(05/26/09) -

Trudeau Regarded as Canada’s Best Recent PM

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – Two-in-five Canadians select Pierre Trudeau as their favourite recent head of government, according to a poll by Angus Reid Strategies released by the Toronto Star. 39 per cent of respondents think Trudeau has been Canada’s best prime minister since 1968.

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – Two-in-five Canadians select Pierre Trudeau as their favourite recent head of government, according to a poll by Angus Reid Strategies released by the Toronto Star. 39 per cent of respondents think Trudeau has been Canada’s best prime minister since 1968.

Stephen Harper is second with 11 per cent, followed by Jean Chrétien with nine per cent, Brian Mulroney with eight per cent, Paul Martin with four per cent, Joe Clark with three per cent, John Turner with one per cent, and Kim Campbell also with one per cent.

Trudeau—a member of the Liberal party—headed the federal administration from 1968 to 1979, and from 1980 to 1984. During his tenure as prime minister, Trudeau envisioned the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and Canada patriated the constitution from Britain. The 1982 constitution was signed without Quebec. Two different efforts by the Mulroney government—the Meech Lake Accord in the 1980s and the 1992 Charlottetown referendum—failed to bring the province into the constitution.

Harper was picked as the worst prime minister by 22 per cent of respondents—up seven points since June 2008—followed by Mulroney with 19 per cent, Chrétien with 12 per cent, Trudeau with 10 per cent, Campbell with nine per cent, Martin with six per cent, Clark with four per cent, and Turner also with four per cent.

Mulroney—a member of the Progressive Conservative party—served as prime minister from 1984 to 1993, winning two majority mandates. His government cancelled the National Energy Program—developed by Trudeau—which proved extremely unpopular in Western Canada, and negotiated two separate free trade agreements.

Mulroney’s second term was marked by an economic recession and the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). In the 1993 Canadian federal election, the governing Progressive Conservatives—led by Campbell—were reduced to just two seats in the House of Commons.

Shortly after leaving office in 1993, Mulroney accepted thousands of dollars in cash from German-Canadian businessman Karl-Heinz Schreiber. In public statements, as well as in testimony provided to a House of Commons ethics committee in 2007, the two men have offered differing accounts on the amount and purpose of the payments.

Earlier this month, during his testimony at the public inquiry that is investigating his dealings with Schreiber, Mulroney criticized Harper’s decision to cut the GST, saying, "There wouldn’t be an economist in the finance department or the Bank of Canada that would say that it was a smart thing to do. It cuts $12 billion out of your revenue—it hurts your exports."

Polling Data

We would like to ask you some questions about the people who have served as prime minister of Canada since 1968. Which of these politicians do you think has been Canada’s best prime minister?

We would like to ask you some questions about the people who have served as prime minister of Canada since 1968. Which of these politicians do you think has been Canada’s worst prime minister?

Source: Angus Reid Strategies
Methodology: Online interviews with 1,004 Canadian adults, conducted on May 19 and May 20, 2009. Margin of error is 3.1 per cent.

Complete Poll (PDF)