In Defence of Dief, Part One: The Torying:

John Diefenbaker was the 20th Century's greatest Canadian Prime Minister. This is a rare assertion to make, doubtless, but it is an assertion that I make without reservation. Truly Pierre Trudeau ranks a close second and the likes of Liberalism shall never find such a leading light again, but while Pierre magicked us into addressing one fundamental problem at the expense of all others, John Diefenbaker addressed myriad problems, and acted as a political poultice during his time, his decisions tending to bear fruit after his rule.

I shall devote three weeks to this serialised defence of a forgotten leader. In seven parts I shall expose his impact on economics, parliamentary freedom, Canadian independence, the weaning of the Canadian preoccupation with high technology, civil rights, economic nationalism, and the shattering of the myth of the di-genious bi-cultural state. (I will note that this was not an assault on bilingualism, but rather an assertion of the Canadian Mosaic)

Economics:

Those of you old enough to, do you remeber the '57 recession? Didn't think so. Though there was a significant economic slowdown, the government of the day was determined to pursue steady state economics. Thus even though the Liberals had a report telling them that an economic slowdown was emminient, they had no public works projects to carry them through such a recession. The Diefenbaker government responded swiftly and effectively, spreading public works programs most heavily during the lean winter monts (the Winter Works program) and increasing all manner of transfer to get money into the hands of Canadians, where it could be used to stimulate demand.

The government intervened in key sectors of the economy to avert exascerbations of the slow down averting a railway strike, providing farm relief, and borrowing from the Bank of Canada to stop contraction of the money supply. Peter Newman puts these actions down to spend thrift seeking off the public's love. He would do well to remember that, during the Diefenbaker years, the Debt to GDP ratio fell by aboiut 10% (41-37 if memory serves). The Diefenbaker government kept a steadier hand on public finances than did its successors, because they failed to understand how to properly stimulate an open economy. Pearson subsidized the aquisition of capital in resource industries. Trudeau moved the country into cyclical deficit, and Mulroney could never bring himself to attack localised entitlements or expand the money supply, thus starving core services and unneccessarily pauperising the public treasury.

Diefenbaker has one of the most underrated economic legacies of Canadian Prime Ministers this century. Instead of being a basket case, the Diefebaker era, in no small part thanks to Finance Minister Flemming, was notable for its ability to combine growth, flexibility, and stability.