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Sir John A. Macdonald
Sir John A Macdonald Video
Sir John A. Macdonald was a Father of Confederation. He was the first Prime Minister of Canada. Prime Minister of Canada:
1867-73 -
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The Prime Ministers of Canada
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Alexander Makenzie
Alexander Mackenzie was the first Liberal prime minister of Canada. A severe economic depression was a major problem for Alexander Mackenzie, but his government implemented some major reforms, including: •the secret ballot
•Supreme Court of Canada
•Office of Auditor General
•Royal Military College of Canada Prime Minister of Canada:
1873-78 -
Sir John A Macdonald
John A. Macdonald became Prime Minister again in 1878 when the Conservatives were returned to power. During Macdonald's second administration the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway was finished. John A. Macdonald won three more elections in 1882, 1887 and 1891.
Prime Minister of Canada:
1878-91 -
John Abbott
Sir John Abbott was Prime Minister of Canada for only 17 months and saw himself as a caretaker prime minister, stepping in on the death of Sir John A. Macdonald in 1891. Prime Minister of Canada:
1891-92 -
Sir John Thompson
Sir John Thompson was the first provincial premier to become prime minister of Canada. Sir John Thompson died suddenly after just two years as Canadian prime minister. His major contribution was the Canadian Criminal Code of 1892. Prime Minister of Canada:
1892-94 -
Makenzie Bowell
Mackenzie Bowell was the only prime minister of Canada to be forced to resign by his own cabinet, which he called a "nest of traitors." Prime Minister of Canada:
1894-96 -
Sir Charles Tupper
With an impressive career in Canadian politics, Sir Charles Tupper was 75 when he finally became Prime Minister of Canada, and then served for only 10 weeks. His Conservative government was defeated by Sir Wilfrid Laurier's Liberals on the Manitoba Schools Question on minority education rights.
Prime Minister of Canada:
1896 -
Sir Wilfrid Laurier
Sir Wilfrid Laurier had the longest unbroken term of office of any Canadian prime minister. Laurier was Prime Minister of Canada for 15 years and a member of the House of Commons for 45 years. Sir Wilfrid Laurier was the first francophone Prime Minister of Canada, fluently bilingual, and spent much of his time in office trying to balance the interests of the French and English in Canada. Laurier was a moderate and known for his ability to compromise. Prime Minister of Canada:
1896-1911 -
Robert Borden
Prime Minister Robert Borden led Canada through World War I, eventually committing 500,000 troops to the war effort. At the end of World War I, Canada ratified the Treaty of Versailles and joined the League of Nations as an independent nation. Prime Minister of Canada:
1911- 1920
1911-20 -
Arthur Meighen
Arthur Meighen was an excellent debater, skilled in analysis and knowledge of parliamentary rules, but his uncompromising stands on issues tended to alienate people. Meighen's most memorable accomplishments were achieved as a cabinet minister in the government of Sir Robert Borden, rather than as Prime Minister of Canada, and the legacy of some of those unpopular moves did not help him as Prime Minister.
Prime Minister of Canada:
1920-21 and 1926 -
William Lyon Mackenzie King
Mackenzie King was Prime Minister of Canada off and on for a total of 22 years. A compromiser and conciliator, Mackenzie King was mild-mannered and had a bland public personality. The private personality of Mackenzie King was more exotic, as his diaries show. A devout Christian, he believed in an afterlife, and consulted fortune tellers, communicated with his dead relatives in seances, and pursued "psychical research."
Prime Minister of Canada:
1921-26, 1926-30, 1935-4 -
R.B. Bennett
R.B. Bennett was a millionaire businessman who was Prime Minister of Canada throughout the Depression and his Conservative policies did little to help the hardships faced by Canadians. R.B. Bennett had a large ego and was said to run a one-man government. Prime Minister of Canada:
1930-35 -
Louis St. Laurent
Fluently bilingual, with an Irish mother and a Québécois father, Louis St. Laurent was an apolitical lawyer when he went to Ottawa in 1941 to be Minister of Justice and Mackenzie King's Quebec lieutenant "temporarily" until the end of the war. St. Laurent did not retire from politics until 1958.
Prime Minister of Canada:
1948-1957
1948-57 -
John Deifenbaker
John Diefenbaker had mixed success on the international front. Diefenbaker championed international human rights, but his confused defence policy and economic nationalism caused tension with the United States.
Prime Minister of Canada:
1957-63 -
Lester B. Pearson
As Prime Minister of Canada, Lester Pearson led two successive minority governments, and governed with the support of the New Democratic Party and Social Credit Party. The Pearson governments seemed to be accident prone. with minor scandals, budget problems and an increasingly restless Quebec. Still, Lester Pearson managed to rebuild the Liberal Party, and leave behind some notable accomplishments. Prime Minister of Canada:
1963-68 -
Joe Clark
At the age of 39, Joe Clark became the youngest Prime Minister of Canada in 1979. A fiscal conservative, Joe Clark and his minority government were defeated after just nine months in power on a non-confidence motion on a budget of tax increases and program cuts. Prime Minister of Canada:
1979-80 -
Peirre Elliot Trudeau
Peirre Elliot Trudeau
As Prime Minister, Trudeau espoused participatory democracy as a means of making Canada a "Just Society". He defended vigorously the newly implemented universal health care and regional development programs as means of making society more just. Prime Minister of Canada:
1979-80 -
Pierre Elliot Trudeau
As Prime Minister, Trudeau espoused participatory democracy as a means of making Canada a "Just Society". He defended vigorously the newly implemented universal health care and regional development programs as means of making society more just. He also implemented many procedural reforms, to make Parliament and the Liberal caucus meetings run more efficiently, and substantially expanded the size and role of the prime minister's office. Prime Minister of Canada:
1980-1919 1986-1919 -
John Turner
John Turner was a Prime Minister in waiting for too long. By the time John Turner had waited out the Trudeau era and was elected Leader of the Liberal Party to become Prime Minister in 1984, the country was fed up with Liberal government. Turner seemed out of touch, made a number of political gaffes, including calling an early election, and the Conservatives won a massive majority. Prime Minister of Canada:
1984 -
Brian Mulroney
One goal Brian Mulroney had as Prime Minister of Canada was to bring Quebec into the Canadian constitution, and he came close. In the end, both the Meech Lake Accord in 1987 and the Charlottetown Accord in 1992 were defeated, and Canadians had grown tired of constitutional wrangling. Prime Minister of Canada:
1984-93 -
Kim Campbell
Kim Campbell was Prime Minister of Canada for only four months, but she can take credit for a number of Canadian political firsts. Kim Campbell was the first woman Prime Minister of Canada, the first woman Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, the first woman Minister of National Defence, and she was the first woman elected leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. Prime Minister of Canada:
1993 -
Jean Chretien
Jean Chretien was an MP for 40 years and led three consecutive Liberal majority governments. Jean Chretien governments gave Canada liberal social policies and a healthy Canadian economy, including elimination of the deficit. In its later years, however, the Chretien government was marked by scandals over mismanagement and by a split in the Liberal party as Paul Martin pushed to take over the job of prime minister.
Prime Minister of Canada:
1993-2003
1993 to 2003 -
Paul Martin
Paul Martin had lofty goals of reforming Parliament and giving Canada a place on the world stage, but he was indecisive in leadership and his government was overshadowed by scandal. Paul Martin himself was exonerated by the Gomery Inquiry into the sponsorship scandal, but the Liberal Party "culture of entitlement" was soundly rejected by Canadians. Prime Minister of Canada:
2003-2006
2003-2006 -
Stephen Harper
Prime Minister Stephen HarperPrime Minister Stephen Harper has worked through the right-leaning parties in Canada, and as Leader of the Canadian Alliance Party oversaw its merger with the Progressive Conservatives to form the new Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. He ran a meticulous campaign in the 2006 federal election, and led the Conservatives to a minority government. In the 2008 electelection, and led the Conservatives to a minority government.
Prime Minister of Canada:
2006- Present -
