List of Prime Ministers of Canada

For lists of Canadian Prime Ministers ranked by different criteria, such as time in office and religion see the Links to related articles linked at the bottom of this page.

The Parliament of Canada.

This is a list of Prime Ministers of Canada. The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary Minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus Head of Government of Canada. The office is not outlined in any of the documents that constitute the written portion of the Constitution of Canada; executive authority is formally vested in the Canadian sovereign and exercised on his or her behalf by the Governor General. The prime ministership is part of Canada's constitutional convention tradition. The office was initially modelled after the job as it existed in Britain at time of Confederation in 1867. The British prime ministership, although fully developed by 1867, was not formally integrated into the British constitution until 1905—hence, its absence from Constitution Act, 1867. The Prime Minister is almost invariably the leader of the political party that holds the largest number of seats in the House of Commons.

Stephen Harper is the current Prime Minister, appointed by Governor General Michaëlle Jean as the 22nd Prime Minister of Canada on February 6, 2006. He is the leader of the Conservative Party, which won 143 of 308 seats in the last federal election. Of the total 308 seats, 143 is a plurality (a majority would be 155 seats) so Prime Minister Harper leads a minority government; that is, the total number of seats held by all the other political parties combined is greater than the number of seats held by the Conservatives.

Timeline

     Liberal Party of Canada      Historical conservative parties: Liberal-Conservative, Conservative (historical), Unionist, N.L.C., Progressive Conservative      Conservative Party of Canada

	Portrait	Name	Time in office	Electoral mandates	Political party	Parliaments	Ministry
1st		Sir John A. Macdonald (1st time of 2)	1 July 1867 5 November 1873	1867, 1872	Conservative	1st 2nd	1st
			Integration of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory into Canada; Manitoba Act; Red River Rebellion; Confederation of British Columbia; Creation of the North-West Mounted Police; Pacific Scandal.
2nd		Alexander Mackenzie	7 November 1873 8 October 1878	1874	Liberal	2nd 3rd	2nd
			Pacific Scandal; Creation of the Supreme Court; Establishment of the Royal Military College; Created the office of the Auditor General.
1st		Sir John A. Macdonald (2nd time of 2)	17 October 1878 6 June 1891	1878, 1882, 1887, 1891	Conservative	4th, 5th 6th, 7th	3rd
			National Policy; North-West Rebellion; Hanging of Louis Riel.
3rd		Sir John Abbott	16 June 1891 24 November 1892	-	Conservative	7th	4th
			-
4th		Sir John Thompson	5 December 1892 12 December 1894	-	Conservative	7th	5th
			Manitoba Schools Question.
5th		Sir Mackenzie Bowell	21 December 1894 27 April 1896	-	Conservative	7th	6th
			Manitoba Schools Question.
6th		Sir Charles Tupper	1 May 1896 8 July 1896	-	Conservative	-	7th
			Manitoba Schools Question.
7th		Sir Wilfrid Laurier	11 July 1896 6 October 1911	1896, 1900, 1904, 1908	Liberal	8th, 9th 10th, 11th	8th
			Manitoba Schools Question; Boer War; Confederation of Alberta and Saskatchewan; Creation of the Royal Canadian Navy; Reciprocity with the US.
8th		Sir Robert Borden	10 October 1911 10 July 1920	1911, 1917	Conservative; Unionist	12th 13th	9th 10th
			First World War; Military Service Act; Conscription Crisis of 1917; Unionist Party (Canada); Creation of the National Research Council; Introduction of income tax; Winnipeg General Strike; Nickle Resolution.
9th		Arthur Meighen (1st time of 2)	10 July 1920 29 December 1921	-	N.L.C.	13th	11th
			-
10th		William Lyon Mackenzie King (1st time of 3)	29 December 1921 29 June 1926	1921, 1925	Liberal	14th 15th	12th
			King-Byng Affair.
9th		Arthur Meighen (2nd time of 2)	29 June 1926 25 September 1926	-	Conservative	15th	13th
			King-Byng Affair.
10th		William Lyon Mackenzie King (2nd time of 3)	25 September 1926 6 August 1930	1926	Liberal	16th	14th
			Introduction of old age pensions; Great Depression.
11th		Richard Bedford Bennett	7 August 1930 23 October 1935	1930	Conservative	17th	15th
			Great Depression.
10th		William Lyon Mackenzie King (3rd time of 3)	23 October 1935 15 November 1948	1935, 1940, 1945	Liberal	18th, 19th 20th	16th
			Creation of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation; National Film Board of Canada; Nationalization of the Bank of Canada; World War 2; Trans-Canada Airlines.
12th		Louis St. Laurent	15 November 1948 21 June 1957	1949, 1953	Liberal	20th, 21st 22nd	17th
			Canada's entrance into NATO and the UN; Suez Crisis; Creation of the United Nations Emergency Force; London Declaration; Newfoundland Act; Equalization; Trans-Canada Highway; St. Lawrence Seaway; Trans-Canada Pipeline; Pipeline Debate.
13th		John Diefenbaker	21 June 1957 22 April 1963	1957, 1958, 1962	Progressive Conservative	23rd, 24th 25th	18th
			Avro Arrow cancellation; Cuban Missile Crisis; Canadian Bill of Rights.
14th		Lester B. Pearson	22 April 1963 20 April 1968	1963, 1965	Liberal	26th 27th	19th
			Bomarc missile program; Introduction of Canadian universal healthcare; Canada Pension Plan; Canada Student Loans; Creation of a new Canadian flag; Auto Pact; Rejection of troop deployment to Vietnam; Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism; Creation of the Canadian Forces; 1967 Canadian Centennial celebrations.
15th		Pierre Trudeau (1st time of 2)	20 April 1968 4 June 1979	1968, 1972, 1974	Liberal	27th, 28th 29th, 30th	20th
			"Trudeaumania"; "Just Society"; October Crisis; Use of the War Measures Act; Official Languages Act; Establishment of relations with China; Creation of Petro-Canada; Membership in the G7.
16th		Joe Clark	4 June 1979 3 March 1980	1979	Progressive Conservative	31st	21st
			Youngest Canadian PM.
15th		Pierre Trudeau (2nd time of 2)	3 March 1980 30 June 1984	1980	Liberal	32nd	22nd
			Introduction of the NEP; 1980 Referendum; Access to Information Act; Repatriation of the Canadian Constitution; Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms; Western alienation.
17th		John Turner	30 June 1984 17 September 1984	-	Liberal	32nd	23rd
			Trudeau Patronage Appointments
18th		Brian Mulroney	17 September 1984 25 June 1993	1984, 1988	Progressive Conservative	33rd 34th	24th
			Cancellation of the NEP; Meech Lake Accord; Air India bombing; Canada-US Free Trade Agreement; Introduction of the GST; Charlottetown Accord; Good relations with Ronald Reagan; Petro-Canada privatization; Gulf War; École Polytechnique massacre; Oka Crisis; Environmental Protection Act; NAFTA; Airbus affair.
19th		Kim Campbell	25 June 1993 4 November 1993	-	Progressive Conservative	34th	25th
			First female Prime Minister of Canada.
20th		Jean Chrétien	4 November 1993 12 December 2003	1993, 1997, 2000	Liberal	35th, 36th 37th	26th
			Red Book; HST; 1995 Referendum; Clarity Act; Assassination attempt; Kosovo War; 1997 Red River Flood; Social Union Framework Agreement; Creation of Nunavut Territory; Youth Criminal Justice Act; Shawinigan Handshake; Invasion of Afghanistan; Opposition to the Invasion of Iraq; Sponsorship scandal; Gomery Inquiry.
21st		Paul Martin	12 December 2003 6 February 2006	2004	Liberal	37th 38th	27th
			Sponsorship scandal; Gomery inquiry; Civil Marriage Act; Kelowna Accord; Rejection of US Anti-Missile Treaty; G20; Atlantic Accord.
22nd		Stephen Harper	6 February 2006 Incumbent	2006, 2008	Conservative	39th 40th	28th
			Federal Accountability Act; GST Reduction; Afghan Mission Extension; Chuck Cadman Affair; Québécois nation motion; Apology for Chinese Head Tax; Israel-Lebanon Conflict; Veterans' Bill of Rights; Residential Schools Apology; Financial crisis of 2007-2009; 2008 Canadian parliamentary dispute; 2009 Budget; Abousfian Abdelrazik; 2009 flu pandemic.

References

• "Prime Ministers of Canada - 1867 to Date" (.asp). Parliament of Canada. http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/about/people/key/pm/index.asp?Language=E&param=mp. Retrieved August 26 2006. 
• "Prime Ministers of Canada" (.htm). Canada Info Link. http://www.canadainfolink.ca/pms.htm. Retrieved August 26 2006. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Prime ministers of Canada

• Prime Minister's Official Site
• Government of Canada

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