The Prime Minister of Canada

Hii there!! Ready to read another interesting datas about Canada? Okeyy, if you are to read another fact of Canada, I will tell you about…. THE PRIME MINISTER!!! Well, Based on the information that I found in internet, Canada is a monarchy country, and do you know who is the head of the state? Queen Elizabeth II is the head of the state, that’s why Canada has two anthems, the national anthem is “O Canada” but the royal anthem is “God Save The Queen” same as the United Kingdom.

           

So, now you already knew that Canada is a great country, so who is the leader of this country? As a monarchy country, the head of the constitution is Prime Minister (PM for short). It’s different with my beloved motherland Indonesia. As a republic country, our head of state, also being the head of the constitution is a President. At this moment, Mr. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is our president. Back to Canada, so who is the leader of this country? Now I want to tell about the prime minister of Canada, before I tell about the present prime minister, I want you to know who are the past prime minister. Until this day, Canada already have 22 prime ministers since 1867, they are the head of constitution, I’ve searched in the internet, and I found some interesting datas in Wikipedia.org (I think this the best site where you can easily get information from). And I found a list that consists all the names who ever be a PM (Prime Minister) for Canada.  Below is the list of prime minister of Canada.

1.      Sir John A Macdonald (1867-1873) & (1878-1891)

·        Kingston

·        Victoria

·        Carleton

2. Alexander Mackenzie (1873-1878)

·        Lambton

3. Sir John Abbott (1891-1892)

·        Senator

4. Sir John Thompson (1892-1894)

·        Antigonish

5. Sir Mackenzie Bowell (1894-1896)

·        Senator

6. Sir Charles Tupper (1896-1896)

·        Cape Breton

7. Sir Wilfrid Laurier (1896-1911)

·        Quebec East

8. Sir Robert Borden (1911-1920)

·        Halifax

·        Kings

9. Arthur Meighen (1920-1921) & (1926-1926)

·        Portage la Prairie

10. William Lyon Mackenzie King (1926-1930) & (1935-1948)

·        York North

·        Prince Albert

11. Richard Bedford Bennett (1930-1935)

·        Calgary West

12. Louis St. Laurent (1948-1957)

·        Quebec East

13. John Diefenbaker (1957-1963)

·        Prince Albert

14. Lester B. Pearson (1963-1968)

·        Algoma East

15. Pierre Trudeau (1968-1979) & (1980-1984)

·        Mount Royal

16. Joe Clark (1979-1980)

·        Yellowhead

17. John Turner (1984-1984)

·        Vancouver

18. Brian Mulroney (1984-1993)

·        Manicouagan

·        Charlevoix

19. Kim Campbell (1993-1993)

·        Vancouver Center

20. Jean Chretien (1993-2003)

·        Saint Maurice

21. Paul Martin (2003-2006)

·        LaSalle-Emard

22. Stephen Harper (2006-)

·        Calgary Southwest

As mentioned on the list, you can see the last prime minister is Stephen Harper. Stephen Joseph Harper was born in April 30, 1959. He became Prime Minister after his party won a minority government in the 2006 federal election. He is the first Prime Minister from the newly reconstituted Conservative Party, following a merger of the Progressive Conservative and Canadian Alliance parties.

Harper has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for the riding of Calgary Southwest in Alberta since 2002. Earlier, from 1993 to 1997, he was the MP for Calgary West. He was one of the founding members of the Reform Party, but ended his first stint as an MP to join, and shortly thereafter head, the National Citizens Coalition. In 2002, he succeeded Stockwell Day as leader of the Canadian Alliance (the successor to the Reform Party) and returned to Parliament as Leader of the Opposition. In 2003, he reached an agreement with Progressive Conservative leader Peter MacKay for the merger of their two parties to form the Conservative Party of Canada. He was elected as the party's first non-interim leader in March 2004.

Harper's Conservative Party won a stronger minority in the October 2008 federal election, showing a small increase in the percentage of the popular vote and increased representation in the Canadian House of Commons with 143 of 308 seats. Due to low voter turnout, there was a small decrease in total number of votes for the Conservative party.

Harper was born in Toronto, the first of three sons of Margaret (née Johnston) and Joseph Harris Harper, an accountant at Imperial Oil. He attended Northlea Public School and, later, John G. Althouse Middle School and Richview Collegiate Institute, both in Central Etobicoke. He graduated in 1978, and was a member of Richview Collegiate's team on Reach for the Top, a television quiz show for Canadian high school students.        Harper then enrolled at the University of Toronto but dropped out after two months. He then moved to Edmonton, Alberta, where he found work in the mail room at Imperial Oil. Later, he would advance to work on the company's computer systems. He took up post-secondary studies again at the University of Calgary, where he completed a bachelor's degree in economics. He later returned there to earn a master's degree in economics, completed in 1993. Harper has kept strong links to the University of Calgary, and often lectured there. He is the most recent prime minister since Joe Clark without a law degree.

Well, that’s the information that I’ve found in the internet, hopefully this entry can be very helpful for all of you.

Oppss, I forgot something, I just wanna tell you that knowledge is everything, and we can learn a lot of things from Canada… Maybe it’s better for you to read a lot about other countries, find what are their strength, what did they do to make their country grown fast, how are their culture, by doing this, I’m sure we’ll get more knowledge, and we can use it for anything. Because in this era, the challenge of this world is very big, when every people are compete each other to find a better live, by doing anything, even some of them use an illegal way (well we must not take this as our example) but there is another way to be a successful man, work hard, and never give up. As you read in this enrty about Harper’s life, he wasn’t get his position right from an instant way, he does everything (illegally of course) he can do, and now, he became very success as the prime minister of Canada. 

Thank you for reading!!! :D