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The Roles and Achievements of Prime Ministers John a Macdonald and Laurier Sir John a MacDonald was the first prime minister of Canada and was the dominant representative of the Canadian confederation. He was born on the 11th January 1815 and passed on 6th June. His term in office was 18 years long which places him to the second longest serving prime minister in Canada. He is the only one to ever win six majority governments (Hennessy 12). As for Sir Wilfrid Laurier, he was the seventh prime minister, Born on 20th November 1841 and passed on on the 17th February 1919. He was the first francophone prime minister and was considered one of the countries superb statesmen. As compared to his counter part John a MacDonald, sir Wilfrid was also in the list of the longest serving prime ministers in Canada although him coming in as position four. Sir Wilfrid also contributed to the expanding of the confederation. Sir John MacDonald was born in Glasgow Scotland was the third in a family of five while Sir Wilfrid laurier was born in Saint-lin Canada East and was the 7th generation of his family. MacDonald’s parents decided that he should become a lawyer after his completion of schooling. It was a great choice for a boy who seemed to really admire studying and beside that he had an urgent to start earning cash in order to support his family since his fathers business ventures were failing. As compared to Macdonald Lauriers’ father was well up and by the age of eleven he was sent to study in new Glasgow. Macdonald had a rather sorrowful and tragedous private life. When Sir Macdonald first came into office he was faced with major opposition. Nova Scotia was already threatening to withdraw from the confederation; the Anglo-American relationships were in a poor state. In 1867 the first general elections were held and this is where MacDonald had his first major achievement. He was able to bring together Nova Scotia New Brunswick and the province of
Cited: Hennessy, Peter. Prime Ministers: The Office and its Holders since 1945. Cambridge: Cambridge Press, 2001. Leonardo, Gordon. Review of Prosperity and Misery in Modern Bengal: The Famine of 1923–1944. American Historical Review, 88.4 (1983): 218 – 230. Picknett, Lynn, Prince, Clive, Prior, Stephen, and Brydon, Robert. War of the Windsors: A Century of Unconstitutional Monarchy. Chicago: Mainstream Publishing, 2002.