PEACE: Lester B. Pearson 1957 - Waterton Lakes National Park, AB, Canada
Posted by: 
T0SHEA
N 49° 03.189 W 113° 54.389
12U E 287651 N 5437433
Prime Minister of Canada from 22 April 1963 to 20 April 1968, UN delegate from 1946 to 1956 and UN General Assembly President in 1952-1953, Pearson was awarded the Nobel Prize for peace in 1957.
Waymark Code: WMPBWN
Location: Alberta, Canada
Date Posted: 08/06/2015
Views: 3
It was Lester Pearson who, while Minister of External Affairs in the Canadian Parliament, drafted the speech given by then Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent proposing the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which came into being in 1949. Until 1957, Pearson was the Canadian delegate to NATO and served as chairman of the NATO Council in 1951-1952.
Pearson also headed the Canadian delegation to the UN from 1946 to 1956 and was elected to the presidency of the General Assembly in 1953. It was he who was instrumental in the creation of the state of Israel in 1947. When the Suez Crisis arose in 1956, it was he who proposed the creation of the United Nations Emergency Force, the world's first peacekeeping force, which was given the power to intervene in such crises. For that, primarily, he received the 1957 Nobel Prize for Peace.
Text from the plaque honoring Lester Pearson is below. The plaque is mounted near the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park Peace Pavilion in Waterton Lakes National Park in Waterton, Alberta.
Lester B. Pearson Canadian Peacemaker
Lester Bowles Pearson (1897-1972) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957. It was a well deserved reward for a lifetime dedicated to peace.
Pearson experienced the horrors of World War I while working as a hospital volunteer and pilot. As a rising star in Canada's Department of External Affairs, he tried (in vain) to prevent a repetition of that terror and bloodshed. He attended the League of Nations and major conferences on international law and disarmament during the turbulent 1930s - the same period when the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park was created.
After World War II, he served as Canada's Minister of External Affairs. War-shattered countries and newly-independent nations were struggling to build their economies and communities. When Britain, France and Israel clashed with Egypt over the Suez Canal in 1956, the Middle East seemed headed for war. Pearson suggested that the United Nations intervene. He worked relentlessly for four sleepless days and nights to build support for his idea. In response, on November 4, 1956, the General Assembly created the United Nations Emergency Force - the world's first peacekeeping force.
We invite you to learn more about peacemakers and the world's first International Peace Park at our Peace Park Pavilions. Waterton's is nearby, and Glacier's is at the south end of Upper Waterton Lake at Goat Haunt. To get there, take a boat ride down the lake or hike the 13 km Lakeshore Trail along the western side.