A (admittedly distasteful) poll goes horribly wrong… – “By the time I had to select my third and fourth pick, the important prime ministers on my list had already been chosen so I was left with a befuddling dilemma. Against all instincts, I selected Stephen Harper (2006-Present). My rationale at the time was to select another strong-headed figure, but at the other end of the political spectrum.”
It’s a long boring page, the poll is at the bottom. But this may save you some time…
h/t Dana
Any team without Laurier is not a team worth choosing.
Trudeau kept Canada together?? Lucky him – he was the one that pissed off the regions leading to the demise of the Liberal Party. Separatism didn’t exist in Canada until Trudeau trashed the federalist constitution, forcing a strong central government on the country with the criminal collusion of the courts. The only thing that delayed that demise was that Chretien was opposed by 2 conservative parties splitting the vote.
Utterly useless poll, because each set includes good AND bad prime ministers.
As for the reasons for choosing anyone, these are so utterly juvenile as to be irrelevant. And sad to think that these are university students. Can anyone explain why Trudeau’s wearing sandals in the House is indicative of his capability as a PM?
And notice how, since these young empty heads don’t know a thing about economics or political realities, they make their choices primarily by fiction tales about the ‘persona’ of the individual.
Useless.
At least one poison pill in every list!
As much as I admire and respect PMSH, I cannot bring myself to participate in a ‘poll’ where PM “Da Proof Is Da Proof” is included.
FOCUS PEOPLE. It’s not about who “wins”. It’s about who loses.
Stephen Harper > Jean Chretien
And Chretien was better than Trudeau. In the way that a rash is better than a third degree burn.
I gotta go with ET…
Any combination that includes PET, Cretin, Turner or Campbell is not worth my endorsement.
Sorry Kate have to vote present! Having played a variety of sports in my youth (almost the pre-helmet era), I have an appreciation for how difficult it is to carry the totally incapable and the profoundly stupid on any team. Even Harper with his intellect would be severely hampered with a Chretien on the opposite wing. You see, you keep setting them up in the slot and they either wiff their shot or marvel at the zamboni.
The PMSH team is 84 to 19 ahead of its closest challenger,the PET team.
Rumour has it that the cbc is mulling over declaring a winner.
OK I wasn’t going to vote but upon further reflection it really is “about who loses”. So my vote has been cast – playing with the Lefty mind is so fun.
Sorry Kate, have to vote ‘present’ on this one. Having played a variety of sports some time ago (in the pre-helmet era), I know how difficult it is to ‘carry’ some team members. Harper even with his obvious gifts cannot be but dragged down with the likes of a Chretien playing the wing (left?). I mean even if you put it on his stick while he is alone in the slot, he will at best wiff his shot or just go and marvel at the zamboni.
Who the hell is teaching these dopes anyways?
Who was the best Finance Minister Canada has had?
If the old Cretin were to stumble across this fantasy, he’d be musing “Jeeper, I tink dey really, really like me!”
If the old Cretin were to stumble across this fantasy, he’d be musing “Jeeper, I tink dey really, really like me!”
Yeah,I sure didn’t like those combinations,and as ET said,” these are so utterly juvenile as to be irrelevant. And sad to think that these are university students”.
Yes,it IS sad.
Margaret Thatcher, Dwight D.Eisenhower,Golda Meir,Ronald Reagan, Jack Layton,are my favourite Canadian fantasy PM’s.
That last one is proof of my encroaching senile dementia. 😉
Who is “Pat” and what could lead him to draft Joe Clark? Don’t know anything about Borden or Thompson to speak of, But having Mulroney and Laurier was enough for me. There were two teams I could never vote for, one with Turdeau and the other with Clark.
Trudeau was a vile, twisted, sick man with obvious personality disorders, in addition to the worst of European socialism as his ideal. Clark was a vapid, vacuous, milquetoast loser with no idea why he wanted to lead other than the job title.
OMG!!!!!!!!! Barack Obama is the love child of Trudeau and Joe Clark, inheriting the worst qualities of each, creating a true waste of food, water and oxygen.
Mike’s team is clearly the best.
You got the classical liberal Liberal Laurier, the great wartime leader Borden, the man who brought free trade to Canada (and the first to advocate free trade since Laurier), and John Thompson, who could have been quite exceptional had he not died early in his term.
Even if one doesn’t believe PET was the Antichrist, Aaron’s team still has the lame-ass Mackenzie and the underperforming Dief the Chief.
Meanwhile, Joe Clark would have immediately invalidated any team for which he’d been selected, while the undrafted are a sorry, sorry lot.
Do you still beat your wife? About as relevant.
Sean’s team (Mackenzie King, Pearson, Bennett and Abbott) would have been my next pick.
Stomping the little Lefties dreams was fun, but really don’t give a flying fiddlers f what they think.
Sorry, I couldn’t get past: When I was an MA student in Regina,
How can you put Crouton and Joe Who in the same catagory as PM Steven Harper. I’ll vote present, Thank you.
+1 for the free trader team of Laurier-“Muldoon”, along with the wartime and post-war leader when Canada was truly a great nation, Borden.
Texas Canuck, because it was a DRAFT. Each of the participants picked one whom they thought was the best from the available pool.
And Rob is right. Mike’s team is by far the strongest. The irony in Pat’s picks is that his second and third picks are far stronger than either his first or fourth. Aaron’s picks have one strong member, arguably the strongest of the entire field, with the rest being a waste of space. The only thing one can say about the undrafted is that they deserved to be undrafted, except that Tupper should have been picked and Joe Clarke not.
Since she obviously loves her warped interpretation of Trudeau we are just fortunate Layton never made it past wannabe or I’m sure she would have had him at the top. When one is forced to pick losers and winners as a team, I just can’t be bothered.
Being a long-winded bloviator type who suffers from a bit more than a passing interest in history, this “throw your sticks in the middle” sort of road hockey team selection thingee is not really my gig (although road hockey is).
But if your goal is, you know, historical authenticity, as opposed to Candy-Crowley-style-make-it-up-as-you-go-along stuff, whatever it is again that she claims to do, would it really, really, really kill ya to actually spell Wilfrid Laurier’s name correctly?
This poll is meaningless now.
It appears that the teams are swapping members, apparently they are not getting along very well.
I voted for all the losers at the bottom
Yep, SDA gets results! Well done.
We need a full-time poll bloodhound!
(wallyj- it’s just lotsa fun shoving sticks through their spokes)!
Best Prime Ministers?
MacDonald, Laurier, Harper.
(Mulroney and Chretein weren’t as bad as I thought at the time.)
snagglepuss; Oh yeah,It can be quite entertaining.
Rather sad – these are supposed to be people well informed n Canadian history. To say of King that “he navigated the country through what could have been a divisive moment”
in what is commonly known as the Conscription Crisis and is considered by genuine experts as the greatest crisis in Canadian history is – well, juvenile.
Some of these people who were contemporaries did not get on. And others really were not tested very much. How would the very capable John Abbott have made out in WW I? It is impossible to know.
I certainly agree with LAS.
Sorry, Jeff, 7:54p.m. —
It’s Macdonald, not MacDonald. As in John Sandfield Macdonald — who was the first premier of Ontario, sort of a SW Ontario Liberal-Conservative, from Essex County apparently.
To confirm my knowledge, I googled Sir John A. — who was KCMG — Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (in the trade, known as — King Calls Me God).
Derivatively, in “Skyfall”, M (Judy Dench) is writing James’s obituary for The Times and the screen says, “Commander James Bond, C.M.G., R.N.”
C.M.G. means “Commander of the Order of St. Michael-St. George” (or in the trade, “Call Me God”).
At which point, Ralph Fiennes, in the role of Gareth Mallory comes in and says to M, “you’ll be given G.C.M.G, with full honours” (Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael-St. George; in the trade, God Calls Me God).
If I’m not mistaken, St. Paul’s Cathedral is the seat of the Order of St. Michael and St. George, and is where both Nelson and Wellington are entombed.
Sorry to digress…
What a pathetic list. … / Yes Kate, I read your “Focus People” comment.
Once every 40 years or so, we get a Prime Minister that’s “good enough” and all the others are Peter Principal standouts.
uff.
Must have been an Ontario school board that threw those ‘teams’together. You know – no champions, everybody has to be mired in mediocrity.
Jean Chretien? Really?
The right Prime Minister at the right time
John A
Borden
King
St Laurent
Harper
Great mandates for great talkers
Diefenbaker
Mulroney
‘when I was an MA student in Regina” – could there be anything more illegitimate?
The truth is there have been few real leaders in Canada. PMSH might be as close as we have had.
Team Pat got my vote. Adscam is partially balanced against helping get the finances of the country somewhat under control.
Team Mike would be my second pick. Team Aaron is a dud because of the presence of the worst prime minister in Canadian history, whose malefic influence we still have not overcome.