Historical rankings of prime ministers of Canada

Surveys have been conducted to construct historical rankings of individuals who have served as prime minister of Canada. These ranking systems are usually based on surveys of academic historians, economists and political scientists. The rankings focus on the achievements, leadership qualities, failures and faults in office.

East Block (left) and the Office of the Prime Minister and Privy Council (right) have housed the office of the prime minister since Canadian Confederation, the former from 1867 to 1977 and the latter since 1977.

Scholar survey results

Canadian custom is to count by the individuals who were prime minister, not by terms.^[1] Since Confederation, 23 prime ministers have been "called upon" by the governor general to form 29 Canadian ministries.^[1]

Legend

Blue backgrounds indicate first quartile.

Green backgrounds indicate second quartile.

Orange backgrounds indicate third quartile.

Red backgrounds indicate fourth quartile.

Note: Click the "sort" icon at the head of each column to view the rankings for each survey in numerical order.

Sequence	Prime Minister	Political party	Maclean's 1997[2]	Maclean's 2011[3]	Maclean's 2016[4]	Aggr.[5]	Time in office (rank)
1	Sir John A. Macdonald	Conservative	2	2	3	03	2
2	Alexander Mackenzie	Liberal	11	13	13	13	14
3	Sir John Abbott[a]	Conservative	17	19	20	20	18
4	Sir John Thompson[a]	Conservative	10	14	16	15	16
5	Sir Mackenzie Bowell[a]	Conservative	19	21	21	22	19
6	Sir Charles Tupper[a]	Conservative	16	18	19	19	23
7	Sir Wilfrid Laurier	Liberal	3	1	2	02	4
8	Sir Robert Borden	Conservative, Unionist	7	8	9	08	8
9	Arthur Meighen[a]	Conservative	14	16	17	17	17
10	William Lyon Mackenzie King	Liberal	1	3	1	01	1
11	R. B. Bennett	Conservative	12	12	14	14	12
12	Louis St. Laurent	Liberal	4	7	6	06	9
13	John George Diefenbaker	Progressive Conservative	13	10	12	12	11
14	Lester B. Pearson	Liberal	6	4	5	05	13
15	Pierre Elliott Trudeau	Liberal	5	5	4	04	3
16	Joe Clark[a]	Progressive Conservative	15	17	18	18	20
17	John Turner[a]	Liberal	18	20	22	21	22
18	Brian Mulroney	Progressive Conservative	8	9	8	09	7
19	Kim Campbell[a]	Progressive Conservative	20	22	23	23	21
20	Jean Chrétien	Liberal	9[b]	6	7	07	5
21	Paul Martin[a]	Liberal	—	15	15	16	15
22	Stephen Harper	Conservative	—	11[b]	11	11	6
23	Justin Trudeau	Liberal	—	—	10[b]	10	10

1. Served less than 2 years, 3 months as prime minister, while all others served for more than 4 years, 11 months. There is a strong correlation between time served in office and the poll rankings: the bottom quartile of the aggregate poll rankings are all in the bottom quartile of time served in office. Similarly, the top four prime ministers in terms of aggregate rankings are in the top four of time spent in office.
2. Ranking calculated before the prime minister had left office.

Sequence listed by first term as prime minister.

By approval rating

The following is a list of prime ministers of Canada by their highest and lowest approval rating during their term. The approval rating system came into effect when John Diefenbaker was prime minister (1957–1963).

Highest approval rating

1.   Jean Chrétien — 66% (September 1994)^[6]

2.   Justin Trudeau — 65% (September 2016)^[7]

3.   John Diefenbaker — 64% (June 1958)^[6]

3.   Stephen Harper — 64% (March 2006)^[6]

5.   Brian Mulroney — 61% (June 1985)^[6]

6.   Paul Martin — 56% (September 2004)^[6]

6.   Lester B. Pearson — 56% (January 1966)^[6]

8.   Pierre Trudeau — 55% (September 1972)^[6]

9.   Kim Campbell — 53% (July 1993)^[6]

10.   Joe Clark — 32% (November 1979)^[6]

Note: Ratings are up to date as of October 26, 2024.
Legend:   Conservative   Liberal   Progressive Conservative

Lowest approval rating

1.   Brian Mulroney — 12% (November 1992)^[6]

2.   Justin Trudeau — 22% (December 2024)][6]

3.   Stephen Harper — 23% (May 2013)^[6]

4.   Pierre Trudeau — 25% (September 1982)^[6]

5.   John Diefenbaker — 34% (March 1963)^[6]

6.   Jean Chrétien — 36% (June 2000)^[6]

7.   Paul Martin — 41% (June 2005)^[6]

8.   Lester B. Pearson — 41% (September 1965)^[6]

9.   Kim Campbell — 48% (October 1993)^[6]

Note: Ratings are up to date as of December 5, 2024.
Legend:   Conservative   Liberal   Progressive Conservative

Other surveys

The Institute for Research on Public Policy undertook a survey to rank the prime ministers who had served in the 50 years preceding 2003.^[8] They ranked those nine prime ministers as follows:

1. Pearson
2. Mulroney
3. Pierre Trudeau
4. St. Laurent
5. Chrétien
6. Diefenbaker
7. Clark ^
8. Turner ^
9. Campbell ^

^ Served less than 10 months as prime minister, while all others served for more than 4 years, 11 months.

In October 2016, Maclean's again ranked the prime ministers, this time splitting them into two lists. The long-serving prime ministers were ranked as follows:

1. King
2. Laurier
3. Macdonald
4. Pierre Trudeau
5. Pearson
6. St. Laurent
7. Chrétien
8. Mulroney
9. Borden
10. Harper
11. Diefenbaker
12. Mackenzie
13. Bennett

The short-term prime ministers were ranked as follows:

1. Martin
2. Thompson
3. Meighen
4. Clark
5. Tupper
6. Abbott
7. Bowell
8. Turner
9. Campbell

See also

• Canada portal

• List of prime ministers of Canada
• The Greatest Canadian, 2004 TV series

Other countries

• Historical rankings of prime ministers of Australia
• Historical rankings of chancellors of Germany
• Historical rankings of prime ministers of the Netherlands
• Historical rankings of prime ministers of the United Kingdom
• Historical rankings of presidents of the United States

References

1. "Prime Ministers of Canada". Library of the Canadian Parliament. Retrieved 2023-02-26.
2. Hillmer, Norman and Granatstein, J. L. "Historians rank the BEST AND WORST Canadian Prime Ministers" Archived 2001-07-19 at the Wayback Machine. Maclean's. April 21, 1997. Accessed July 9, 2012.
3. Hillmer, Norman and Azzi, Stephen. "Canada's best prime ministers", Maclean's, June 10, 2011. Accessed July 9, 2012.
4. Azzi, Stephen and Hillmer, Norman. "Ranking Canada's best and worst prime ministers" Maclean's, October 7, 2016. Accessed June 22, 2017.
5. Aggregate of all polls in the table using Copeland's method.
6. "Éric Grenier's Leader Meter". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 2018-12-19. Archived from the original on 2021-01-27. Retrieved 2022-02-22.
7. "Trudeau Tracker". Angus Reid Institute. Retrieved 2024-02-04.
8. MacDonald, L. Ian. "The Best Prime Minister of the Last 50 Years — Pearson, by a landslide," Archived 2014-04-07 at the Wayback Machine Policy Options, June–July 2003. Accessed April 3, 2014.

Further reading

Further information: List of books about prime ministers of Canada

• Azzi, Stephen, and Norman Hillmer. "Evaluating prime-ministerial performance: The Canadian experience." in Understanding Prime-Ministerial Performance: Comparative Perspectives (2013): 242-263. online
• Azzi, Stephen, and Norman Hillmer. "Ranking Prime Ministers: Canada in a Commonwealth Context." Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 49.1 (2021): 22-43. online
• Schwanen, Daniel. "Ranking prime ministers of the last 50 years: The numbers speak." POLICY OPTIONS-MONTREAL 24.6 (2003): 18-23. online