Thursday, September 15, 2005

PM Rankings

As part of the final round of Greatest Prime Minister, here are several rankings of Canadian PM's I've managed to collect (once again, Bastards and Boneheads proved to be a great source for this).


The Maclean's Study

Great:
1.William Lyon Mackenzie King
2. Sir John A. Macdonald
3. Sir Wilfrid Laurier

Near-Great:
4. Louis Saint-Laurent

High-Average:
5. Pierre Elliott Trudeau
6. Lester Pearson
7. Sir Robert Borden

Average:
8. Brian Mulroney
9. Jean Chrétien*
10. Sir John Thompson
11. Alexander Mackenzie
12. R.B. Bennett
13. John Diefenbaker

Low-Average:
14. Arthur Meighen
15. Joe Clark

Failure:
16. Sir Charles Tupper
17. Sir John Abbott
18. John Turner
19. Sir Mackenzie Bowell
20. Kim Campbel

*this study was done in 1997


Brian Mulroney Ranking
1. John A. MacDonald
2. Brian Mulroney
(3-21 are ambiguous, although Pierre Trudeau is near the bottom)


Canadian Mint Ranking
Borden 100$
King 50$
Macdonald 10$
Laurier 5$


Bastards and Boneheads Ranking

Greats:
1. Macdonald
2. Trudeau

The High-Averages:
3. King
4. Laurier
5. Borden
6. St. Laurent
7. Pearson

The Adequates:
8. Mackenzie
9. Thompson

The Disasters:
10. Bennett
11. Diefenbaker
12. Mulroney


My Own Personal Rankings
Yes, I'm aware of my bias, but this is how I'd put the list together
1. Trudeau
2. Macdonald
3. Laurier
4. King
5. Chretien
6. Borden
7. Pearson
8. St. Laurent
9. Diefenbaker
10. Thompson
11. Mackenzie
12. Bennett
13. Clark
14. Mulroney
15. Meighen
16. Tupper
17. Abbott
18. Turner
19. Bowell
20. Campbell

13 Comments:

  • Diefenbaker below St. Laurent?

    By Blogger Wendy Cooper, at 3:44 p.m.  

  • And Martin, CG? Inquiring minds want to know.

    ;-)

    TB

    By Blogger Ted Betts, at 4:17 p.m.  

  • 1. Clark was harmless enough whereas you could make the case that Mulroney did a ton of damage. Mulroney was a really tough one to rank for that reason. I can see how some right wingers voted for Joe Who ahead of Trudeau (they felt Trudeau did a lot more harm than good).

    2. Almost every ranking I've ever seen has St.Laurent ahead of Diefenbaker. I don't think that's a stretch at all.

    3. I decided to hold my verdict on Paul until his time as PM is done. So far...I dunno...he's likely in the 11-13 range.

    By Blogger calgarygrit, at 4:39 p.m.  

  • Clark ahead of Mulroney? Sorry lad, that is about as laughable as as promising to end partisan politics and then shortly afterwards naming your former close colleagues to the senate (see Mr Dithers).

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:48 p.m.  

  • Chretien ahead of Mulroney? The only two policies that led to Chretien having any fiscal success were the GST and FTA. Who introduced those? Aside from maintaining the status quo by keeping all of Michael Wilson/Brian Mulroney's policies, what else to Chretien do, beside presiding over the most massive cut in health spending in 138 years, using his influence to get loans for golf courses and hotels that he owned or was related to, and allowing the most massive corruption since Sir John A. himself?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:52 p.m.  

  • C'mon CG, you've got to put Mulroney ahead of Paul Martin...

    By Blogger Michael Fox, at 8:13 p.m.  

  • Chretien's too high - and I love the guy. Pearson and St. Laurent both have better records, even just counting the Liberal PMs in a relatively non-partisan way. Borden is also way too high; his mishandling of conscription is a terrible black mark. Thompson at 10? The guy is (cough, cough) famous for dying. I guess he's there as a marker for "unfulfilled promise". I think poor Kim really gets the short end from everyone, and yes she was a disaster for the PCs politically, but she wasn't a hideous Orangeman racist like Bowell, so I'd let her up to 19.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:17 p.m.  

  • It's really hard to compare the long serving PMs to the ones who were in for less than a year.

    I figured Thompson was about as neutral as they came, so the ones above him would be those who left a somewhat positive mark, and those bellow would be the ones who left a somewhat negative mark.

    As for Chretien, I think he compares favourably to St.Laurent. Both presided over strong economic growth and neither has a towering achievement, albeit several solid ones.

    By Blogger calgarygrit, at 4:17 p.m.  

  • I don't understand how people can hate on Trudeau so much. Charter of Rights and Freedoms people! Unless y'all are sore over SSM, and minority rights...

    By Blogger Paladiea, at 6:20 p.m.  

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