u/Frankishe1

R. B. Bennett is up next, and he was Canada's 13th prime minister.

Bennett was elected due to the great depression kicking off, and this would be the main issue of his time as PM. He started by doing a very familiar act to us in the modern day, tariffs to boost Canadian industries. He, and the rest of the conservative party were very pro business, and big fans of laissez-faire capitalism. He wasnt a fan of the government meddling in buissness, and he sure as shit didnt belive in and relief for the unemployed. He set up labour camps for single men where they could work for 20 cents (around 4 dollars in today's money) a day to work out in the Canadian wilderness for 44 hours a week. He only did this because, as he said "it is preferable to having bloodshed in the streets" due to the large amout of unemployed men in the cities.

He was also a raving anti communist, he enacted section 98 of the criminal code of canada, which initially came about after the 1919 Winnipeg General strike, but essentially did away with the presumtion of innocence. He used this against those who "advocated for the violent overthrow of the Canadian government". In practice, this was used as a beating stick against the Communist party of Canada, labour unions, and really anyone else who was being uppity.

Hell he had the nickname "Iron heel Bennett" due to these actions (although his name came frome one of his anti communist speeches and not him stamping on rights and whatnot)

Now, on a lighter note, he represented Canada at the 1931 statute of westminster, which established the Country as its own entity, a co-equal member of the british commonwealth, and its own nation (with the slight caveat that the british parliment technically had to green light any changes to the constitution, that'll get fixed later)

He also campaigned for a free trade agreement throughout the commonwealth, but he only scored a lower tariff rate and better deals with Britain

This was also time of the dust bowl in the praries, and he put through legislation that made it easier for farmers to get a loan and harder for the banks to foreclose on their homes

And finally we come to his downfall, in 1935, with no end in sight to the Deppression, and acting on advice from his envoy to the United States, he did a complete 180 on his whole economic platform. The government is intervening in a big way, progressive income taxing, a minimum wage, maximum amout of work hours in a week, health insurance, unemployment insurance, he went all in on a Canadian new deal.

Small problem, his party was the very much pro small government conservative party, and he was doing big government things. His minister of trade and commerce bolted, and formed his own party, and the public either saw him as going too far or not far enough. He was crushed by Mackenzie King's liberals in what was at the time the greatest defeat of a ruling party in the nation's history.

The conservatives would not have a majority government again until 1958

So William Lyon Mackenzie King was the twelfth prime minister of canada and a certified good damn loon XD. He is most remembered for being the leader of canada through the latter part of the great depression and world war 2 but he was first elected in 1921.

Since hes such an important dude hes gonna get two parts, ill cover his second stint as PM later, but for now we have the period from 1921 to 1930.

He hit the ground running in 1922 when during the Chanak Crisis (when britain and turkey almost went to war) he, without parliaments consent, told great britain that canada would not support any war in turkey.

Now technically, this wasnt Canada's call to make, canada was a dominion of Great Britain at the time and forgien policy was handled by britan, if britan went to war, so did canada... technically. Canada had won quite a bit of praise on the battlefield, but had suffered many casualties as the spear tip of the british forces in the last hundred days of the war, and king decided to flex a bit of that political capital gained from that. It also helped that nobody else was keen on a war either, but the point was made.

King also continued the liberal (and tory to be fair) tradition of continuing to hammer down on Chinese immigration, with the Chinese Immigration act of 1923, which basically excluded any Chinese immigration barring a couple of exemptions.

In 1925 the conservatives won the most seats but, with support of the progressive party, King managed to form a minority government, but in 1926 he faced a vote that could of led to his government resigning, he asked Governor General Byng to dissolve parliment and call for election. Byng refused and for a brief time, Arthur Meighen was PM again. Less than a week later, a vote of no confidence was passed and parliament was dissolved, and a general election was called anyway, which King won, and in response to this, the imperial conference of 1926 was called, which led to the Balfour declaration (no not that one), which made all the dominions of the empire equal to Britian.

Finally he lost power after his slow reaction to the great depression.

Oh and the meme? Well King would use seances to contact his dead dogs and mother to get political advice, you cant make this shit up lol

Arthur Meighen was Canada's ninth Prime Minister, he lasted all of a year before being defeated in the 1921 election.

There are two whole things he did, he started a royal commission investigating the grain trade, and at the 1921 imperial conference, he successfully campaigned against the renewing of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance that had existed previously.

The Winnipeg Grenediers and Royal Rifles of canada must of felt a sense of impending doom after that last one

Robert Borden was Canada's 8th prime minister, and he was remembered as Canada's wartime prime minister in world war one.

Now, Canada could not decide if it could go to war in 1914, but it could decide how much It contributed, and canada went all in. In total canada raised 4 divisions in the war. Now thats all well and good, but from 1917 onward, there would be issues recruiting enough men for the fight.

Thus, the conscription crisis of 1917 was born. The conservatives and the pro conscription liberals joined to form the unionist party in 1917, and won an overwhelming majority in the election that year.

With this majority they pushed through the military service act. This was massively unpopular in French Canada (who held no loyalty to britian or france) and culminated in a massive riot in Quebec City, known as the Easter Riots. which necessitated the calling up of soldiers, the implementation of martial law, and, in the end, a clash between army and civilians which resulted in 150 casualties, including 4 dead.

In the end, very few of the 125,000 men who were conscripted ever saw combat, and from then on, the idea of conscription was never considered seriously (lol jk, we are gonna have another crisis in world war 2 xD)

Borden was key in the struggle to grant women suffrage, and on May 24, 1918, he granted women over 21, the right to vote, as well as allowing them the right to run for parliment in 1920 (but not natives or Asians, because this is still 1920)

In 1919 Borden fought for, and won the right, despite push back from both Britain and America, the right to a seat at the treaty of Versailles as a minor nation, and not just for canada either, but for all of the british dominions.

Finally, in 1919, there was the Winnipeg General strike, which was a major point in the history of labour relations in canada that I could never do justice. But in short, Winnipeg had a general strike due to the post war economic slump, Borden sent in the NWMP (the mounties), the mounties charged the strikers, discharged 120 rounds from revolvers, killed 2 people, and did a whole wack of arresting and deporting of the strike leaders, and arresting of the press. The country was outraged, 30 cities had general strikes in response, and the whole incident led indirectly to the formation of the New Democratic Party

Finally, after all that, and on the advice of his doctor, Robert Borden Retired, and passed on the PM role to Arthur Meighen.

This isnt everything (I didnt even bring up the Ukrainian internment camps) just more of a snapshot, hes got alot going on, there's a reason hes on the 100$ bill lol

Wilfred Laurier was Canada's seventh prime minister, and the first French Canadian to gain the office. As prime ministers go, hes extremely important. He was able to bridge the divide between French and English, and was known as the great conciliator due to that.

He solved the Manatoba School Question, which had plauged the last few parliaments and expanded the country's rail network, to include a second line to the pacific, and a line to the Atlantic.

He formed the provinces of Alberta, and Saskatchewan, and massively increased immigration. He formed the royal Canadian navy and sent troops to fight in the second Boer war, to much aclaim. He did alot for canada

However, he did increase the Chinese head tax twice (up to 500 dollars) and when some Chinese managed to pay it he suggested that it be raised to 1000 dollars

He massively increased the residential school system and ignored reports of high mortality in the schools.

And just before he left he proposed Order-in-Council P.C. 1911-1324 was a proposed one-year prohibition of black immigrants entering Canada because, according to the order-in-council, "the Negro race" was "unsuitable to the climate and requirements of Canada".

Now to give some context, this was in response to white farmers worries about an influx of black farmers, and Laurier never invoked it, and he revoked it on his last day in office. Still very much a product of its time.

After he was finally defeated in the election of 1911, he continued to run the official opposition until 1919 and was anti conscription during the war, leading to a split within the pro and anti conscription parts of the liberal party.

Sir Charles Tupper was Canada's sixth prime minister and he became prime minister seven days after parliament dissolved. He then went on to lose the federal election. He lasted only 68 days, making him the shortest serving prime minister in canadian history.

Mackenzie Bowell was Canada's fifth prime minister, and his term was all about the Manatoba School Question. He was also PM while being member of the canadian senate, which turned out to be a problem because he couldn't get involved in the debates of the day. Added to that, he was fairly indecisive and just over a year later, his party asked him to resign. Edit: i suppose the second sight after hindsight wasnt necessary

John Thompson was Canada's 4th prime minister and was the first catholic Prime Minister in canadian history. The major issues of the day were a small, but vocal group of people who wanted to join the Americans, a seal hunting dispute with the Americans, and the Manitoba School Question, where Manitoba stopped funding catholic and Protestant schools, this will reappear for the next few prime ministers.

Just two years into his term, while on a trip to England, and just after getting a place on queen Victoria's privy council, Thompson had a heart attack and died

John Abbott was Canada's third prime minister, and he took over after Sir John A. Macdonald died in office. Unfortunately he did not last long as he retired a year later due to what was eventually discovered to be cancer of the brain. Its a shame too, because he did attempt to retire earlier, but his party refused the man he had picked as his replacement because he was catholic.

He died less than a year after his retirement.

Alexander Mackenzie was Canada's second prime minister, and he is remembered for advising the creation of the Canadian Supreme Court, and creating the Royal military College of Canada. He also what the prime minister that was responsible for the Indian Act of 1876.

His government fell in part to a recession that, among other things, led to the canadian pacific railway nearly stopping, pissing off British Columbia and leading them to threaten to leave the country.

Sir John A Macdonald was the first prime minister of canada, and was one of the driving forces of confederation.

He was also a drunk, often going on massive binges and, even for the time, extremely racist, this is the guy behind the residential schools, the Chinese head tax, and a number of other 'fun' policies.

Oh and he was PM for the first railroad across Canada (indeed his second government fell because of a corruption scandal involving the construction of the canadian pacific railway)

He is Canada's second longest serving prime minister (yes he was reelected four years after the aforementioned corruption scandal) only beaten by William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canada's Deppression/wartime PM and guy who talks to ghosts to make policy decisions.

What can I say, we like our crazy prime ministers

EDIT: at this point i should say he is extremely controversial in canada as you can see lol

I haven't gotten any models in over a decade, and this woman who had just gotten into 40k surprised me with a gift yesterday