Song Lyrics Explanation: "Prime Ministers Are People Too"

Song by Shawna Audet and The Overlanders

Verse 1 - John A. Macdonald was our first Prime Minister (P.M.). He was kicked out of office because of the Pacific Scandal. The Pacific Scandal involved railway building contracts. Macdonald gave a fat railway contract to an American company (with the understand that the company would make a generous donation to his political party). The public was outraged and Macdonald was forced out of office.

Verse 2 - Alexander Mackenzie took over when Macdonald was forced out of office. His plain, penny-pinching style was in stark contrast to the big dreams and daring style of Macdonald. When the voters got their next chance, they brought the big dreamer back into power.

Verse 3 - Macdonald died while in office. After his death, there was a serious of caretaker Prime Ministers. Thompson could have done a good job, but he died while in office. Tupper took over to lead the party into the election. He was only in office for 10 weeks. Laurier beat Tupper and went on to become one of our greatest Prime Ministers.

Verse 4 - King held office for longer than any other Prime Minister. R.B. Bennett led us through the Great Depression of the dirty thirties.

Verse 5 - Diefenbaker was supposed to buy Canadian war planes (Avro-Arrow), Instead, he decided to buy from the Americans (bad choice). He bought the American Bomarc surface-to-air missiles. To make matters worse, the Bomarcs were equiped with nuclear warheads. This was a big problem because Canada was supposed to be a nuclear free zone. Having realized his error, he had the warheads stuffed with blanks. The price tag was $685 million dollars (now that is an expensive mistake!). He should have just bought the Canadian planes in the first place.

Verse 6 - On February 15, 1965, Canada raised the official Canadian flag for the first time. We also have Pearson to thank for our national anthem. Pierre Elliot Trudeau was in power during the FLQ terrorist movement (violent Quebec separtists). Trudeau took a hard liner stance and declared Marshall Law on the streets of Quebec City. He had any persons with suspected links to the FLQ arrested. His bully tactics worked and the FLQ was forced down.

Verse 7 - Mulroney, more than any other Prime Minister, tried to strengthen our ties with the U.S. Mulroney gave us the free trade agreement and Goods and Services Tax (G.S.T.) Verse 8 Chrétien promised to get rid of the G.S.T. Once elected, he did not honour that promise. In the next election, he made the same promise. He was voted in again. We still pay the G.S.T.

This song was orginally written before Paul Martin or Stephan Harper became Prime Minister.