Back to the Beginning
The final is set, and it will feature a clash between two Canadians whose leadership as Prime Minister no one voting in this poll experienced (I'm going out on a limb to guess there are very few 100 year olds reading this blog).
(1) Mackenzie King (424) 33.57%
(4) Wilfrid Laurier (839) 66.43%
(2) John A. Macdonald (896) 64.55%
(3) Pierre Trudeau (492) 35.45%
While Laurier cruised to a victory in his matchup, Macdonald got a huge boost from the right (slogan: "winning Internet polls, not elections, since 1993") over the last two days to break a dead heat with Trudeau. While I'm a big Trudeau fan myself, John A. Macdonald is certainly a very deserving finalist, as is Wilfrid Laurier.
The final poll will be posted tomorrow and, once again, you will be able to vote once a day, until next Tuesday at noon, when the final winner will be announced. Throughout the week, I'll be posting bios, and arguments for and against the two finalists. I think you can make a very good case for either of them.
(1) Mackenzie King (424) 33.57%
(4) Wilfrid Laurier (839) 66.43%
(2) John A. Macdonald (896) 64.55%
(3) Pierre Trudeau (492) 35.45%
While Laurier cruised to a victory in his matchup, Macdonald got a huge boost from the right (slogan: "winning Internet polls, not elections, since 1993") over the last two days to break a dead heat with Trudeau. While I'm a big Trudeau fan myself, John A. Macdonald is certainly a very deserving finalist, as is Wilfrid Laurier.
The final poll will be posted tomorrow and, once again, you will be able to vote once a day, until next Tuesday at noon, when the final winner will be announced. Throughout the week, I'll be posting bios, and arguments for and against the two finalists. I think you can make a very good case for either of them.
posted by calgarygrit at
2:26 p.m.
13 Comments:
Given that there was an attempt to throw Trudeau off from the beginning, the fact that he made it this far to lose to Macdonald certainly demonstrated his appeal, and for him to lose to Macdonald is an honourable and reasonable defeat. If he had lost to I think it was Joe Clark, that would have been a travesty, but to lose to the founder of Canada is anything but. Indeed, I am surprised he did so well against Macdonald even taking the push from the right to defeat Trudeau out of the equation. It speaks volumes to how many Canadians he influenced and is admired by, even after all the attempts to vilify him from the Canadian right these past two decades since he left office.
By
Scotian, at 4:32 p.m.
Trudeau wuz robbed!
But at least you managed to slap them before you dropped PET - "winning Internet polls, not elections, since 1993"? Brilliant.
By
john, at 4:42 p.m.
I will second that John (well the second part). Great line.
By
Greg Staples, at 5:03 p.m.
A vast right wing conspiracy!
What else is new?
By
Nastyboy, at 6:40 p.m.
Well played by the right! While I would have liked to see Trudeau continue to the final, I admire the tactics employed by his opponents.
By
Anonymous, at 7:32 p.m.
I just think it's funny that the right united around Macdonald. Almost as funny as the fact that they united around Clark and Pearson. Macdonald is probably the most corrupt prime minister in history.
By
Ryan Ringer, at 8:09 p.m.
Blue Grit,
No no.... that was Jean Chretein.
By
Andrew, at 8:34 p.m.
To be fair I'll state that Laurier probably recieved a fair bit of right wing support as well. If you examine his political views I'd say they would likely be deemed "right wing" by today's perspective. He ran an entire election on the basis of free trade, and was quite classically liberal in his perspective. While I'm critical of his construction of railroads after the initial line simply because it was a "popular" thing to do.
I'm a card carrying Conservative and I have a lot of respect for Sir John A. MacDonald and from a certain partisan perspective I supose I feel inclined to support him by ideologically I'd probably vote for Laurier as he's a better representation of a modern Conservative.
By
Chris, at 8:50 p.m.
Andrew:
No, no... it really wasn't Chretien. Read a bit about the CPR scandal. Macdonald makes Chretien look like an amateur. He basically ran his election campaigns using the CPR's money for almost his entire time in politics. The Liberals didn't even stand a chance because the Conservatives were being bankrolled by a railroad monopoly which they sustained.
By
Ryan Ringer, at 10:24 p.m.
Macdonald got a huge boost from the right (slogan: "winning Internet polls, not elections, since 1993")
Exactly.
By
AWGB, at 1:04 a.m.
"he ran an entire election on the basis of free trade"
Actually he did it twice, in 1891 and 1911, but that does not make him right-wing. PET appointed the Royal Commission on the Economic Union and Development Prospects for Canada, chaired by long-time Liberal minister Donald MacDonald, which recommended free trade and a greater reliance on market mechanisms in 1985. Brian Mulroney, who had publicly opposed free trade in 1983, accepted the Commission's recommendations and bagan negotiating free trade with the United States the following spring. Surely you wouldn't sugest that Donald S. MacDonald, who still attends Liberal fundraisers and other functions, is right-wing because he recommended free trade and deregulation in the early 1980s.
By
Anonymous, at 10:34 a.m.
So the Liberals are taking credit for free trade now. What's next? saying they don't like taxes?
As I recall Liberals ran and lost a whole campaign based on opposing free trade.
By
Anonymous, at 10:54 a.m.
I voted for Laurier and MacDonald in the semifinals, and encouraged others to do so as well.
As the final sits, I don't plan to campaign for either candidate. I think a case can be made for both.
While MacDonald was a Conservative in name, I think Laurier closely represented the "classical liberal" framework which is most similar to my own beliefs.
By
Michael Fox, at 12:41 p.m.
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