Being Prime Minister

J.D.M. Stewart

• Publisher: Dundurn Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781459738485
• eBook ISBN: 9781459738508
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Behind the politics, discover the lives of Canada's leaders. "What a life it is to be prime minister!" — John Diefenbaker Canada has had twenty-three prime ministers, all with views and policies that have differed as widely as the ages in which they lived. But what were they like as people? Being Prime Minister takes you behind the scenes to tell the story of Canada's leaders and the job they do as it has never been told before. From John A. Macdonald to Justin Trudeau, readers get a glimpse of the prime ministers as they travelled, dealt with invasions of privacy, met with celebrities, and managed the stress of the nation's top job. Humorous and hard working, vain and vulnerable, Canada leaders are revealed as they truly were.

Notes

INTRODUCTION

1. Brian Mulroney, “William A. Howard Memorial Lecture” (lecture, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, September 13, 2016).

2. Paul Martin, telephone interview by author, December 14, 2016.

CHAPTER 1

1. Patrice Dutil, Prime Ministerial Power in Canada: Its Origins under Macdonald, Laurier, and Borden (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2017), 286.

2. J.D.M. Stewart, “The Machine Sends Its Thanks,” Toronto Star, September 24, 2006.

3. Van Blaricom, “A Day with Canada’s Premier,” Maclean’s, June 1909.

4. Klaus Neumann, “Backstage with the PM’s Mail,” Maclean’s, November, 22, 1958.

5. Stuart MacKay, letter to Lester B. Pearson, April 11, 1965, MG 26 N8, Vol. 13, Library and Archives Canada.

6. Jules Pelletier, response on behalf of Lester B. Pearson, April 15, 1965, MG 26 N8, Vol. 13, LAC.

7. Stewart, “The Machine Sends Its Thanks.”

8. Dan Beeby, “Dear Mr. Martin, Can You Cut Down the Gas Price?,” Toronto Star, November 7, 2005.

9. Julie Hirschfeld Davis, “Obama Often Depends on Mail to Tell His Story,” New York Times, March 13, 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/03/14/us/politics/obama-often-depends-on-mail-to-tell-his-story.html.

10. Van Blaricom, “A Day with Canada’s Premier.”

11. Anthony Wilson-Smith, “The Private Prime Minister,” Maclean’s, January 24, 1994.

12. “Canada: Père de famille,” Time, September 12, 1949.

13. “Justin Speaks One-on-One with CBC’s Matt Galloway,” CBC News, November 24, 2015, www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/programs/metromorning/justin-trudeau-matt-galloway-full-interview-1.3334133.

14. M. Grattan O’Leary, “What It Means to Be Secretary to the Prime Minister,” Maclean’s, June 1, 1931.

15. O’Leary.

16. Michael Valpy, “The Final Day,” Globe and Mail, June 19, 1993.

17. Peter C. Newman, “The Powerful Gifts and Glaring Flaws of John Diefenbaker,” Maclean’s, March 23, 1963.

18. Thomas Van Dusen, The Chief (Toronto: McGraw-Hill, 1968), 101.

19. Haydn Watters, “Fries with That, Mr. Trudeau? PM Stops In for Surprise McDonald’s Lunch,” CBC News, June 18, 2016, www.cbc.ca/news/trending/mcdonalds-trudeau-whitby-1.3642207.

20. Walter Gray, “Private Wire: Party Line Questions About PM,” Globe and Mail, August 11, 1958.

21. Richard. S. Conley, “The Transformation of Question Period,” Canadian Parliamentary Review 34, no. 3 (2011): 47.

22. Van Blaricom, “A Day with Canada’s Premier.”

23. Kim Campbell, interview by author, June 30, 2016.

24. Harry Anderson, “Bennett Is Eager to Return,” Globe, April 17, 1935.

25. Blair Fraser, “Mackenzie King as I Knew Him,” Maclean’s, September 1, 1950.

26. “John Diefenbaker: He Recalls Buffalo Skulls and Riel’s Lieutenant,” Maclean’s, March 29, 1958.

CHAPTER 2

1. “Sir Wilfrid in the West,” Globe, August 20, 1910.

2. Ian Brodie, interview by author, June 29, 2016.

3. Gloria Galloway, “Common Touch Is Top Trait Valued in PM, Poll Finds,” Globe and Mail, February 3, 2006.

4. Charles Power, A Party Politician: The Memoirs of Chubby Power (Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, 1965), 73.

5. Donald Creighton, John A. Macdonald: The Old Chieftain (Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, 1955), 252.

6. Power, A Party Politician, 73.

7. Cairine Wilson, radio address, November 20, 1941, MG 26, Vol. 810-812, LAC.

8. Quoted in Arthur Milnes, ed., Canada Always: The Defining Speeches of Sir Wilfrid Laurier (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 2016), 7.

9. Milnes, Canada Always, 461.

10. Marjory LeBreton, interview, April 3, 1985, R1026, Vol. 2574, LAC.

11. Anthony Wilson-Smith, “Mulroney Up Close,” Maclean’s, June 10, 1991.

12. LeBreton, interview.

13. Wilson-Smith, “Mulroney Up Close.”

14. Alastair Fraser, interview, October–November 1983, R1026, Vol. 2562, LAC.

15. Fraser, interview.

16. Ian Sclanders, “How the Prime Minister Became Uncle Louis,” Maclean’s, January 1, 1955.

17. Jean Chrétien, interview by author, Ottawa, September 26, 2017.

18. Scott Young, “The Peaceful Prime Minister,” Globe and Mail, February 1, 1965.

19. Dick Beddoes, “Gentleman Jock of Parliament Hill Tops in Hot Stove League,” Globe and Mail, December 28, 1972. Dick Beddoes said this happened in 1963 but Gerry Ehman was not on the Leafs’ playoff roster that year. The anecdote must be from 1964.

20. Mary Macdonald, interview, April 1984, R1026, Volume 2563, LAC.

21. Alexander Ross, “The Long Happy Life Of Lester Pearson,” Maclean’s, July 1, 1967.

22. “The Real Premier,” Toronto Star Weekly, August 1, 1914.

23. Tim Cook, Warlords: Borden, Mackenzie King and Canada’s World Wars (Toronto: Allen Lane, 2012.), 67.

24. “Canada’s War Premier,” Globe and Mail, June 11, 1937.

25. Fraser, “Mackenzie King as I Knew Him.”

26. “Pearson speaks at King’s statue unveiling,” CBC Digital Archives video, 8:43, from a CBC Television News Special on July 1, 1968, www.cbc.ca/archives/entry./pearson-speaks-at-kings-statue-unveiling.

27. Bruce Hutchison, Mr. Prime Minister (London: Longmans, 1964), 243.

28. Michael Kesterton, “Canadian PM Ate Six Meals a Day to Bulk Up: R.B. (Bonfire) Bennett,” Globe and Mail, July 1, 2000.

29. L.M. Grayson and Michael Bliss, eds., The Wretched of Canada: Letters to R.B. Bennett, 1930–1935 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1971), xxiii.

30. Conrad Black, “The Liberals’ Tax Reforms Wil...

Table of contents

• BeingPrimeMinister_HTP
• BeingPrimeMinister_TP
• BeingPrimeMinister_CR
• Ded
• Contents
• Table
• Intro
• CH1
• CH2
• CH3
• CH4
• CH5
• CH6
• CH7
• CH8
• CH9
• CH10
• Epilogue
• Ack
• Sources
• Notes
• Biblio
• Credits