Our own eccentrics

In the interest of full disclosure to our friends in the homeland south of us, we have also had our share of weird and wonderful leaders. Our first Prime Minister, John A. McDonald, (the equivalent I suppose of your Washington) was a binge drinker. No holier than thou, I cannot tell a lie type of guy, but a larger than life personage who could drink like a fish and still function. He was once quoted as having said to D'Arcy McGee (another heavy drinker, today there is a great Irish pub named after him in Ottawa) that there was only room for one drunk in the cabinet so he (D'Arcy) must reform...

Then we had William Lyon McKenzie-King. This was the prime minister who would go for a walk on his estate and discuss the nation's business with his dog and his mother. Now I know that this doesn't seem all that strange, but you have to realize that they had both been dead for many years. His hobby was building ruins. Some men build houses, mansions even castles. He deliberately built ruins. No not let a building fall into ruins, he built new ruins. He would scour Ottawa for buildings being torn down so that he could use bits and pieces in his ruins.

We also had our philosopher prince, Pierre Eliot Trudeau. Canadians either loved him or hated him. He was charismatic, flamboyant and down right arrogant. He would wear sandals to parliament and once did a pirouette behind Queen Elizabeth's back at an official function. He once told the opposition to, as the journalists put it, "fuddle duddle" I'll let you guess what he really said. He is probably the only thing that Québec Separatists and Western Conservatives can agree on... they both hate the man. Like him or hate him, he certainly left nobody indifferent.

In the last couple of years we have had Jean Chrétien. He was perfectly bilingual. Not strange you say? It has been said that Jean Chrétien was the only Prime Minister to speak both of Canada's official languages poorly at the same time. He also once tackled a demonstrator who got too close and scared the hell out of his body guards. But to give the devil his due, he did tell Dubya to go somewhere when he refused to be drawn into the debacle that is Irak and the wily old fox served 3 terms as Prime Minster (1993-2003) and had one of the highest popularity ratings in recent history despite the scandals.

It is somewhat ironic that Canadians, who have a reputation as being rather staid and middle of the road, elected and then re-elected these men to the highest office in Canada. McDonald served for 19 years as Prime Minister, McKenzie King for 22 years, Trudeau for 15 years, and Chrétien for 10 years. Hmm I wonder what that really says about us?