The Canadian Federal Election will be held next month on October 19th, and there will be new Members of Parliament in many ridings across the country. Here in the archives, we have correspondence with many MPs, but we were curious to see how many Prime Ministers' signatures we could find. Out of the 22 who have held the job, we were able to find 16. Not too shabby!
In order of appearance, we have:
1. Sir John A. Macdonald 1867 - 1873, 1878 - 1891 L AF02.31 1884 |
2. Alexander Mackenzie 1873 - 1878 L AE12.54 1876 |
4. Sir John Thompson 1892 - 1894 L AE12.131 1887 |
7. Sir Wilfrid Laurier 1896 - 1911 ME AE01.20 1909 |
9. Arthur Meighen 1920 - 1921, 1926 MN AH10.16 1921 |
10. William Lyon Mackenzie King 1921 - 1926, 1926 - 1930, 1935 - 1948 MG SU03.13 1937 |
11. R.B. Bennett 1930 - 1935 MN TA01.117 1933 |
12. Louis St. Laurent 1948 - 1957 MG DS50.64 1948 |
13. John Diefenbaker 1957 - 1963 MG PO06 54 1957 |
14. Lester B. Pearson 1963 - 1968 MG PO06.116 1963 |
15. Pierre Trudeau 1968 - 1979, 1980 - 1984 Papers of Cardinal Carter 1983 |
16. Joe Clark 1979 - 1980 Papers of Cardinal Carter |
17. John Turner 1984 Papers of Cardinal Ambrozic |
18. Brian Mulroney 1984 - 1993 Papers of Cardinal Carter |
20. Jean Chrétien 1993 - 2003 Papers of Cardinal Ambrozic |
21. Paul Martin 2003 - 2006 Papers of Cardinal Ambrozic |
Stephen Harper's signature is probably somewhere in the building, but not yet in the archives!
Click here to read the Canadian Bishops' guide to voting in the upcoming election, and click here for information about voter registration. Don't forget to make your voice heard!