Canada's Next Great Prime Minister

Sometimes something happens up here that even now, after more than 15 years of living in Canada, takes me by surprise. This one might seem innocuous enough—it’s CBC’s show, starting its 2nd season in a couple of weeks, called Canada’s Next Great Prime Minister. It’s a show in which four former Prime Ministers act as a panel, selecting the Canadian whose prescriptions for Canada make them worthy of being crowned Canada’s Next Great Prime Minister.

It sounds clever enough—a political game show that doesn’t seek to titillate, demean or offer sensationalism. Important issues might get some significant air time with an audience who, drawn to the competitive format, wouldn’t otherwise tune in to the news. Yet I am struck by how an equivalent show like this would never, NEVER, see the light of day in the States. The simple fact of the show says something both about Canada and the States.

As an American ex-pat, I know that not one President, never mind four, would ever agree to be a panelist on a political game show. It’s a non-starter because of the often invoked, but seldom explained, “dignity of the office.” Americans, Presidents in particular, take “the dignity of the office” seriously. It’s one of the reasons why Gore wouldn’t challenge the Supreme Court’s ruling in favour of Bush. It’s why Congress hesitates to aggressively investigate presidential wrongdoing. The office is larger than the man.

Does this mean that the office of the PM lacks dignity? Let’s just say the office is less burdened with carrying the nation’s meaning (see the Post of January 4th). The PM is voted into office as a member of Parliament only by the people in their riding; in this, they are closest to being the equivalent of a U.S. congressman. They are then selected by their party as their leader. Their “term” can last but a few scant months if their government receives a non-confidence vote, and they can unceremoniously be dumped as party leader. Such a set-up does not lend itself to the office being imbued with a historical accrual of dignity. The dignity in Canada would seem to be brought to the office by the particular person serving as PM, rather than the office conferring dignity upon the person.


The other oddity is the show’s implicit, underlying premise: the regular political process doesn’t often get us great Prime Ministers, so let’s see if we can use a game show to get one. The national broadcaster—bored perhaps from years of its standard election coverage—seems to want to take a crack at discovering the country’s next Prime Minister. Once done with that, would they be willing to take a risk on the show lurking in the shadows and set aside a primetime slot for Canada’s Last Great Prime Minister?…Pause…Who WAS that? Was it one of the judges on the current show? Imagine if the current panel of judges--four former Prime Ministers: Joe Clark, Brian Mulrony, Kim Campbell and Paul Martin--would instead become contestants, making their case before a panel of citizens that they were, in fact, the last great one. Politicians pleading for their legacy--now that would be TV worth watching!