Capturing What Makes PMs Tick

The job of being prime minister, Jean Chrétien once observed, is “never easy.” Some frustrations include the need to “hurt the feelings of a lot of people on a regular basis” and to “operate in the public eye with MPs who fret and bureaucrats who gossip and colleagues who disagree.” Not to mention, of course, making decisions that affect millions of lives—and sometimes sending soldiers off to wars from which some do not return. 

In those ways, the tribulations of being a Canadian prime minister have not changed greatly in the 151 years since Confederation. In that time, only 23 people have held the job; seven are alive. All have shared the relentless workload while, at the same time, approaching the position’s evolving, ever-growing pressures in sometimes unique ways. Those challenges, and the ways in which respective prime ministers greeted them, are the subject of Being Prime Minister, the breezily-written, impeccably-researched book by Toronto history teacher extraordinaire and writer J.D.M (James) Stewart. [MORE]