Event Date: November 30, 2026 - 5:30pm to 7:00pm
Location: FSS 4004, 120 University Private, University of Ottawa

Presented by CIPS and GSPIA

Lester Bowles Pearson was born in Toronto in 1897. During the First World War, he served as a medical orderly in Greece and then trained as a pilot in England. However, he was struck by a bus during a black out and was sent back to Canada in 1918. He studied at the University of Toronto and at Oxford University before joining the Canadian foreign service in 1927.

His diplomatic career spanned 23 years. He served as the first secretary at the Canadian High Commission in Britain from 1935 to 1941; and then moved to the Canadian Embassy in Washington in 1942. Three years later, he served as the Canadian Ambassador to the US, attending the conference which founded the UN in 1945.

Pearson began his political career as a Cabinet Minister for External Affairs under PM Louis St. Laurent. In 1956, he recommended to the UN that an international peacekeeping force supervise the withdrawal of British, French and Egyptian forces from the Suez Canal. Canada acted as one of the supervisory forces. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for these efforts that averted another global conflict.

In 1958, Pearson succeeded Louis St. Laurent as leader of the Liberal Party and was elected Prime Minister in 1963. He retired from politics in 1968 and returned to the academic world. He died in 1972.

In Private Letters, Public Matters, Michael Pearson, the grandson of former Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson, draws on family correspondence to illuminate the personal side of one of Canada’s most influential political figures. Through these letters, he will offer us a glimpse into the relationships, reflections, and private moments that ‘Mike’ Pearson witnessed, and participated in, during an extraordinary time of war and peace in Canadian and world history.

Copies of Michael’s book will be available for sale at the event. The cost is $35.

Speaker:

Michael Pearson (MA, International Affairs, Carleton University) is a retired federal public servant, having worked in several ministries. He was a political policy advisor to four Canadian foreign ministers, a global fisheries negotiator and ran the international affairs department at Health Canada during the COVID pandemic.

Chair:

Dr. Costanza Musu is the Director and a Full Professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa and Editor-in-Chief of the journal International Politics (Palgrave). She obtained her PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Opening Remarks:

Alexandra Gheciu is a Professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA) and the Director of CIPS.