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
Prime minister who was one of the founding members of the Reform Party of Canada; as the leader of its successor, the Canadian Alliance, he negotiated with Peter MacKay of the Progressive Conservatives to merge the parties.
Stephen Harper
Prime minister whose 15-year tenure remains the longest unbroken term of office
Sir Wilfred Laurier
Prime minister who won a narrow victory as leader of the federalist camp in the 1995 Quebec referendum, and then pioneered the Clarity Act to avoid ambiguity in future referendum questions.
Jean Chrétien
Only prime minister to be associated with the Unionist Party
Sir Robert Borden (who was first a Conservative)
Prime minister during WWI and therefore during the creation of the Military Service Act and the Conscription Crisis of 1917; also signed the Treaty of Versailles and joined the League of Nations
Sir Robert Borden
Prime minister who introduced the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement and the Goods and Services Tax.
Brian Mulroney
The first prime minister of Canada to be a descendant of a former prime minister.
Justin Trudeau
Prime Minister who, facing a House of Commons vote connected to a customs scandal, advised the Governor General, Lord Byng, to dissolve Parliament and call another election – which the Governor General could not constitutionally do since a government in minority position cannot use dissolution of Parliament to evade a vote of confidence. Byng thus had to decline the Prime Minister’s request - the first time in Canadian history that a request for dissolution was refused; and, to date, the only time the Governor General of Canada has done so.
William Lyon Mackenzie King
Prime minister whose National Policy called for high tariffs on imported manufactured items to protect the manufacturing industry, the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and the fostering of new immigration to the west.
Sir John A. Macdonald
The longest-serving leader of a major Canadian political party
Sir Wilfred Laurier (Liberal)
Prime minister who oversaw the patriation of the Constitution, and the establishment of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Pierre Trudeau
Prime minister who dated actresses Barbra Streisand (before his marriage to Margaret Sinclair) and Margot Kidder (after)
Pierre Trudeau
Prime minister whose government was defeated in an election called to settle the issue of trade reciprocity with the United States
Sir Wilfred Laurier
First prime minister from the Liberal Party
Alexander Mackenzie
Prime minister who appointed the first female minister (Ellen Fairclough) to his cabinet
John Diefenbaker
Prime minster who oversaw the failed Meech Lake and Charlotte Accords (attempts to bring Quebec into the Constitutional fold), leading to a resurgence of Quebec separatism
Brian Mulroney
Prime minister at the time of the Boer War and the creation of the Royal Canadian Navy
Sir Wilfred Laurier
Prime minister at the time Alberta and Saskatchewan were created (out of the Northwest Territories) and the Yukon was separated from the Northwest Territories
Sir Wilfred Laurier
Political crisis involving publicly funded separate schools for Roman Catholics and Protestants that spread to the national level, becoming one of the key issues in the federal election of 1896 and resulted in the defeat of the of Sir Mackenzie Bowell’s government.
Manitoba Schools Question
Prime minister whose minority governments introduced universal health care, the Canada Pension Plan, the Order of Canada, and the Maple Leaf flag.
Lester B. Pearson
Prime minister who (before serving as prime minister) won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 for organizing the United Nations Emergency Force to resolve the Suez Canal Crisis.
Lester B. Pearson
Oldest person to serve as prime minister
Sir John A. Macdonald
Youngest prime minister
Joe Clark
Prime minister who saw the introduction of old age pensions
William Lyon Mackenzie King
Prime minister who resigned over the Pacific Scandal (involving bribes being accepted by 150 members of the government in the attempts of private interests to influence the bidding for a national rail contract)
Sir John A. Macdonald
A leading proponent of the establishment of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949, serving as an architect and signatory of the treaty document (also supported the U.N. involvement in Korea).
Louis St. Laurent
Prime minister known for his “common touch” media image; nicknamed “Uncle Louis” (“Papa Louis” in Quebec)
Louis St. Laurent
Prime minister who implemented the Official Languages Act, making bilingualism the official federal policy.
Pierre Trudeau
Prime minister who introduced the Canadian Bill of Rights in Parliament (on 1 July (“Dominion Day”) 1960 and granted the vote to the First Nations and Inuit peoples.
John Diefenbaker
Canada’s longest-serving prime minister (at 21 years, 154 days)
William Lyon Mackenzie King
(Sir John A. Macdonald is the second-longest at 18 years and 359 days and Pierre Trudeau is third at 15 years and 164 days)
Prime minister at the time of the Great Depression
William Lyon Mackenzie King
First prime minister from the Progressive Conservative Party
John Diefenbaker
Prime minister whose portrait has been displayed on the Canadian five-dollar bill since 1972
Sir Wilfred Laurier
Prime minister who, after winning the Liberal party leadership, immediately advised the Governor General to dissolve Parliament and then lost the election in a landslide.
John Turner
Canada’s only female prime minister
Kim Campbell
First French-Canadian prime minister
Sir Wilfred Laurier
Prime minister at the time of the creation of the Supreme Court (as well as the establishment of the Royal Military College and the office of the Auditor General)
Alexander Mackenzie
