It frequently gets agitating listening to someone say that times were so much simpler in the old days.  It's a kind of naïve way of both dismissing the past and providing excuses for the inactions of the present.  The world has always been on the verge of some calamity or another, but the fragile years shortly after the cessation of the Second World War were especially fragile.  While many celebrated the end of hostilities, a new order was emerging that could blow up the world in seconds and led to the decades-long chill of the Cold War.  The words “finger on the nuclear button” became an essential part of the vocabulary of the 1950s.It was never going to be as simple as the Soviet Union and America just going at one another.  Nuclear war was likely to be prompted by some limited regional action that would eventually explode into a larger conflict.  And the most volatile of those regions in those times was the Middle East.  It was all so confounding, so volatile and complex that the great powers at times felt helpless.A coalition of French and British interests had monopoly over the Suez Canal until Egyptian president Gamal Nassar nationalized the canal, effectively ending Western control.  Egypt announced that it would use its control to charge tolls on ships in order to pay for their vast Aswan Dam project.Secretly, plans were made by Britain, France and Israel to attack Egypt and not bothering to inform America on the other NATO allies, including Canada.  When Israeli forces surged to an area near the canal, both Britain and France demanded that they pull back.  It was a ruse.  Like something out of a John le Carré novel, all of this was pre-planned as a way of gaining the canal back and expanding Israeli territory.   The trouble was that Nassar resisted the ploy and it was then that Britain and France began bombing the canal zone.  U. S. President Dwight Eisenhower was livid, as was Canada, believing that a larger conflict could soon result.Lester Pearson headed Canada's UN delegation and the Suez crisis occupied his complete attention in the summer of 1956.  The entire Western alliance appeared mired, afraid to make a move lest it be misinterpreted and result in nuclear war should the Soviet Union be drawn in.In an early precursor to shuttle diplomacy, Pearson worked with mastery of the various files to secure assent to create a robust and armoured peacekeeping force larger than anything the UN had seen before.  Ultimately, 57 nations voted in favour, 19 abstained, and no country voted against.  It was a triumph of remarkable statesmanship.Everyone was shocked, however, when the next day France and Britain, in a joint exercise, landed troops in the canal zone in direct violation of the UN decision.  America pressured the two nations to find a resolution.  Pearson's idea then came into full effect, as peacekeepers entered the canal area.  The action permitted England, France and Israel to withdraw from the region without looking like they had been defeated.  The peacekeeping force was led by Canadian General E.L.M. Burns and had immediate effect.We all know what happened following those dramatic events.  Pearson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 for his leadership role and eventually went on to become prime minister of Canada.These were hardly “more simple times” happening in a more innocent era.  The world had just concluded a major war and, through Pearson's leadership, narrowly avoided another one.  Those weeks and months were some of the most perplexing of the modern era and it took experience, expertise and exception fortitude to keep the conflict from spreading.Today is the anniversary of Lester B. Pearson's birthday and we recognize it for all the right reasons.  No age has been simple, but those frightful months in 1956-7 showed the world how this country not only lived in peace, but had the ability to secure it elsewhere.On this day in 2010, I was asked to rise in the House of Commons and speak on Lester Pearson's remarkable life.  I wore an old bow tie of Pierre Berton's, provided generously by his family, to celebrate a Canadian life that transcended its times.  Pearson's influence was still special enough that every member of the House rose in applause and appreciation of a Canadian who knew all about tortured times but understood the peace was better than war and knew how to persuade others to live their lives on those terms.  It is a leadership Canada is still capable of.Glen Pearson was a career professional firefighter and is a former Member of Parliament from southwestern Ontario.  He and his wife adopted three children from South Sudan and reside in London, Ontario.  He has been the co-director of the London Food Bank for 32 years.  He writes regularly for the London Free Press and also shares his views on a blog entitled “The Parallel Parliament“.   Follow him on twitter @GlenPearson.