Canadian Prime Ministers by Events Flashcards
Only two prime ministers to die while in office
Sir John A. Macdonald (stroke) and Sir John Thompson (heart attack)
Prime minister who cancelled the Avro Arrow, following an earlier decision to permit the United States to build two Bomarc missile bases in Canada. (The company immediately dismissed its 14,000 employees, blaming him for the firings.)
John Diefenbaker
The three prime ministers who did not serve in Parliament while (briefly) prime minister
Sir Charles Tupper, John Turner, and Kim Campbell
First Catholic prime minister
Sir John Thompson
Prime minister who introduced women’s suffrage for federal elections
Sir Robert Borden
Prime minister who ended the practice of appealing Canadian legal cases to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council of Great Britain, making the Supreme Court of Canada the highest court; also advised the Queen to appoint Vincent Massey as the first Canadian-born Governor-General.
Louis St. Laurent
Prime minister at the time of the nationalization of the Bank of Canada as well as the creation of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and National Film Board of Canada (and Trans-Canada Airlines, later Air Canada)
William Lyon Mackenzie King
Prime minister who invoked the War Measures Act during the October Crisis of 1970, when the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) kidnapped British Trade Consul James Cross and Quebec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte. (When asked how far he would go to stop the violence, he replied, “Just watch me.”)
Pierre Trudeau
Sir John A. Macdonald’s political party
(Liberal-)Conservative Party
Prime minister who negotiated the entry of Newfoundland into Confederation.
Louis St. Laurent
Prime minister who, as a former finance minister, passed balanced budgets and slashed Canada’s debt-to-GDP ratio (though his spending cuts slowed economic growth)
Paul Martin
Only two prime ministers to serve while in the Senate
Sir John Abbott and Sir Mackenzie Bowell
Canada’s shortest-serving prime minister (at 68 days)
Sir Charles Tupper
John Turner the second-shorter at 79 days and Kim Campbell is third at 132 days
Oldest person to become prime minister
Charles Tupper
Prime minister who, before serving as prime minister, was appointed the first-ever Minister of Labour
William Lyon Mackenzie King
Prime minister who introduced income tax
Sir Robert Borden
Prime minister who saw the first Canadian envoys with full diplomatic status sent to foreign countries (following the Balfour Declaration)
William Lyon Mackenzie King
Prime minister at the time of the integration of Rupert’s Land and the North-Western Territory into Canada, the Manitoba Act, and British Columbia and Prince Edward Island joining confederation
Sir John A. Macdonald
Last prime minister to be knighted
Sir Robert Borden
Prime minister during WWII
William Lyon Mackenzie King
First prime minister born in what would become Canada
Sir John Abbott
The first prime minister to live at 24 Sussex Drive
Louis St. Laurent
Prime minister who used taxation surpluses to pay down the debts from the World Wars, build infrastructure (such as the Trans-Canada Highway), and expand Canada’s social programs (including “Hospital Insurance”)
Louis St. Laurent
Prime minister during the Red River Rebellion, the North-West Rebillion, and the hanging of Louis Riel
Sir John A. Macdonald