And speaking of Prime Ministers…

I feel like I should be able to list off all the Prime Ministers of Canada. Sure, I know some of them (Sir John A. MacDonald was the first one; Pierre Elliot Trudeau was the one in power when I was born; Kim Campbell was our only female one; Sir Robert Borden and William Lyon MacKenzie King served during WWI and WWII, respectively; Sir John A. & Jean Chrétien are the two who share my birthday). But shouldn’t I know them all, in order? Should I really look at this list in Wikipedia and say “who the hell is Arthur Meighen?”

So, I’ve decided to do something about it. I’m going to write, once a week, in chronological order, a short posting about each of the Canadian Prime Ministers1. For the next 22 weeks, as that’s how many Prime Ministers we’ve had, I’ll write one entry every Sunday. By my calculations, this will take us to July 6, 2008. And what with all this talk of the government forcing an election by creating two confidence votes, with any luck, by the time I get to that 22nd entry, I will get to write one more entry in the series, telling you all about The Right Honourable Stephane Dion, our 23rd Prime Minister2.

And so, for this week’s installment, I give you the first Prime Minister of Canada, Sir John A. MacDonald:

Name Sir John Alexander Macdonald

    Born: January 11, 1815 in Glasgow, Scotland

      Died: June 6, 1891

        Party: Liberal-Conservative Party of Canada3

          Held Office: July 1, 1867, to November 5, 1873 AND
          October 17, 1878, to June 6, 1891

            Best known for: -being the first Prime Minister of Canada
            -being a big proponent of the Canadian Pacific Railway
            -forging the nation, despite the fact that it’s a really fucking huge mass of land and has two colonial origins (French & English)
            -being an alcoholic (seriously, almost every site I read about John A. mentions this prominently)
            Some Things I Didn’t Know About This P.M. -he married his first cousin
            -he won six majority governments, more than any other P.M.
            -he died while in office

              OK, boys and girls, that’s it for today’s civics lesson. Now it’s back to my regularly scheduled complaining about stuff that bugs me, discussions of my beloved-despised Canucks and updates on thigh highs.


              But if you are just dying to read more about Sir John A.? Check out:

              1I’m sure that when Sarah and Dave return from their trip Down Under, Sarah will be able to provide us with all sorts of cool info on Canadian Prime Ministers, as she’s something of a Canadian history buff.
              2Although what I’d really love to be writing about is The Right Honourable Jack Layton, but I don’t even dare to dream of that
              3Seriously, the “Liberal-Conservative” party. The forerunner of the current Conservative Party4 according to Wikipedia
              4Of course, the current “Conservative” Party isn’t really the true Conservative Party, it’s the Reform/Alliance party.

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