a ‘banana into a backbone, you can understand some of the uncertainties of the past two years,” in a 1965 cam- paign speech, referring to Lester Pearson, prime minister at the time, HIS CAREER: ‘I am still making history,” after losing the Conservative leadership to Stanfield in 1967. ‘Any accolades that come my way embarrass me,” . {is 1976 on his 36th anniversary in Parliament. “I have not often been embarrassed.” ’ “A man coming into Parliament should always clash with the man at the top... . No one ever made a name by exercising his debating strength against the weak,” on his eth birthday in 1964. He had many offers to return to work as a trial lawyer “but I've appointed so many ofthe judges I. ‘feel it would be indiscreet to appear before them,” when he turned 74. “Don’t get me started on history because then you — shall know the meaning of eternity," said frequently of his love of storytelling. ‘will make mistakes, but I hope it will be said of ‘me when I give up the highest honor that you can confer on any man, as was said of another in public service: ‘He wasn’t always right; sometimes he was on the wrong side, but never on the side of wrong,’”” when he accepted the Conservative leadership in 1955. “[’d never have been prime minister if the Gallup polls had had their way,” in Lethbridge, Alta., in 1962, “TE never campalgn . .. I just visit with the people,” in 1965 at a campaign picnic. “They say I've made mistakes, you know. But they’ve been mistakes of the heart,” at.a party gathering in 1983, 4 ; “My friends, you say: ‘Give ’em hell John!’ I never do that. Itell the truth and it sounds like hell. It simply sounds that way to the Grits," in Moncton in 1963, ROYALTY: “This government won't be satisfied until all semblance of royalty is in the garbage can,” part of his successful attempt to reverse a policy that would have substituted the word ‘‘Police’’ for “RCM- P” on cars and buildings. “Both the people who are silent and in the majority should stand up for the monarchy and stop the surreptitious chiselling away under the table against the things that through the generations have been upheld by Scots everywhere,” in 1969 to St. Andrew's Society members. _ HIS COUNTRY: Ihave never seen it as divided as it is today,” during an Aug. 10, 1978, CT'V interview. “Suspicion, fear, all these things that deny unity are esent.’ ‘Sir John A, Macdonald gave his life tohis party. He opened the West, He saw Canada from east to west.'1 see a- new Canada — a Canada of the North,” in Winnipeg, 1958. | “We in Canada believe that good fences are necessary,'’ introducing the late U.S. president John F. Kennedy at a joint sitting of the Commons and the Senate in 1961, . “There are great interests against us — national and international — but the people of Canada have an appointment with destiny,” in Port Hope, Ont., 1963. “T am the first prime m/nister of this country of neither altogether English nor French origin. So I determined to bring about a Canadian citizenship that knew no hyphenated consideration,” March, 1958. HIS CHILDHOOD: “This is no novelty to me," in 1962 when some women of the radical Doukhobor Sons of Freedom sect stripped off their clothes at a political meeting. “I was raised gn a homestead in Sas- katchewan and that's why I know what those things are.” . panion of Honor, “The Right Honorable John Diefenbaker Dief was always the ‘Chief’ commander Gabriel Dumont who taught him how to shoot a rifle. ; He missed his beloved wife, Olive, wid always ‘stood by his side, He'd telephone her throughout the day. She was as strong as he was. Recently, he was able to laugh at the memo- _ Ties of some of her stories. So, By JAMES JOHNSTON Somehow we might have ex- pected the Old Chief to have ‘dropped in a ferocious battle against a fire-breathing dragon. We long suspected that he hoped the end would come on his beloved Parliament Hill. Instead he quietly slipped away in his own den. For once, John Diefenbaker was not able _—t00, with mention of his brother to do it his © way.. Elmer, whom he always cred- Some years ago I heard him __ ited with helping him tocontinue say: ‘I wish I could live another ~ school. mo, 50 years just to see how it all Dief had a long memory but he did not hold grudges once the differences were settled. Many good men were inadvertently turns out.”’ ; We thought he would. ‘I talked with John Diefenba- _ker Wednesday atnoon and shall _—invalved in the terrible debacle always treasure that fact. He of 1966 when a few small men was full of his usual fire and his, hacked down the Chief and left a ideas danced around the globe. shattered Conservative party.- a Chief, He talked of Lusaka and Rho- the size of the federal deficit. There was excitement over his September visit to China. In a few days he-was going to Diefenbaker? ,.... ... F northern Canada to open a new Courage | «..tremes road andi asked him Joshingly it courage. “T ton’ ae ch it was an “igloo to igloo” high- _ side doors,’ he saidas hess way — the term the Liberals intoa hos i sro, ue used for the road to resources program introduced when he was prime minister. “They used to laugh,’ he 68-year oi “You lay ofie hand on ne.a growled. ‘‘Damn Grits!" your lif es St ee As the conversation ended Laughteg .. jloyd, raucous, with a "see you soon” I never _—wild, unggntrolled layghter and expected it would be never, fun, a sbpér “and” devastating sense of mimicry which ranged from Lester Pearson to Winston Churchill to Jack Pickersgill to Jackie Kennedy. Integrity .. “How were you ever able to put up with 50 years of dealing with those bastards?” I once asked. “Well,” he said, “always be able to tell them to And in common’ with thou- sands of Canadians to whom he seemed like a father or grand- father, I can think of a hundred: things I intended to tell hirn, a thousand yarns he will never laugh at. John Diefenbaker treasured his friendships and he kept them alive all across this country. He gave so many Canadians a bastards — that is your word, glimpse of greatness, a sharing not mine — never let the in the pleasures and triumph of — bastards ever get to you.” seeing things and deing things Cunning ... what cunning: ‘I through him which they would _ will just say enough in the House never see or do themselves. to-get the Grits going, and they He stayed at Windsor Castle. _ will not know what I intend to The Queen made ‘him a Com- do.” , He knew— Humor ... or.just'plain dev- Churchill, De Gaulle, Eisen- iment, In the midst of a Liberal hower. But he never forgot that crisis, a Liberal cabinet as a boy on the prairies, it was minister's car mysteriously ‘Louis Riel'’s Metis military sproutedasticker. “Don’t Blame hooligans threatened to elout the * pene ning e di: give you the wotst ‘trimming of° Dief had long since let bygones: *, ‘that?’ he stormed, When I re- desia and just as easily swung to = be bygones with those whomade amends, but he .néver-‘forgave’ ° those with blood .on: thai hands.;. "aah What do | rentember, of Johit. -°. an SPAT AY “ ; af te a ay acta al ad gs t he. : ““the’Tary leadership, the crowils,” a go to hell. But never let the | Me —'I Voted Conservative.” The minister reached his car in front of the Parliament building, glowered at it, looked, fpr’ at’” Diefenbaker's office Window ‘and shook his fiat. And who was. watching but the Chief who had inspired the gag... Intelligence .... John Die- fenbaker could reada book a full page at a time. He could go ‘ through a complicated legal or economic report in a few hours, then deliver a key ‘speech in the Memory ... like an elephant's. Just after moving to Cobourg, 1 passed on some sage remarks from one of. the - local i hers that were critical “Who told you flsed to say, he paused. “Wait a «uminute,” he said, “It sounds Like - - ‘Neill.”’ I¢ was, _clghn Diefenbaker was a sen- ditive man ‘but he tried not to © {show it. Late in 1967, a few days ‘wafter he has been ousted, from ‘including dozens of children, . gathered around him at Expo in Montreal, He wiped a tear from - ‘his eye. “I thought they would have forgotten me.” moo He was always surprised that his friends loved him for what he was. Out of office, he could do nothing for them — or so he thought — but he did everything” for them just by belng Dief. . It is a day of sadness. But itis also a day of happy memories — the memories of the old Chief | who put his country and his people first, . . By this afternoon, he will have called on St. Peter and told him how he wants Heaven to be run, James Johnston, national di- rector of the Progressive Con. servative party in the Dielenba- ker years, was one of the last persone to talk to the Chief be- fore his death. Now publisher of Cobourg Star and Port Hope’ Gulde, he draws a highly per- sonal and affectionate picture of his friend. a - forecast | Diefenbaker’s political life OTTAWA (CP) — Harsh political partisanship marked much of Join Diefenbaker’s period as prime . minister from 1957 to 1963. That was a generation that played the game that way. It was a product too of the personalities of some. of the main players. And it was the Issues. ' The Diefenbaker years produced solid legislation. ranging from resource development to social benefits, reform and more money for the provinces... He iought with Joey“Smallwood of Newfoundland » over money and the attempted use of the RCMF in a Hitter logging strike, with the late W.A.C. Bennett of - British Columbia over power development of the - Columbia River and with T.C. (Tommy) Douglas of - Saskatchewan about alot of things, =‘ = Canada-U.S. relations soured once the young John ¥. Kennedy appeared. In fact, the dispute about ae- American nuclear arms on Canadian soll y cep - became the issue dominating the 1962 election and the ‘final defeat in 1963,. ‘ ; But from the start, his most consistent problein as * manoeuvred by a relatively tiny opposition was the economy, relatively healthy by today’s statistics. . - Liberals. cried foul in 1957 when the newly-elected man from Saskatchewan flourished what he called a secret Liberal forecast predicting on the eve of its own defeat serious economic troubles. The allment sur- vived to plague him. . co . The early flamboyant act was a Diefenbaker special’ of noholds-barred polities by a man-who played to.win - ‘and had often lost... © 9.0.02 0. fo He first ran for the Commons in 1925, finally getting there in 1940, and it wag his durable joke that the only protection for a Conservative in the Saskatchewan of that period was the game laws: _ -He had, after all, cut his teeth ‘fighting the Liberal machine of the long-time federal agriculture minister, . monet