The Best Prime Minister We Never Had
Over the years, a lot of politicians have been given the title of "best Prime Minister Canada never had". So for the rest of the summer, I'll be weeding down a list of close to 100 would be Prime Ministers until one is crowned.My hope is that this will be a fun way to learn a bit about some great men and women who gave a lot to their country, without receiving the fame of glory of...say...Joe Clark.
The first round will be to cut the field down to 16, at which point the top 16 will be seeded for head to head battles (the four regional winners will get the top 4 seeds). You're eligible to vote for up to 16 candidates every day, until noon on next Monday when the contest will be closed. Feel free to write endorsements and mobilize the vote for your candidate of choice; I'll be profiling some of our coulda-been-PMs over the next week. The ballot is bellow and I've included links to biographies of all the contenders as well:
Atlantic Canada
Dalton Camp
John Crosbie
Joe Ghiz
Joseph Howe
Allan MacEachen
Angus MacLean
Alexa Mcdonough
Frank McKenna
George Murray
Jack Pickersgill
Joey Smallwood
Robert Stanfield
Samuel Tilley
Robert Winters
Clyde Wells
Quebec
Louise Arbour
Lucien Bouchard
Henri Bourassa
George Etienne Cartier
Maurice Duplesis
Adélard Godbout
Marc Lalonde
George-Émile Lapalme
Jean Lapierre
Ernest Lapointe
Pierre Laporte
Jean Lesage
Rene Levesque
Jean Marchand
D'Arcy McGee
Frank Scott
Ontario
Edward Blake
Ed Broadbent
George Brown
Sheila Copps
Bill Davis
George Drew
Eddie Goldenberg
Mike Harris
Paul Hellyer
CD Howe
Warren Kinsella
David Lewis
Stephen Lewis
Donald "The Donald" MacDonald
Flora MacDonald
Barbara MacDougall
John Manley
Paul Martin Sr.
Agnes Mcphail
Oliver Mowat
Allan Rock
Mitchell Sharp
OD Skelton
Western Canada
Bibble Bill Aberhart
Izzy Asper
Lloyd Axworthy
Dave Barrett
WAC Bennett
John Bracken
John Brownlee
Iona Campagnolo
Larry Campbell
MJ Coldwell
Stockwell Day
Gary Doer
Tommy Douglas
Gary Filmon
James Gardiner
Deb Grey
Mike Harcourt
Elijah Harper
Ralph Klein
Peter Lougheed
Ernest Manning
Preston Manning
Don Mazankowski
Nellie McClung
Audrey Mclaughlin
"Duff Man" Duff Roblin
Roy Romanow
Ed Schreyer
Clifford Sifton
HH Stevens
Wilhelmus Nicholaas Theodore Marie Vander Zalm
JS Woodsworth
43 Comments:
You should have split up this poll into several days. People would have been much likelier to follow the links if there had been ten at a time rathern than forty all in one go.
By
LeoPetr, at 9:12 p.m.
I agree with leopetr.. there's just too many names..
In any case, that's a minor gripe, overall I am pleased that you did this.
I have to admit that I voted for Laporte only because he was killed by the FLQ. I remember reading how he never panicked when the FLQ armed with assault rifles arrived at his home while he was playing catch with his son. He saw them coming, finished the game and sent his son away and calmly went with the armed men. Courageous in the face of danger, clear-headed and calm.
Beyond that I don't know much about him.
By
Eric, at 9:24 p.m.
Awww, no Princess Diana... that sucks.
But fine, I'll play by your rules!
I know little about most of these people, don't even know probably 50% of the names. This is the BEST idea you could have possibly had.
Next summer, how about, "Best Province Canada Has Yet To Acquire"?
SouthernO, I've never heard that story - that was excellent, thanks.
By
Jacques Beau Vert, at 9:43 p.m.
Well, I figured the knock-out rounds would be the chance for people to read up a bit more on the contestants but you need a way to get to the group of 16.
I'll be doing some sub-groups over the next week. For example, I'm gonna post on the female candidates one day, the 19th century ones another, etc... over the course of the week, this should help cover a lot of the more obscure ones.
By
calgarygrit, at 10:01 p.m.
I've gotta go with George Etienne Cartier as my top choice - he was John A's right hand man and did a great job.
Jean Lesage also deserves major props for what he did in Quebec. Bill Davis and Peter Lougheed would also be Premiers worthy of the list.
Throw in Agnes McPhail and Nellie McClung for what they did for women in the country.
Stanfield, Martin Sr. and Douglas always get mentioned so I guess they deserve votes. Preston Manning wouldn't be a bad choice either.
I'll have to browse the wikipedia entries to get the rest of my ballot figured out.
By
Jeff Thompson, at 10:09 p.m.
I would have liked to see an entry for Clifford Lincoln. Remember he was a declared candidate in 1990 before losing a by-election. That will be my write in candidate as I only cast 15 votes.
By
CH2, at 10:25 p.m.
CG has shown how innovative a blogger he is.
This just great stuff.
I hope Frank McKenna wins cause damn, he would have the been the most decisive PM we've ever seen. He knows his stuff, and he knows how the world works.
Keep it up CG!
By
Forward Looking Canadian, at 10:32 p.m.
Three people voted for Bill Vander Zalm... Were they on crack?
By
Red Tory, at 10:37 p.m.
Hmmm ... you have Louise Arbour as the best pm we never had. You know there is still time for her to jump into the current race for leader. I wrote a post about that last week. Maybe you should have a poll to see if she should run now and possibly become the best PM yet to come.
By
Unknown, at 10:41 p.m.
red tory - it was either crack or they've been doing interesting things to "BC bud" these days.
By
Candace, at 12:14 a.m.
Great job on that one, CalGrit, especially on the bios.
But in your original post, you forgot to mention Paul Martin Jr as one if not the greatest failure of all guys who held the top job.
Of course my choice for "best we never had" will be J. Adélard Godbout: the man who led Québec to the Modern Times.
Wag On.
By
Alter Boys, at 12:27 a.m.
Good post here. Too many names maybe but a lot of interesting ones.
I like Mitchell Sharpe.
By
RedMapleLeaf, at 1:40 a.m.
I think there's a great amount of names, Bart! Think I'm going to learn lots from this!!
By
Jacques Beau Vert, at 8:08 a.m.
Jack Pickersgill=The best Liberal who ever lived.
By
sir john a., at 10:05 a.m.
Anyone who has the title Rt.-Hon. without being PM, GG or Chief Justice has to be pretty awesome.
By
sir john a., at 10:07 a.m.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
By
nbpolitico, at 10:42 a.m.
Well as a New Brunswicker, I have to take a minute to echo Riley's comments about Frank McKenna. It is perhaps the greatest lost opportunity in the history of Canada that he has chosen not to run for the top job.
However, the main reason for this post is not to endorse a candidate but to strongly discourage people from voting for one particular candidate who I think is one of the most overrated people ever.
That would be one Joseph Howe.
Howe is virtually worshipped in Nova Scotia which is something I have never understood. Howe led the first separatist party in Canada and with it to win 18 of 19 Nova Scotia seats in the House of Commons in 1867. The federal politicians of the day had no time for that sort of nonsense and said that separation was not constitutional and put the boots to Howe and his supporters.
Howe carried on in opposition for a few more months but, in exchange for a cabinet post, he became an overnight convert to the idea of Canada and dissolved his Anti-Confederation party. What a joke. Though a man completely devoid of principle sadly might fit in with some of our former PMs, he certainly has no business being deemed the "best prime minister we never had" and I hope he gets zero votes.
I will standby for the verbal assault I am sure is to come from Nova Scotians who have been brainwashed by their "Howe is God" high school history classes and government propaganda featuring Howe as a hero.
Also, CG, isn't Arbour an Ontarian? I am not sure where she was born but she was a provincial judge in Ontario and spent most of her life there.
By
nbpolitico, at 10:45 a.m.
There isn't really many good choices for Alberta, Anne McLellan would have been great.
In terms of Aboriginals, Elijah Harper was well-known, but I don't he would have made a good Prime Minister. I would say someone more like Willie Littlechild or Len Marchand for Aboriginal PM.
Paul Martin Sr. would have been an awesome Prime Minister!
By
Joshua Fraser, at 12:17 p.m.
nbpolitico; You may be right on Arbour - she did go to University in Quebec but Ontario might have been a better choice. The regional classifications were sometimes tricky but I just wanted a way to divide things up.
And Pickersgill certainly did a lot, that's undeniable.
By
calgarygrit, at 1:06 p.m.
WOW, Impressive
Arbour, Blake and Mowat.
By
Davenport Liberal, at 1:29 p.m.
CG - you're right. I read over her Wikipedia bio and she could easily fit into either category. Born, raised and educated in Quebec and then taught at Osgood Hall and appointed to the Ontario courts and then abroad.
When she sat on the Supreme Court she didn't have one of the three "Quebec" seats so was considered an Ontarian for those purposes but, in any event, you're right, it is hard to say which she should fit into and it doesn't really matter anyway.
GREAT WORK on this, should be fun! :)
By
nbpolitico, at 1:59 p.m.
How about Brian Tobin??
By
wayward son, at 2:06 p.m.
wayward; I tried to stay away from people who might still be PM. So, the arbitrary age cut-off was around 55 or so. I figured McKenna, Rock and Manley passed on this leadership so they'll be too old next time the spot opens. Same type of story for Harris, Doer, Klein, etc.
But people like Tobin and Lord could still conceivable run for a federal leadership in 5 or 10 years and become Prime Minister so they get left off the list.
By
calgarygrit, at 2:13 p.m.
This is the most original idea by a Liberal since ... This is the most original idea by a Liberal. For those not from Saskatchewan, please note that the province has an enormous brain drain thanks to the "leadership" of Roy Romanow — not to the States but to Alberta and B.C. For those on the right, please remember the Chretien elections and don't split your vote. If we were voting for the Sexiest PM we never had, obviously Lucien Bouchard would win, but we're not so Preston Manning is the only choice. Don't vote Mike Harris or Ralph Klein or Peter Lougheed just to make a point.
By
Busstop, at 3:15 p.m.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
By
Peter, at 4:55 p.m.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
By
Peter, at 5:14 p.m.
^ Methinks your tinfoil hat is showing.
I'm taking credit for at least one of those Zalm votes. Think of the delightful nightly scandals on the National. Grant Devine with one shot of potting soil and one shot of Jesus.
A little surprised by how well the lefty contingent is showing out of the gate... Douglas, Romanow, Woodworth etc. Organized dipper-strikes?
By
Tom, at 6:53 p.m.
It'll come as no surprise, and I do hope you're ready for - an organized Dipper blog-in campaign, to get their boy (Douglas) selected in your poll. That's what they did with what was supposed to be a fun, and light "Greatest Canadian" contest. The Dippers, god bless 'em, are well organized for such things, and I'll be surprised if your poll is not usurped.
By
norderner, at 8:22 p.m.
Ed Broadbent is clearly the winner already, as well he should be. I remember when he was consistently the most popular leader in polls and would win every debate, but would never be PM.
Some day, when a PM has an operation or something, he should be allowed to be PM just for a day or two.
By
S.K., at 8:41 p.m.
Yeah, I'm expecting the Dippers to come out in force. Mind you, Manning, Harris, and Lougheed are all off to good starts too so I think we'll get a fairly balanced group of 16.
By
calgarygrit, at 10:44 p.m.
The Dippers will make sure both Broadbent and Tommy Douglas do well.. although I still think T.D. would feel out of place in the NDP of today.
As for Manley, I really think he's planning on running in the future. The winner of the Liberal leadership this time around is going to lose the next election, with a quick exit to follow. Cue Manley.
Couple that with the fact that Manley and McGuinty are close allies and it makes even more sense. It'd be tough for McGuinty to score points off of the Feds with Manley in the PM chair.
In any case, I tossed in votes for Stanfield, both Mannings, and a few others.
By
Michael Fox, at 11:09 p.m.
HOW could you possibly include a list of Westerners and skip over Ralph Goodale? Where's Ralph Goodale? Ralph Goodale could very well run for leader in the next few years... And may be a spectacular PM!
By
WesternGrit, at 12:59 a.m.
An interesting top 10 so far...
Robert Stanfield 302
Ed Broadbent 246
Preston Manning 238
Tommy Douglas 237
Lloyd Axworthy 214
Roy Romanow 200
Frank McKenna 198
Peter Lougheed 186
John Crosbie 175
George Etienne Cartier 175
By
Michael Fox, at 9:07 p.m.
Captain Canada where is he
Thats all I'll say
By
Muad'Dib, at 12:04 p.m.
Although there are impressive candidates there are many who deserve to be left behind quickly. Unfortunately, posts and comments haven’t done much to reveal some of the less favourable aspects about candidates and offer a somewhat balanced look at people who were mere humans after all.
Notes on some of the controversial things (abhorrent, important or maybe just interesting) that jump out at me.
Elijah Harper – Charges of refusing to take a breathalyzer test and leaving the scene of an accident led to his stepping down from his provincial cabinet position - Ottawa Citizen Friday, September 11, 1987. Don’t forget he and Clyde Wells (also on CG list) are the most controversial anti-Meech figures around.
Wilhelmus Nicholaas Theodore Marie Vander Zalm – Also known as “Bill” and remembered out west as a less than heroic leader. Vander Zalm + Tan Yu + BC Supreme Court = A guy I’m glad was not Prime Minister.
Mike Harcourt – Nice segway from Vander Zalm, the regional breakdown does require some BC representation which makes links to crime/scandal almost unavoidable going back for some time. For Harcourt see “Bingogate.” I know this one may seem unfair as his links to the bingo inquiry are not iron-clad by any stretch and it comes back to the leader being politically responsible. As for the sexual harassment claim against Harcourt cabinet minister Robin Blencoe you decide what to make of the whole thing. At least Glen Clark did not make the list.
Maurice Duplessis – First and foremost the unconstitutional Padlock Law should say all that needs to be said, look it up. I would like to believe votes were misguidedly aimed at someone admirable named “Duplesis” but the link is indeed to the Wikipedia entry for Duplessis who is remembered for the “graft and corruption endemic in his government” and as being “contemptous of individual civil rights.” He also took a strong stance against conscription and Canadian involvement in World War II, and if you think patronage appointments are a problem now…
René Lévesque – Bill 101, the P.Q and other controversies are obvious, so instead one of the craziest scandals in politics is worth mentionning. Unless Stephen Harper runs over a returned Afghanistan soldier or Jack Layton bicycles over a puppy in the next session Lévesque’s February 6, 1977 car accident killing a homeless man while driving with Corinne Côté (who he would later marry after divorcing his wife) is likely to remain the strangest political controversy in Canadian history.
Nellie McClung - Like many early feminists she had some interesting views on eugenics, how can a view that some people are more fit than others to reproduce continue to be whitewashed from the history books? I know thanks to the “famous five” large advances were made for women but some of the grotesque speeches and cartoons that basically stated women should be empowered because they are better than immigrants, aboriginals etc. would hardly be considered inspiring or progressive by the people who admire these reformers. Thanks to her efforts and those of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, in which she was an active member, wonderful successes like prohibition and the forced sterilization of those “mentally unfit for reproduction” took place in Canada. A moment in Canadian history you won’t see in the commercials.
Peter Lougheed/Frank McKenna – Considering these two are in the top ten with quite a few lefties I wonder what voters think about their ties to the Carlyle group (both members of Carlyle's Canadian advisory board and McKenna was chair). I’m just putting this out there you decide.
There are obviously many more people on the list who ought to be looked at with a critical eye, hopefully during the knockout rounds this will occur.
By
Cynical Ben, at 12:45 p.m.
NO STANLEY KNOWLES?
By
Cameron Campbell, at 2:14 p.m.
Allan MacEachen?? Sweet Jesus!!
By
decoin, at 1:38 a.m.
There is only one candidate worth to be the best Prime Minister that we never had. That will be Louise Arbour.
By
Anth, at 9:53 p.m.
Neurolinguistic Programming
In the early 1970s in America Richard Bandler, then a young college student studied the work of Fritz Perls and later Virginia Satir and found that he could reproduce their high-level therapy skills to a degree that even surprised him. Bandler seemed to have a natural ability to mimic (model) the language patterns by Virginia and Fritz.
At the University of California at Santa Cruz, Bandler who was well versed in the teachings of patterns in mathematics and computers teamed up with a college professor, John Grinder to help him understand the processes that were at work. Soon Bandler and Grinder, who used what he knew about patterns in linguistics, created a new model for personal growth called NeuroLinguistic Programming.
Bandler and Grinder had set out to model the hypnotic skills of Milton Erickson. They had astounding results. They built a communication model about human "thinking" and "processing" and used that model of how we see images, hear sounds, reproduces smells and tactile experiences in our mind to track and model the structure of subjective experiences.
Sounds very complicated but really it works very simply. Here is an example as used by Paul McKenna - probably the best & most successful hypnotist in the world.
Close your eyes and think of a negative memory. Become involved in the situation as best as you can. Feel the emotions that you felt, see the things you saw and hear the things you heard.
Now take that memory and project it onto a mental screen seeing yourself in the picture. Put a frame around the picture and view it as if it is an old photograph. Next drain all the colour from the picture and shrink the screen to the size of a matchbox.
Have the feelings associated with the picture decreased in any way?
Another good example of NLP involves Anchors. Have you ever smelt a certain perfume or aftershave and had it remind you of a certain person or situation? Gone to a certain place that brings feelings long forgotten flooding back? Or been in any situation that creates emotional responses that would not normally be associated with it? Well if you can answer yes to any of these then you have experienced anchors. Some anchors are associated with positive feelings and some with negative emotions. However, you should be aware that anchors can be consciously installed or already existing ones altered. Here is an example:
Think of a time when you were really happy. If you can't think of one then imagine something that would make you feel really happy. See what you would see, hear what you would hear and feel what you would feel. Really get into the picture and try to experience it as though it were happening now.
Now brighten the colours and make them richer. Increase the volume. Make the picture bigger, brighter, louder. That's it and more and more....
Now press your first finger against your thumb and fully experience your happy feelings. Do this everyday for 2 weeks and you will create an anchor that will instantly recreate these feelings. Whenever you want to feel like that again just press your thumb and first finger together and wham the feelings will come flooding back! Don't believe me? Just try it and see!!! self hypnosis
By
cylon, at 11:04 p.m.
Many people know the importance of self confidence and try to boost their own by using many different personal development models. Self confidence to most people is the ability to feel at ease in most situations but low self confidence in many areas may be due to a lack of self esteem. Low self esteem takes a more subtle form that low self confidence. So if you are tired of feeling not good enough, afraid of moving towards your desires and goals, feel that no matter what you do it is just never good enough, then your self esteem could do with a boost.
Every day we make decisions based on our level of self-esteem. We also exhibit that level of self esteem to those around us through our behaviour. 90% of all communication is non-verbal - it is not what you say but ho you say it that matters! Your body language, tonality and facial gestures can all tell a completely different story to your words. It is our behaviour which influences others and people react to us by reading our non-verbal communications. Have you ever met someone you just didn't like although on the surface they seemed polite and courteous, or you met someone who seemed to speak confidently yet you knew they were really frightened underneath and just displaying bravado?
Parental and peer influences play a major part in moulding our level of self-esteem when we are children and in our early years of adolescence. The opinions of the people closest to us and how they reacted to us as individuals or part of the group was a dominant factor in the processes involved in forming our self esteem.
As adults we tend to perpetuate these beliefs about ourselves and in the vast majority of cases they are ridiculously erroneous. It is time to re-evaluate our opinion of ourselves and come to some new conclusions about these old belief patterns.
Ask yourself some serious question:
Is your long-held view about yourself accurate? Do we respect the sources from which we derived these beliefs? Most of the negative feedback we bought into as we were growing up actually came from people we have little or no respect for and as adults we would probably laugh their comments away! Yet the damage to your self esteem was done when you were very young and you still carry it with you to this day.
Is it possible that even those people you respected, who influenced your self-worth, were wrong? Perhaps they had low self esteem also.
As adults we have the opportunity to reshape our self-esteem. Try to judge accurately the feedback you receive from people you respect. This process will allow you to deepen your understanding of yourself and expand your self-image. It will also show you were you actually need to change things about yourself and were you don't. Many people are striving to better themselves in areas where they are just fine or actually excelling and it is only because they have an inaccurate picture of themselves in their minds due to low self esteem!
Setting small goals and achieving them will greatly boost your self-esteem. Identify your real weakness and strengths and begin a training program to better your inter-personal or professional skills. This will support you in your future big life goals and boost your self-esteem and self confidence to high levels you didn't existed!
Learn to recognise what makes you feel good about yourself and do more of it. Everyone has certain things that they do which makes them feel worthwhile but people with low self esteem tend to belittle these feelings or ignore them.
Take inventory of all the things that you have already accomplished in your life no matter how small they may seem. Recognise that you have made achievements in your life and remember all the positive things that you have done for yourself and others. Take a note of your failures and don't make excuses like "I'm just not good enough" or "I just knew that would happen to me", analyse the situation and prepare yourself better for the next time. If someone else created success, regardless of the obstacles, then you are capable of doing the same! Remember everyone has different strengths and weakness so do not judge your own performance against that of another just use them as inspiration and know that what one human being has achieved so can another!
Surround yourself with people who respect you and want what is best for you - people who are honest about your strengths and will help you work through your weakness. Give the same level of support to them!
Avoid people who continually undermine you or make you feel small. These people are just displaying very low self esteem. As your own self esteem grows you will find that you are no longer intimidated by another's self confidence or success and you can actually be joyful for them! Do things you love to do and that make you happy. A truly happy person never has low self esteem they are too busy enjoying life! By getting busy living your life with passion and joy you will not be able to be self-consciousness.
If you find yourself feeling self-conscious in any situation focus on the fact that others can tell and many of them will be feeling the same. Be honest. People respond to someone better if they openly say "To tell you the truth I'm a bit nervous" rather than displaying bravo or fake confidence that they can see right through. Their reactions to you, will show your mind at a deep level, that there was actually nothing to be frightened of and everything is great. If someone reacts to this negatively they are just displaying low self esteem and very quickly you will find others noticing this! Really listen to people when they talk to you instead of running through all the negative things that could happen in your head or focusing on your lack of confidence. People respond to someone who is truly with them in the moment..
Breath deeply and slow down. Don't rush to do things.
Stop the negative talk! 'I'm no good at that' or "I couldn't possibly do that" are affirmations that support your lack of self esteem. Instead say "I have never done that before but I am willing to try" or "how best can I do that?". Which leads us to the last point - the quality of the questions you ask yourself s very important.
When you ask a question it almost always has a preposition in it. For example, "How did I mess that up?" presumes that something was messed up, a better way of phrasing the question would be "what way can I fix this quickly?", as this presumes you can and will fix it. Or "How am I ever going to reach my goal?" could be rephrased as "what way will lead me to my goal quicker" presumes that you are going to reach your goal! Get the picture? Change the quality of your questions and your results will change!
Practise these techniques and watch your self esteem rise day by day. self hypnosis
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