Talk:J. Blair Seaborn

Mandarin?

Why is there a section entitled "Canadian Mandarin"? The text doesn't explain it. If it is a metaphor, I am afraid I am lost what it might be for, and so will most of the readers, without a proper explanation. --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 12:46, 10 March 2020 (UTC)

That was just a Canadianism. The Canadian diplomatic corps, especially in the period 1940s-1960s when the diplomatic corps grew massively in size, were often described as the "Canadian mandarins". The diplomatic corps were a very elite, exclusive group whom only took in the proverbial "best and brightest", and in this way they were felt to resemble the Mandarins of China, hence the term "Canadian Mandarins". That was very much the image of the diplomatic corps at the time and was I was just alluding to that image with the title Canadian Mandarin. I hate bland section title like "Early life", and I always try to pick a section title that sounds evocative. Through the Department of External Affairs was founded in 1909, traditionally Canada was for the most part represented abroad by the British Foreign Office as successive prime ministers, most notably William Lyon Mackenzie King, thought opening embassies would cost too money. Mackenzie King was very strange character. This is the guy who liked to conduct seances where he would talk to his dead stuffed dog to get political advice from his dead mother, whom he absolutely adored. He liked girls, but he never got married as he never found a woman who could quite measure up to his beloved mother, even after her death. In between his seances where he talked to his dead dog to contact his dead mother and talking with his favorite fortune teller, Rachel Bleaney, who was easily his most influential political adviser, Mackenzie King favored a semi-isolationist foreign policy, taking the view that the world outside of Canada was a very bad place and Canadians would do well to have little to do with it as possible (one of the few exceptions was when Bleaney told him in 1937 when her readings on the astral plain showed that Hitler was a force for peace, causing King to go off to Berlin to tell a bemused der Fuhrer this important information). King was so paranoid that maybe his diplomats might get Canada into trouble that he always served as External Affairs minister himself, keeping a very tight control of foreign policy.  

If I am focusing on Mackenzie King, it is because he was the prime minister for most of the time from 1921-1948, and for over a generation, this eccentric, suspicious, petty and chronically indecisive man dominated politics in Canada. Not because of any great genius on his part, very far from it. In those days Quebec held 40% of the seats in the House of Commons, and as French-Canadians voted solidly as a bloc for the Liberals, winning the majority of seats in Quebec plus whatever seats the Liberals might pick up over the rest of country was enough to usually give King a majority government, which explains why King was always so deferential to Quebec despite the fact that he didn't speak any French. In Canada winning about 38% of the vote will usually give you a majority government. By the end of World War Two, there is a lot of evidence that many Canadians were getting tired of King's semi-isolationism and ultra-cautious foreign policy, and wanted Canada to play a bigger role in the world. The Second World War had really given many Canadians a huge boast in their national self-confidence, and there was a widespread feeling by 1945 that Canada is a nation that could do so much to make the world a better place. As it was King won the 1945 election due to the usual reasons but in 1948 he finally retired. His successor as Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent and as External Affairs minister, Lester Pearson, broke with his foreign policy, favoring a much more activist foreign policy. Which is why after 1948 Canada started opening more embassies abroad while the diplomatic corps expanded massively as Canada started to take over representing itself abroad. Going along with all this was this a mood of national self-confidence, there really was this feeling for the first 25 or so years after 1945 that Canada would make into the world a better place. Which is why you got all these articles celebrating the diplomatic corps as the "Canadian Mandarins", this elite body was making a real difference in the world. Most notably, in 1956 Canada opposed the Suez war, which would had been unthinkable before 1939 as Canadian leaders tended to loyally support British foreign policy. The fact that Pearson opposed the Suez war and criticized British foreign policy without ending his career showed how much things had changed.

I was alluding to that image at the time with the title Canadian Mandarin. I suppose I should explain that better in the text about what was the popular image in the post-war era. I suppose one could use it Canadian Diplomat, but I preferred capture some of the feeling at the time, when was a belief that a diplomatic career made you into somebody very important. Cheers!--A.S. Brown (talk) 05:54, 11 March 2020 (UTC)  

Interesting. If there is a reference that calls him a mandarin, we can retain that "Canadianism", with a short explanation in text of what it means. Otherwise we have to 'dumb it down', so that an average reader around the world won't be confused. --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 13:09, 11 March 2020 (UTC)

Thank you Piotrus. I'll take a browse through the libraries for a RS. Sorry, I should been thoughtful of other readers around the world and my apologies for being a little parochial. Best wishes and cheers!--A.S. Brown (talk) 03:02, 12 March 2020 (UTC)