Ever the diplomat, Canada's Prime Minister Lester Pearson broke the news in a characteristically understated way. Toward the end of a humdrum Cabinet meeting in Ottawa last week, as his ministers were about to consider an inconsequential industrial-aid item, Pearson rose and declared, quite deadpan: "Speaking of 'adjustment assistance,' I want to read you a letter." To the Cabinet's astonishment, the letter was, indeed, a matter of adjustment. In it, Lester Pearson announced that he will resign as head of Canada's ruling Liberal Party.
At 70, "Mike" Pearson, Canada's 14th Prime Minister, its seventh Liberal Party leader and its first...