On March 31, 1958, Canadians were called to the polls. Three days before the election, the Clark Street Sun was published. In an editorial that was intended to be apolitical but no less committed —this very well sums up Sun Youth’s political posture throughout the years—, the newspaper sent some advice to voters and politicians, reminding the former of the importance to exercise their democratic rights, and the latter of the importance of not letting power distract them from their initial goal of serving the population.

On the night of the election, John Diefenbaker, Canada’s 13th Prime Minister since the 1867 Confederation, is re-elected. His Progressive-Conservative Party won 208 seats in Parliament, the largest percentage of seats in Canadian federal political history. Among its accomplishments, the Diefenbaker Administration adopted the Canadian Bill of Rights, gave the Native Americans the right to vote, and held the hard line against apartheid in South Africa, which lead to its exclusion from the Commonwealth. It also appointed the first female minister and the first Native American to the Senate. In office, Diefenbaker met Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Charles De Gaulle, Nikita Khrushchev and Mao Zedong, to name these few. In 1963, he lost against Lester B. Pearson and his Liberals. On August 16, 1979, in Ottawa, John Diefenbaker died of a heart attack at the age of 83.

In June of that same year, the boys at the Clark Street Sun received a letter of encouragement and congratulations for their journalistic and philanthropic work from PM Diefenbaker’s Office.