Today in Canada’s Political History: Louis St.-Laurent tells a journalist how a long-serving leader should properly bow out
On this date in 1954 a relaxed Prime Minister Louis St.-Laurent was in his Centre Block office enjoying an off-the-record discussion with Tom Kent of the. Just back from England, Kent told the PM the chattering classes there were consumed with debating whether Winston Churchill, then in his twilight years, should step down.
While not exactly young himself, St.-Laurent said Winston should retire. He then went on to describe to Kent how he thought a veteran leader shouldleave office. “Very few men in public life hold on to two truths about the decision to retire: it’s the most difficult decision to make; and to make it correctly you have to make it sooner than is necessary,” St-Laurent said. “It is the one decision for which no advice is any help to you. All the people close to you have their own reasons for wanting you to go or wanting you to stay. You must make the decision alone.
Of course, St.-Laurent did not follow his own advice. He stayed one election too many and was defeated by a Prairie storm named Diefenbaker in 1957.is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy.
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