Sir Alexander T. Galt 1817-1893 Born in Scotland, Galt was bright, highly educated and athletic (he once ran 36 miles in six hours on a dare) but also temperamental (Macdonald described him as “unstable as water”). He became a … Read More
Sir Alexander Campbell 1822-1892 Campbell was a Father of Confederation from Canada West. Appointed to the Senate in 1867, he was Canada’s first Postmaster General (an important source of patronage at the time) and held several portfolios in Conservative … Read More
Paul Martin jr. 1938- Martin was Canada’s twenty-first prime minister, serving between 2003 and 2006. As Minister of Finance in the 1990s, he erased Canada’s deficit which at the time was the worst among G7 countries. Paul Martin … Read More
1929-2020 First elected to Parliament in 1962, Turner was Finance Minister under Trudeau before resigning in 1975. After a career on Bay St., he became leader of the Liberal Party in 1984 and Canada’s seventeenth Prime Minister before losing the … Read More
Pierre Elliott Trudeau 1919-2000 Trudeau served as Canada’s fifteenth prime minister, governing for 15 years with one short interlude between 1968 and 1984. A charismatic and controversial leader, he is remembered for patriating the Canadian constitution, instituting a Charter of … Read More
Lester Bowles Pearson 1897-1972 Pearson was Prime Minister from 1963 to 1968. His government introduced a new Canadian flag, universal medicare and the Canada Pension Plan. In 1957, as Secretary of State for External Affairs, Pearson won the Nobel … Read More
John George Diefenbaker 1895-1979 Prime Minister from 1957 to 1963, Diefenbaker championed human rights, granting the vote to Aboriginal people in federal elections and introducing the Canadian Bill of Rights, forerunner to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. … Read More
William Lyon Mackenzie King 1874-1950 First elected to Parliament in 1908, Mackenzie King was Canada’s longest serving prime minister, being in office nearly 22 years (1921-26; 1926-30; 1935-48), including the difficult years of the Second World War. King initiated … Read More
Sir Robert Borden 1854-1937 Borden was prime minister between 1911 and 1920 and successfully garnered international recognition of Canada as an autonomous dominion. He formed a Union Government to lead Canada during the final difficult years of the First … Read More
Sir Wilfrid Laurier 1841-1919 Laurier was the first French-Canadian prime minister serving from 1896 to 1911. He championed national unity, promoted the construction of the Grand Trunk Railway, created the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan and supported the settlement of … Read More