List Of Prime Ministers Of Canada By Time In Office
Prime ministers of Canada do not have a fixed term of office; instead, they may stay in office as long as their government is supported by parliament under a system of responsible government. Both the number of terms served and the length of individual terms have varied considerably since Confederation. Historically, elections have been held every three to five years, although since 2006 a government act set fixed election days every four years unless parliament is dissolved earlier by the Governor General. Prime ministers can be re-elected to serve any number of consecutive mandates, and some have served up to six terms, while several others have served for less than one full term. There are also four prime ministers who served multiple non-consecutive terms in the office.
Of the prime ministers who served less than one full term, two of them, Joe Clark and Paul Martin, had their time in office cut short by the collapse of a minority parliament and the subsequent election of the opposition party. In all other cases of short tenure, a new prime minister was put in place for the last few months of their predecessor's mandate—usually to try to gain support from the electorate before an election—but were subsequently defeated by the opposition party. The preceding Prime Minister always stays in office during an election campaign, and that time is included in the total. The first day of a Prime Minister's term is counted in the total, but the last day is not. This list is accurate as of December 3, 2012.
Read more about List Of Prime Ministers Of Canada By Time In Office: Prime Ministers, Footnotes
Famous quotes containing the words list of, list, prime, ministers, canada, time and/or office:
“Shea—they call him Scholar Jack—
Went down the list of the dead.
Officers, seamen, gunners, marines,
The crews of the gig and yawl,
The bearded man and the lad in his teens,
Carpenters, coal-passers—all.”
—Joseph I. C. Clarke (1846–1925)
“Every morning I woke in dread, waiting for the day nurse to go on her rounds and announce from the list of names in her hand whether or not I was for shock treatment, the new and fashionable means of quieting people and of making them realize that orders are to be obeyed and floors are to be polished without anyone protesting and faces are to be made to be fixed into smiles and weeping is a crime.”
—Janet Frame (b. 1924)
“The prime purpose of being four is to enjoy being four—of secondary importance is to prepare for being five.”
—Jim Trelease (20th century)
“All thoughts, all passions, all delights,
Whatever stirs this mortal frame,
Are all but ministers of Love,
And feed his sacred flame.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)
“I fear that I have not got much to say about Canada, not having seen much; what I got by going to Canada was a cold.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Life’s so short, Katie. You have to make every moment count. It’s not easy to do, you know. I don’t think that a day goes by when I don’t turn my back on some small thing or some issue somewhere. But it’s so short, Katie. If you’re not careful, the days go by and all you have time for is regret.”
—Blake Edwards (b. 1922)
“Notwithstanding the unaccountable apathy with which of late years the Indians have been sometimes abandoned to their enemies, it is not to be doubted that it is the good pleasure and the understanding of all humane persons in the Republic, of the men and the matrons sitting in the thriving independent families all over the land, that they shall be duly cared for; that they shall taste justice and love from all to whom we have delegated the office of dealing with them.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)