John George Diefenbaker, the 13th Prime Minister of Canada, was born in the Grey County village of Neustadt on September 18, 1895. Only eight when his family followed the flood of immigrants west, John moved to the Fort Carlton region of the North-West Territories in 1903 before arriving in Saskatoon seven years later.
A son of the Saskatchewan frontier, he went on to a long career in politics, winning a seat in Parliament thirteen times in a row and serving as Prime Minister for six years. One of the most spell-binding orators in Canadian history, John Diefenbaker helped extend the vote to aboriginal people, fought against apartheid in South Africa, and helped bring medicare to Canada.
From time to time, the Diefenbaker house in Neustadt has made the news. Over the decades there has been a continuing effort to turn his childhood home into a memorial to one of the more famous sons of Grey to achieve national prominence. Now privately owned, Diefenbaker’s Neustadt home is in good hands. But there is a second Diefenbaker homestead that is not faring quite as well. Once located in Saskatchewan’s Borden district, this simple frame prairie house was dismantled back in 1967 and moved to Regina.
A pioneer building and one of the few remaining examples of the simple dwellings that prairie farmers lived in when Saskatchewan was founded 100 years ago, the Diefenbaker home now stands abandoned and boarded up behind a chain link fence. With no money to restore the home, there is a growing fear that it may be sold or dismantled.
John Diefenbaker was a remarkable man. The winner of the largest election victory in Canadian history in 1958, he was both a son of Grey and of the prairie west.
Originally aired July 16th 2016
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