Promise & Fulfillment

In Governor General Vincent Massey's book-lined study, a sternly handsome man with pale blue eyes took a solemn oath: "I swear to serve Her Majesty truly and faithfully in the place of her council in this Her Majesty's Dominion of Canada." Then John George Diefenbaker, 61, bent to kiss a Bible, intoned, "So help me, God." Thus, in a quiet ceremony, Canada's 13th Prime Minister since Confederation (1867) took office last week.

The accession of the new Conservative Prime Minister, who led his party to the most stunning electoral upset in Canada's history, ended 22 years of Liberal rule (TIME, June 17). It was also the fulfillment of a storybook promise. As a strong-willed boy of ten, he announced an ambition that shaped his life: "I'm going to be Premier of Canada."

New Team. With Diefenbaker at the swearing-in ceremony were his chief lieutenants, who will take over the new administration. The Prime Minister, who was his party's foreign-affairs expert in opposition, named himself to succeed External Affairs Minister Lester B. Pearson. To succeed the Liberals' U.S.-born Trade Minister Clarence Decatur Howe, 71, who became the most powerful man in the Canadian economy and, next to Pearson, the Liberal Minister best known abroad, the Prime Minister picked a Winnipeg lawyer, Gordon Minto Churchill, 58. To be Secretary of State (a grab-bag ministry that deals with such matters as relations between the federal and provincial governments), he brought in Canada's first woman Cabinet member: Mrs. Ellen Fairclough, a Hamilton, Ont. housewife and accountant.

At first seemingly startled by their boldness in turning out the established Liberal regime in favor of the untried Tories, Canadians last week showed a growing tingle of pride. Gloated the Ottawa Journal: "What opens before us is a vista of fresh political interest: new faces, new voices, new opportunities. For we had come to a perilous stagnation, for long the most politically lethargic, uncritical and inarticulate citizens in the whole democratic world." Author H. S. Ferns, a recent biographer of late Liberal Prime Minister Mackenzie King, saw a more fundamental change on the political horizon. Wrote he: "Mr. Diefenbaker has honestly proclaimed himself a leader of the moderate right. Mr. Coldwell [leader of the small Socialist Party] has honestly proclaimed himself a leader of the moderate left. There is no longer any place for the Liberals."

"Especially the U.S." On the eve of flying to London for this week's meeting of Commonwealth Prime Ministers, Diefenbaker declared: "It will be my privilege to tell them that we want to continue to stand together as a family, for richer or for poorer, for better or for worse, in good times or in bad times, in success or in adversity, by God's grace, in friendship and in harmony with all the world, and especially the United States of America."

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