Prime Ministers: Ranking Canada's Leaders

by J.L. Granatstein

234 pages of excellent text, filled with great photos and illustrations. These highly entertaining portraits of our 20 leaders, arranged chronologically, capture the flavor of Canadian history from Confederation to the present. First Edition.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Canada, Politics

224 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1999

About the author

Jack Lawrence Granatstein is a Canadian historian who specializes in Canadian political and military history. Granatstein received a graduation diploma from Royal Military College Saint-Jean in 1959, his Bachelor of Arts degree from the Royal Military College of Canada in 1961, his Master of Arts degree from the University of Toronto in 1962, and his Doctor of Philosophy degree from Duke University in 1966.

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good introductory overview to Canada's Prime Ministers. Each prime minister's time in office is described in a short chapter that highlights their successes and failures. Whets your appetite for more detailed study of each. The only issue I have with this book is its premise of ranking prime ministers. The rankings are given in the introduction, and an explanation is given that the rankings are based on a polling of many Canadian history scholars. But then the rankings aren't mentioned again until the afterword. The vignettes of each prime minister are written by the two authors, which we are told in the introduction, but there is no reference in any of the vignettes to the rankings. No discussion of them, no defense of them, no argument against them. This doesn't diminish the value of the book, but it was a little distracting that 90% of the book is not what the title claims it is. But considering most Canadian high school graduates can only name 4 or 5 prime ministers, if that, a book like this would be great required grade 10 reading!