Best Canadian Prime Minister Since WWII?

[Sumner 1868]

Since we've already done vice versa.

[Hatman 🍁]

Harper.

Best friends.

[RogueBeaver]

Harper.

[DC Al Fine]

King maybe? I'm not particularly enthusiastic about any of them.

[Sumner 1868]

Well, Pearson is apparently the choice of the left (I voted for him myself) while the right favors Harper. I'm curious who those that picked Harper would choose as there second choice?

[Vosem]

Harper.

Best friends.

May they remain so, and may Bibi gain many friends more.

[Sumner 1868]

Harper.

Best friends.

May they remain so, and may Bibi gain many friends more be defeated in six days.

Now that's out of the way, I repeat my question about second choices.

[Vosem]

Now that's out of the way, I repeat my question about second choices.

King, perhaps, as the man who led Canada through WW2, deserves a lot of recognition. As to your edit, "Bibi" was meant in this case as "Israeli leadership" more generally; the sentiment won't really changes if Yitzhak Herzog or Yair Lapid or whoever takes over in a week (which is doubtful, but possible; I do think Israel's reached a point with Bibi where it might be time for a change).

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

I agree with a lot of George P. Grant's criticisms of Pearson but probably don't agree with whatever it was Grant found preferable. King, I guess.

[Hatman 🍁]

People don't realize King was a terrible bastard (anti-Semitic too, which ironic considering this thread). And probably slightly insane. Definitely the worst Liberal on this list.

[RogueBeaver]

I like St. Laurent on foreign policy, hate his hyper-centralism domestically. Mulroney also good on FP, OK on econ liberalization, awful at everything else. So I'd say St. Laurent over Mulroney, if we're excluding Harper.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

I don't think any anti-Semitic views would harm my views of King, who I kind of admire for (1) his long tenure in office, (2) his vision for a new role for Canada on the world stage, and (3) his social measures, especially in his last term.

If King was my favorite PM, then his party affiliation would have something to with it too - if I was in Canada, I'd more often than not vote for federal Liberals.

[Hatman 🍁]

Let's see how horrible King was:

-Advocated for the Japanese internment
-His PHD dissertation was "Oriental Immigration to Canada" which argued against Asian immigration, suggesting Canada should remain White.
-Blocked Jewish refugees from the country; Praised the "constructive work of Hitler's regime"

Also, he thought he could communicate with the dead.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Let's see how horrible King was:

-Advocated for the Japanese internment
-His PHD dissertation was "Oriental Immigration to Canada" which argued against Asian immigration, suggesting Canada should remain White.
-Blocked Jewish refugees from the country; Praised the "constructive work of Hitler's regime"

Also, he thought he could communicate with the dead.

You know, there was another guy who thought their nation should remain white: the Labor PM of Australia.  And there's another guy who supported Japanese internment: FDR.  Do people judge the two by those positions?  Case in point: you don't judge people just by this parameters and these parameters alone.  I'd agree though he was a kind of...off mentally.  But that never seemed to affect his government.

[Hatman 🍁]

Nothing wrong with judging someone by those parameters. Sure there were a lot of racist politicians back then, but not all of them were. The CCF certainly wasn't advocating for those things.   

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Nothing wrong with judging someone by those parameters. Sure there were a lot of racist politicians back then, but not all of them were. The CCF certainly wasn't advocating for those things.   

My point really is that you have to look at all the things they did and thought.  Note that despite his faults King has been routinely voted No. 1 Prime Minister of Canada.

[Hatman 🍁]

Routinely? That is up for debate. Sometimes he's #1, but sometimes it's Laurier, Macdonald or Pearson.

Anyways, this all comes down to how you score people's policies. Sure, he did some great things, but I give huge negative scores for racism, and that really brings him down in my books.

[Hash]

Mackenzie King as the best PM is ridiculous because of how useless he was, especially for someone who stayed in office forever.

Macdonald as best PM is dumb as well, but slightly less ridiculous.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Routinely? That is up for debate. Sometimes he's #1, but sometimes it's Laurier, Macdonald or Pearson.

Anyways, this all comes down to how you score people's policies. Sure, he did some great things, but I give huge negative scores for racism, and that really brings him down in my books.

My bad.  Routinely?  I should have said 'repeatedly'.

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

Okay fine, having learned what I've just learned about King, I've got to go with the guy who accepted Bomarc. Ugh.

[Hatman 🍁]

I don't know much about it, but I would imagine Pearson had a hard time on the issue, considering his views on nuclear issues. Apparently his wife had to her membership in an anti-nuclear group.

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

As I understand it, Diefenbaker refused Bomarc, which caused his defense minister and I think several other people as well to resign in protest, and Pearson, regardless of his personal views, ran specifically on accepting Bomarc in the ensuing election.

[Smid]

Let's see how horrible King was:

-Advocated for the Japanese internment
-His PHD dissertation was "Oriental Immigration to Canada" which argued against Asian immigration, suggesting Canada should remain White.
-Blocked Jewish refugees from the country; Praised the "constructive work of Hitler's regime"

Also, he thought he could communicate with the dead.

I was aware of points 3 & 4 on the Hatman list. He is not popular with me.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Kim Campbell is obviously the greatest Canadian PM since WWII and second only to Charles Tupper overall.

[Angel of Death]

Okay, so are there any non-Israel-firsters here who think Harper is the greatest PM Canada ever had?