Canadians’ opinions on the best prime ministers in our country’s history are polarizing to say the least.
A new poll from Research Co. asked that very question to a representative national sample of Canadian residents.
Three of Canada’s 24 prime ministers, including the current one, find themselves at the top of both the “best ever” and “worst ever” lists.
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Pierre Trudeau (30%), Mark Carney (29%), Stephen Harper (29%), John A. Macdonald (27%) and Jean Chrétien (27%) are the prime ministers who are considered the best ever by more than a quarter of Canadians.
The elder Trudeau’s ranking was boosted by Baby Boomers, who also viewed Brian Mulroney and Lester Pearson quite favourably, while Chrétien was at the top of Millennials’ ballots. Macdonald and Harper’s rankings were boosted by male respondents. Carney received the most love from female respondents.
Justin Trudeau was viewed as the “best ever” prime minister by 28% of Gen Z respondents, but that appears to be the only age range where he isn’t disliked. Nearly half of Canadians gave him a vote as one of the “worst ever” to lead Canada.
His 47% in that regard was more than double the next prime minister, as his father and Harper both got 23% of that vote and Carney and Kim Campbell rounded out the top five with 21% and 20% respectively.
When assessing recent opposition leaders, the late Jack Layton leads the way with 47% of respondents believing he would have made a “very good” or “good” prime minister. Pierre Poilievre is second on that list at 39%.
To read more about the results of this poll, click here, or check out Research Co.’s full data tables here.
