In bed with Canada’s 3rd Prime Minister1

So, the third Canadian P.M. was some dude named Sir John Abbott. Seriously, why does that name not ring a bell to me? I swear I’ve never heard that name before in my life2.

SirJohnAbbott1.jpg

Name Sir John Joseph Caldwell Abbott
Born: March 12, 1821 in St. Andrews, Lower Canada
Died: October 30, 1893
Party: Liberal-Conservative
Held Office: June 16, 1891 – November 24, 1892
Best known for: -seeing as I don’t recognize his name at all, he’s not “best known for” anything to me-but according to my extensive research, he was a Senator, not a member of the House of Commons, while he was the Prime Minister. Weird!
Some Things I Didn’t Know About This P.M. Acto Wikipedia: “His “most memorable”political comment is “I hate politics.””

If you are just dying to read more about Sir J.J.C.A.? Check out:

Image credit: From the Wikimedia Commons. Originally from the Library and Archives Canada, copyright is expired.

1For the record, I’m not actually in bed with Sir John A. I’m in my bed, with my laptop writing about him. Because it’s late and although I’m tired, I *must* post this today. *Must!* (It appears that WordPress does not want to put a superscript into my title. Bah!)

2Well, other than the character on the Young & the Restless. And that’s just sad. Clearly, I need to be doing this little exercise in Canadian history!

Comments |6|

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  • You haven’t heard about him?

    How about his brother, the general superintendent of the Pacific region of the CPR? He was such an important man in BC that they named a city in honour of him… every heard of Abbotsford?

    Reply

  • OK, so my initial reaction would be to say “If he was so important, why did they name *that* city after him =P” But that would just be rude, so I won’t say it. Wait, huh??

    Seriously, though, I had just assumed that the “Abbot” in “Abbotsford” referred to the religious kind of abbot, which would explain all the churches there.

    Reply

  • 😛 back at you.

    Yeah, I totally would have forgotten who the 3rd PM was after Grade 10 socials if it wasn’t for living in Abbotsford and coming across that reference about once a year. Apparently it was originally spelt with 2 T’s, and the post office changed it soon after.

    Reply

  • Just wait for the next guy — John Thompson. He was the first Catholic PM (HORRIFIC for Orangemen everywhere), and apparently very charismatic. The best part — he had a heart attack and died face down in his soup in front of Queen Victoria. Seriously.

    Beth – you need to read “Bastards and Boneheads” by Will Ferguson. I had been encouraging Dave to read it for years. He finally did and LOVED it. Most compelling Canadian history tome I have ever read (and I do love me some Can. Hist.).

    Reply

  • Yes, you’ve been encouraging me to read B&B for ages too and it really is on my list. Along with all of these. I will get to it, I swear! Come to think of it, I have a Chapters gift card burning a hole in my pocket… perhaps I’ll buy that book with it!

    Reply

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