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Greatest PM ever?? Worst Ever??? Most influential /well known??

lordmandeep

lordmandeep

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So In Canada we know so much about the great American presidents...

FDR, Lincoln, George Washington and such

and bad ones like
Bush and Nixion


I was wondering its time we reflect on our own leaders for once and lets share our results.

Best PM's
-Macdonald (sure he came to Parliament drunk but he founded our nation)
-Laurier (He did not do much, but his stature and his reputation is unsurpassed)
-King (sure he talked to ghosts in his closet but he led us over 22 years)
-Pearson (He and Trudeau radically changed Canada)
- Bordon (Lead us through the great war)
The best: Laurier

Worst PM's
- Brian Mulroney (Sure he did some great things, but when he dies it won't be the story of the year, like when Trudeau died and his personality :mad:)
- Paul Martin (utter disappointment after being one of the best Finance minister we ever had)
- Kim Campbell and John Turner both lead to their parties to their worst defeats ever.
- All of the them between Mackenzie King and Laurier (Tupper, Thomson Abbot, Bowell)
- Joe Clark and John Diefenbaker are the most hilarious and joked about PM's and that is not a good thing

The most Influential/Well Known
Meaning the PM who today is well known and well respected or hated. Even though he been dead, his ghost haunts us all due to his failure and reminds of a time of better leaders. A PM that is known by the generations that lived during his reign and by people today.

None other the very admired and controversial Pierre Elliot Trudeau.
When he died in 2000, he became the story of the year and even his critics payed respect to his personality and charisma. He transformed Canada radically from a white anglo-saxon dominated nation to a multicultural, multilingual nation for better or for worse. His charter of freedoms has moved Canada ahead of the world when it comes to social issues or others may say has lead to a loss of the Canadian identity.

However he devastated the economy and the federal budget but his successor made his damage look insignificant :D. He alienated every one west of Manitoba but his charm, his antics and personality is what makes him so well known and influential today. Trudeau easily could have been a hated or disliked man but due to the fact we have had such boring, lackluster leaders after him further enhanced his image.




What say you????
 
Best: LBP, who along with the assistance of Tommy Douglas, ushered in a lot of the national institutions that Canadians value the most and cement our national identity. Things such as peacekeeping, universal health care and official bilingualism; the auto pact which greatly shaped the Ontario economy and its wealth was also a product of the Pearson years. If anything, he brought Canada into the contemporary world and solidified its importance as more than some colonial afterthought but more as a rightful "middle power". Ditching the Red Ensign gives him extra credit in my books and he's also an alma mater of my high school in Peterborough, so there's some hometown pride mixed in there too.
 
I see no reason to add to the above. I agree: LBP and friends.
 
I too would say Pearson for the best PM, the worst would have to be Mulroney, and I would agree that Trudeau was the most well known and influencial
 
Robert Borden was not at all a great Prime Minister. He was very much like Harper, in the way he figured that Canada could show its pride by sending in as many troops into the First World War as possible (he was pro-Britain to a fault), he couldn't have picked a worse Defense Minister (Sam Hughes), though at the end, he figured that Canada, with more than its share of war dead, should have additional influence on the world stage, so that's his contribution. He kind of brought in universal sufferage, except he only allowed wives of soldiers, widows, or mothers of soilders to vote for his politcal advantage.

Having Bennett in a list of "best" without Trudeau is strange.

Most overrated: Mackenzie King. Never mistake longetivity with greatness. I find Laurier overrated as well.

Here's my list of good-intentioned failures:

- John Sparrow Thompson. Had such great promise, was the first Catholic Prime Minister, and a likeable man. His problem was he died not longer after selected Conservative leader while being knighted in London
- John Diefenbaker. He was the first to open up Canada's immigration policy (much more liberal in many ways than his Liberal precedessor, St. Laurent), attempt a codification of basic rights (the Bill of Rights, which was unfortunately, as only a bill, not part of the Constitution), but he screwed up in other ways, and didn't have the most competant government. He also didn't know when to say goodbye, waiting for Dalton Camp to throw him out of Maple Leaf Gardens 6 years after defeat. He was still an MP until he died.
- Joe Clark. Really nice guy. I met him, too. His minority government was a joke, but could have had another go if Mulroney didn't screw him over.

Worst:
- Bennett. Canada's answer to Herbert Hoover. Had no clue what to do during the Depression, and would blame the victims.
- Meighen. He was a pure asshole.
- Mulroney. 'Nuff said.

My favourites:
- You've gotta love Pearson. He brought Canada into the modern age, with the first liberalization of moral laws that today would compare poorly with the even the most backwards US states. He was a more effective bureaucrat than politican, but he did a lot, setting the stage for my personal favourite, Trudeau.
- Trudeau. The right man for the right time when it came to Quebec and the continued liberalization of our laws and a strengthened Constitution.
- MacDonald. Like Baldwin, he linked with a French-Canadian partner and was instrumental in putting this country together in the first place and laying the framework for a cohesive nation.
 
And interestingly it was Trudeau who wanted to bring in a national energy policy when he was PM - and that certainly did not win him many friends in parts of the country.
 
Hipster Duck said:
Best: LBP, who along with the assistance of Tommy Douglas, ushered in a lot of the national institutions that Canadians value the most and cement our national identity. Things such as peacekeeping, universal health care and official bilingualism; the auto pact which greatly shaped the Ontario economy and its wealth was also a product of the Pearson years. If anything, he brought Canada into the contemporary world and solidified its importance as more than some colonial afterthought but more as a rightful "middle power". Ditching the Red Ensign gives him extra credit in my books and he's also an alma mater of my high school in Peterborough, so there's some hometown pride mixed in there too.
Click to expand...

+1

LBP also is responsible for our Flag and national anthem

While I never liked him personally, you can't deny Mulroney his respect as one of the most accomplished PMs in history.
 
I will be curious how historians, say, 50 years from now will view the likes of Trudeau and Mulroney. I would guess Trudeau may drop a notch and Mulroney may be treated less harshly.
Full disclosure: I voted for Turner, but the live debates were painful.

As a person, I think Trudeau put Canada on the world stage, perhaps more so than Pearson did. Certainly Margaret's antics kept the foreign media busy.
Although he had no other choice in the way Quebec was handled, I still fear the chickens have not come to roost with our fractured country.
I am watching Belgium's implosion with a wary eye.

Mulroney had to make a lot of tough, unloved decisions at a time when the world economy was turning for the worse. Still, I won't defend the man. I wonder if Turner would have done any better. Chretien certainly didn't.
 
Macdonald, Laurier, St. Laurent, Pearson, and Chretien are probably the best we've ever had. Trudeau, Diefenbaker and King also deserve high marks for their contributions when all is said and done.

Hands down best, imo, was Laurier.
 
Yes, Mulroney's unwanted forays into constitutional change and 42 billion dollar deficits must have been really tough.

Oddly enough, under Chretien, the country went from deficit to surplus. One can assume that required some tough decisions, no?

The only person who couldn't see that Turner was not ready for the job was Turner.
 
Hydrogen said:
Yes, Mulroney's unwanted forays into constitutional change and 42 billion dollar deficits must have been really tough.

Oddly enough, under Chretien, the country went from deficit to surplus. One can assume that required some tough decisions, no?

The only person who couldn't see that Turner was not ready for the job was Turner.
Click to expand...

Well, 21% mortgages didn't help Mulroney, did they?
 
I suppose it would be if he were buying a house at that time.
 
Hydrogen said:
I suppose it would be if he were buying a house at that time.
Click to expand...


But the entire economy was affected by horrid interest rates. By the time Chretien took over, they had dropped substantially.

I'm just saying is all. I never liked Mulroney all that much, but not for the reasons most people suppose. Nobody could obfuscate like he could.
 
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