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In an interview, Wilson said the Laurier biography attributes the story to Diefenbaker himself in its footnotes.

“There is nothing to support this whatsoever,” he said.

Diefenbaker was an inventive guy and a teller of tales, and he first told this story on the election trail in Quebec, 53 years after the encounter was to have taken place, Wilson said.

“It was during the 1963 federal election campaign. He was speaking in Quebec and it’s a time-honoured political gambit to establish a rapport with your audience.”

There’s also no evidence of the meeting in the Diefenbaker family lore, he said.

“Can you imagine a raconteur like Dief sitting on a story that good for 53 years?”

The Diefenbaker Centre has a replica of the statue, lending it academic credibility, Wilson said. The Saskatoon Club has a copy of the newspaper in question, which they once presented to Diefenbaker, displayed on their ceiling.

Wilson continued to call the plaque and statue “false history” and “shabby journalism,” even after the StarPhoenix pointed out the plaque retelling the story of the meeting was installed by the city, not the newspaper.

Saskatoon StarPhoenix Editor in Chief Heather Persson rejects the idea that the statue should be pulled down.

“A statue is not a piece of journalism,” she said. “The newspaper is more than happy to make Garrett Wilson’s doubts about the credibility of Diefenbaker’s tale part of the public record. He is likely not the first to question this story. But Diefenbaker himself put it in his memoir, and it is part of the legend of this leader.