Historical rankings of prime ministers of Canada
Historical rankings of Canadian prime ministers are surveys conducted in order to construct rankings of the success of individuals who have served as Prime Minister of Canada. Ranking systems are usually based on surveys of academic historians, economists and political scientists. The rankings focus on the achievements, leadership qualities, failures and faults in office.
Scholar survey results
- Blue backgrounds indicate first quartile.
- Green backgrounds indicate second quartile.
- Orange backgrounds indicate third quartile.
- Red backgrounds indicate fourth quartile.
Note: Click the "sort" icon at the head of each column to view the rankings for each survey in numerical order.
Sequence | Prime Minister | Political party | Maclean's 1997[1] | Maclean's 2011[2] | Maclean's 2016[3] | Aggr.[4] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | John A. Macdonald | Conservative | 2 | 2 | 3 | 03 |
2 | Alexander Mackenzie | Liberal | 11 | 13 | 13 | 13 |
3 | John Abbott ^ | Conservative | 17 | 19 | 20 | 20 |
4 | John Thompson ^ | Conservative | 10 | 14 | 16 | 15 |
5 | Mackenzie Bowell ^ | Conservative | 19 | 21 | 21 | 22 |
6 | Charles Tupper ^ | Conservative | 16 | 18 | 19 | 18 |
7 | Wilfrid Laurier | Liberal | 3 | 1 | 2 | 02 |
8 | Robert Borden | Conservative, Unionist | 7 | 8 | 9 | 08 |
9 | Arthur Meighen ^ | Conservative | 14 | 16 | 17 | 17 |
10 | William Lyon Mackenzie King | Liberal | 1 | 3 | 1 | 01 |
11 | R. B. Bennett | Conservative | 12 | 12 | 14 | 14 |
12 | Louis St. Laurent | Liberal | 4 | 7 | 6 | 06 |
13 | John Diefenbaker | Progressive Conservative | 13 | 10 | 12 | 12 |
14 | Lester Pearson | Liberal | 6 | 4 | 5 | 05 |
15 | Pierre Trudeau | Liberal | 5 | 5 | 4 | 04 |
16 | Joe Clark ^ | Progressive Conservative | 15 | 17 | 18 | 18 |
17 | John Turner ^ | Liberal | 18 | 20 | 22 | 21 |
18 | Brian Mulroney | Progressive Conservative | 8 | 9 | 8 | 09 |
19 | Kim Campbell ^ | Progressive Conservative | 20 | 22 | 23 | 23 |
20 | Jean Chrétien | Liberal | 9* | 6 | 7 | 07 |
21 | Paul Martin ^ | Liberal | — | 15 | 15 | 16 |
22 | Stephen Harper | Conservative | — | 11* | 11 | 11 |
23 | Justin Trudeau | Liberal | — | — | 10* | 10 |
Sequence listed by first term as Prime Minister
* Ranking calculated before the prime minister had left office
^ Served less than 2 years, 3 months, as Prime Minister, while all others served for more than 4 years, 11 months.
William Lyon Mackenzie King (photo) is the highest rated prime Minister based on three aggregate results from Maclean's
Other surveys
The Institute for Research on Public Policy undertook a survey to rank the prime ministers who had served in the 50 years preceding 2003.[5] They ranked those nine prime ministers as follows:
- Pearson
- Mulroney
- Trudeau
- St. Laurent
- Chrétien
- Diefenbaker
- Clark ^
- Turner ^
- Campbell ^
^ Served less than 10 months as Prime Minister, while all others served for more than 4 years, 11 months.
In October 2016, Maclean's again ranked the prime ministers, this time splitting them into two lists. The long-serving prime ministers were ranked as follows:
- King
- Laurier
- Macdonald
- Pierre Trudeau
- Pearson
- St. Laurent
- Chrétien
- Mulroney
- Borden
- Harper
- Diefenbaker
- Mackenzie
- Bennett
The short-term prime ministers were ranked as follows:
- Justin Trudeau
- Martin
- Thompson
- Meighen
- Clark
- Tupper
- Abbott
- Bowell
- Turner
- Campbell
See also
- List of Prime Ministers of Canada by approval rating
- Historical rankings of Australian Prime Ministers
- Historical rankings of Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom
- Historical rankings of Presidents of the United States
- Historical rankings of Chancellors of Germany
- The Greatest Canadian
References
- ^ Hillmer, Norman and Granatstein, J. L. "Historians rank the BEST AND WORST Canadian Prime Ministers," Maclean's, April 21, 1997. Accessed July 9, 2012.
- ^ Hillmer, Norman and Azzi, Stephen. "Canada's best prime ministers," Maclean's, June 10, 2011. Accessed July 9, 2012.
- ^ Hillmer, Norman and Azzi, Stephen. "Ranking Canada’s best and worst prime ministers" Maclean's, October 7, 2016. Accessed June 22, 2017.
- ^ Aggregate of all polls in the table using Copeland's method.
- ^ MacDonald, L. Ian. "The Best Prime Minister of the Last 50 Years — Pearson, by a landslide," Policy Options, June–July 2003. Accessed April 3, 2014.