who was canada's best prime minister?

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I'm partly just curious if anyone will even post but Pearson seems pretty hard to dispute.

― Sundar (sundar), Saturday, 10 February 2007 18:13 (eighteen years ago)

Benton Fraser

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Saturday, 10 February 2007 18:15 (eighteen years ago)

Dief is the Chief! nah, my head says Lester B. too but my heart says PET

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Saturday, 10 February 2007 18:19 (eighteen years ago)

the chick

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Saturday, 10 February 2007 18:20 (eighteen years ago)

er wait she was married to the prime minister. my bad.

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Saturday, 10 February 2007 18:21 (eighteen years ago)

we did have Kim Campbell as PM for a few months, but I think you're maybe thinking of Maggie Trudeau?

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Saturday, 10 February 2007 18:24 (eighteen years ago)

I thought you were talking about

http://temagami.carleton.ca/jmc/cnews/15022002/news/images/opinionphoto1.jpg

Everyone's heart says PET but did he do anything good that wasn't a continuation of something that began under Pearson (medicare, liberalized immigration,etc)? Besides, after watching some of that CBC mini-series, I realized he was the kind of person who was good at everything, and therefore a little harder to love.

xpost!

― Sundar (sundar), Saturday, 10 February 2007 18:25 (eighteen years ago)

you night be right, but shit like this makes me love PET (from wikipedia)

During the 1950s, he was blacklisted by the United States and prevented from entering that country because of a visit to a conference in Moscow (where he was arrested for throwing a snowball at a statue of Stalin) and because he subscribed to a number of leftist publications. Trudeau later appealed the ban, and it was rescinded.

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Saturday, 10 February 2007 18:32 (eighteen years ago)

Plus he wrote that nice bit about canoeing.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 10 February 2007 18:48 (eighteen years ago)

Sundar, I think PET had a much more advanced vision of what Canada should/could be than any other PM before or since. Crediting everything he did to Pearson wouldn't be fair at all, imho.

That said, I'd stil have to go with Lester. No one could rock the bow-tie like that man could.

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Saturday, 10 February 2007 18:57 (eighteen years ago)

Pearson was the first name that came to mind. He got jobbed in that "Greatest Canadians" list on CBC a while back (Tommy Douglas #1 = WTF of the decade, although Don Cherry #7 or wherever he finished certainly poses a decent challenge).

― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Saturday, 10 February 2007 19:29 (eighteen years ago)

it really depends on 'best', but for sheer lasting impact on the country, i'd have to say PET. a lot of what i grew up understanding canada to be can be attributed to him, and i mean to him directly. in many cases, PMs get credited with things that happened when they were in office (e.g. i think that free trade would have happened regardless of mulroney himself), but PET really drove a lot of his government's agenda, from bilingualism to constitutional reform. i really don't think we've seen such an engaged and driven PM since.

― derrick harder (derrick.h), Saturday, 10 February 2007 21:46 (eighteen years ago)

poor william lyon mackenzie king

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Saturday, 10 February 2007 21:48 (eighteen years ago)

There were major problems with PET though - invoking the War Measures Act, causing the deficit to balloon (I'm not convinced this was a necessary outcome of the social programmes begun under LBP), questionable handling of things like NEP. Maybe his own home province would have grown that alienated without him, I dunno. I'll grant that he probably had more things to deal with. There's no question that he was engaged and driven and had a vision.

― Sundar (sundar), Saturday, 10 February 2007 22:02 (eighteen years ago)

Mind you, I don't know how well UN peacekeeping has played out in the long term either.

― Sundar (sundar), Saturday, 10 February 2007 22:16 (eighteen years ago)

I've got a soft spot for Chretien, cuz he was fun.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Sunday, 11 February 2007 04:39 (eighteen years ago)

I've got a soft spot for Sir John A. because he was drunk.

― Bryan (Bryan), Sunday, 11 February 2007 05:29 (eighteen years ago)

I thought Canada just had a mayor?

― Candy: tastes like chicken, if chicken was a candy. (Austin, Still), Sunday, 11 February 2007 05:30 (eighteen years ago)

You're thinking of Canada's Wonderland.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Sunday, 11 February 2007 05:32 (eighteen years ago)

i dont think we have had a perfect one yet, but my top 5 would be

PET (and i think the national energy policy is more than understandable, and i think the problem we have with the inequality w. the provinces is because we have not radically enganged with federalism in the same way that he did) (but i find the war measures action bascially unforgiveable)

Pearson (though peacekeeping has proven a utopian failure, though the rest of the UN is doing an excellent job of keeping other things togehter)

King (the conscription, the racism, noted but for actually working to get past the depression, and the foundation of some of the most impt canadian cultural institutions, including the nfb)

Lauier (For Reconcillation)

Chretien (geniunly progressive)

― pinkmoose (jacklove), Sunday, 11 February 2007 06:15 (eighteen years ago)

But the next one will be AWESOMEST.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Sunday, 11 February 2007 06:41 (eighteen years ago)

Could be Sir Charles Tupper, for his sideburns, and his nickname "The Ram of Cumberland". Or Mackenzie Bowell? "Most notably, Bowell is known for passing the infamous "Bowell movement" in the House of Commons - much to the chagrin of his colleagues.". Sir John A, of course, for his well-known gin habit, is a classic.
I heard an interview with Kim Campbell once, on NPR in the US, years after she'd been PM so briefly. She actually sounded funny, fun, and smart. I was surprised. I don't expect Harper to sound like that when he's (finally) gone.

― pauls00 (pauls00), Sunday, 11 February 2007 16:30 (eighteen years ago)

Chretien? Seriously? I would put BORDEN before his ass!

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Sunday, 11 February 2007 16:38 (eighteen years ago)

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