Arctic_Menace Arctic_Menace:
Um, no. He was not the best leader we've ever heard. Was he popular? Yes. Did he help put Canada on the world stage? Yes, and it was a mix of bad and good. He was definitely not our greatest. That honour should belong to either Sir John A. MacDonald or Lester B. Pearson.
Macdonald is certainly a defensible choice, but I think Trudeau had more crises to navigate than John A. And yes, Trudeau's legacy includes some bad (he drove us into debt and he alienated Alberta), but from an objective third-party view, he did as well as anyone could have. The Energy Program, for example, may have pissed off Albertans, but it was the right thing to do for CANADA as a whole.
Pearson? What did he do? The flag? What else? His greatest contribution came before he was PM. He was a good guy, but not a serious candidate for the title. As PM, he piloted the ship but through calm seas. Trudeau took us 'Around the Horn' through the worst possible weather.
This debate is a two-horse race between Macdoanld and Trudeau.