What impressions did you have of the presidents when you were growing up? (or other politicians)

My childhood impression was that she was pure evil. While Reagan was just a functional idiot.

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In 1988 my middle school had its own mock-election where everyone learned about the voting process and got to vote for president in curtained booths with levers that you pulled--the class went republican in almost a direct reflection of the polls at the time and I was very disappointed since I liked Dukakis although I found his eyebrows strange.

Don't remember Margaret Thatcher stealing babies! Milk maybe! (Although not in Scotland)... Did she really?

All I can remember from my childhood is "Margaret Thatcher, Baby Snatcher!"

I think you'll find that the cry was "maragret Thatcher, milk snatcher", because she stopped the provision of free milk to all school children (we used to get a third of a pint of milk in a glass milkbottle at morning break).

Related, but not really ... why does the USA have such a strange way of getting its citizens to cast their vote, using levers and machines and even, I understand, computers. Surely the UK system of putting a cross on a bit of paper next to the candidates name is simpler and would avoid things like "hanging chads", as well as having a physical record of the votes cast. Putting a cross on a bit of paper may not be technically advanced, but it works.

Only childhood political memory: someone telling the teacher I said "Margaret Thatcher is an evil bitch" in the playground and me getting the belt for swearing.

One funny memory was during the 1984 miners' strike when this teacher asked if anyone's father was a miner. One guy stuck his hand up. The teacher asked if he was on strike, and when he said 'no', the teacher asked if he was a scab!

This isn't really comparable but politically-related...I recall my 4th grade teacher telling us all about how evil the USSR was, and how they had no toilet paper etc, and then when I repeated said facts to my mom, she tried to disabuse me of the notions by claiming she'd rather live there and she just might make up her mind for us to move to the soviet union. I also remember in 6th grade, my social studies/language arts teacher telling us all about the "good" Sunni muslims and the "bad" shi-ite muslims in Iraq. I think I was old enough to know not to trust teachers by then.

At age 10?!

Mine too! I think that's the only time my dad ever voted PC (provincial or federal). He tries to forget it.

I don't remember Trudeau in power at all, strangely enough. I remember sitting with my Grandma the night Mulroney won (the first) time and she explained that he was the new PM. I was ten, and I thought he looked really dapper.

But even at that age, and knowing nothing about politics until I was about twelve, I always thought John Turner was a dink. But so did the rest of Canada.

I always felt a bit bad for Kim Campbell, you know, the way she led the PC's to their worst political defeat ever and ruined the federal conservative moment in Canada for over a decade. That's a lot of baggage to carry around.

I didn't like Cretien in the beginning, but I grew to like him over time. When I've long forgotten any and all political decisions he made as PM, I'll still remember that choking incident.

Paul Martin gets a worse rap than he deserves. I wouldn't want to watch a ball game with him, but I trust him to run the country. (with George Bush, it's the opposite!)

Well she did technically "lead" the PC's to their worst defeat ever (those ads zooming in on Cretien's face was probably the worst of it) - BUT the "worst defeat ever" is more Mulroney's fault what with the free trade and GS-motherfucking-T. And fact is she was Canada's 1st (and worst) female PM ever. Some alright baggage to have there.

when he got shot, there were stories of people sending him big jars of jellybeans because he really liked jellybeans. i thought that was cool because i really liked jellybeans too. they tried to get us to write him letters, but i don't think i did.

my opinion of reagan's presidency is a bit different now.

I remember thinking Reagan was the antichrist.

Childhood beliefs about Russians

Only in 1992 was I able to justify what I didn't like about the Republicans -- they all seemed old and out of touch -- and this made Clinton especially attractive to me. Here was a man who was in his 40s (young!), who was shaped by the civil-rights movement and Vietnam, and who understood basic principles of tolerance. I loved that he promoted so many women and minorities to his cabinet. I thought, finally we have a president who gets it. My journal entry on the day after he was elected contained the phrase "dawn of a new era." And after he was inaugurated, I bragged to all my conservative friends about how long he'd been in office ("it's been 13 days and 5 hours now!").

The guy who ate dog biscuits and had to sit in a special desk voted for John Anderson.