Editing Louis St. Laurent (section)

=== Foreign policy ===
[[File:StLaurnet Pearson and Churchill.jpg|thumb|Canadian Prime Minister
St. Laurent (far left), British prime minister [[Winston Churchill]] (left), British foreign minister [[Anthony Eden]] (right), and Canadian foreign minister [[Lester Pearson]] (far right) in Ottawa in 1954]]
St. Laurent and his cabinet oversaw Canada's expanding international role in the postwar world. His stated desire was for Canada to occupy a social, military, and economic [[middle power]] role in the post-World War II world. In 1947, he identified the five basic principles of Canadian foreign policy and five practical applications regarding Canada's international relations. Always highly sensitive to cleavages of language, religion, and region, he stressed national unity, insisting, "that our external policies shall not destroy our unity&nbsp;... for a disunited Canada will be a powerless one."  He also stressed political liberty and rule of law in the sense of opposition to totalitarianism.{{sfn|Mackenzie|2007}}

Militarily, St. Laurent was a leading proponent of the establishment of the [[North Atlantic Treaty Organization]] (NATO) in 1949, serving as an architect and signatory of the treaty document.<ref>James Eayrs, ''In Defence of Canada: Volume 4: Growing Up Allied'' (1980) pp 58–62</ref> Involvement in such an organization marked a departure from King who had been reticent about joining a military alliance. Under his leadership, Canada supported the United Nations (UN) in the [[Korean War]] and committed the third largest overall contribution of troops, ships and aircraft to the U.N. forces to the conflict. Troops to Korea were selected on a voluntary basis. St. Laurent sent over 26,000 troops to fight in the war. In 1956, under his direction, St. Laurent's secretary of state for external affairs, Lester B. Pearson, helped solve the [[Suez Crisis]] between Great Britain, France, [[Israel]] and [[Egypt]], bringing forward St. Laurent's 1946 views on a U.N. military force in the form of the [[United Nations Emergency Force]] (UNEF) or [[peacekeeping]]. These actions were recognized when Pearson won the 1957 [[Nobel Peace Prize]].<ref name="The United Nations Organization"/>

In early 1954, St. Laurent took a 42-day long tour around the world, citing his desire to get a better picture of what he said, "the problems which all of us have to face together." He visited 12 countries in total, including France, Germany, Japan, India, and Pakistan. When he returned to Canada, St. Laurent's personality and character appeared to slightly change; cabinet ministers noticed he showed signs of fatigue and indifference. Some even claimed he started to feel depressed. Author [[Dale C. Thomson]] wrote, "[the tour was] his greatest hour but it marked as well the beginning of his decline; as such, it was a turning point both for him and for Canadian politics."<ref name="LouisBio" /><ref>{{cite web |last1= |first1= |title=Louis St-Laurent goes around the world in 42 days |url=https://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/st-laurent-goes-around-the-world-in-42-days |website=CBC |access-date=16 January 2022}}</ref>