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The Right Honourable Lester Bowles Pearson was Canada’s fourteenth Prime Minister, serving from 1963 to 1968.

Pearson was born in Newtonbrook, Ontario in 1897. Pursuing his studies at the University of Toronto and later at Oxford University, Pearson then went on to become one of Canada’s most distinguished statesmen.

Before winning the leadership of the Liberal Party in 1958, he had an extensive and successful career as a diplomat and senior civil servant in the Department of External Affairs, which he joined in 1928. In 1945 he was appointed Canadian ambassador to the United States. While based in Washington, DC, Pearson participated in the establishment of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

As Secretary of State for External Affairs (1948-57), Pearson headed the Canadian delegation at the United Nations. Pearson was the first Canadian to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in setting up an emergency UN force to defuse the 1956 Suez Crisis. The initiative to establish a Canadian centre for international development research had its beginnings in the Department of External Aid under Pearson’s administration.

In 1968, following his retirement from politics, Pearson headed the Commission on International Development. Its seminal report, Partners in Development, contributed to the ideas that led to the creation of IDRC. Pearson was appointed IDRC’s first Chair of the Board of Governors in 1970.

Lester B. Pearson died in 1972.

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