J-inTJr.

There are certainly similarities between Stephen Harper and Mackenzie King. King and Harper are the only economists to ever be prime ministers, almost all the others being lawyers. The out of work and many others not safely ensconced on the monopoly public sector payroll looking forward to guaranteed and fully indexed pensions worth three times private sector pensions for the same contributions levels would presumably agree that it is not a bad thing to be a PM who actually knows how the economy works and can be strengthened. King and Harper were/are not among the colourful and charismatic prime ministers such as MacDonald and Laurier and Diefenbaker and Trudeau and Mulroney but rather are both considered somewhat colourless policy wonks and those of us who prefer the diligent and dedicated student to the flashy and glib student of the black arts of politics think this is a good thing. King and Harper are both among the most intelligent prime ministers of the past 100 years which also include St. Laurent and Trudeau (the father, Just-In has Pierre's name and Margaret's brain) and some of us think that it is rather neat when a PM has a superior IQ and can't be easily buffaloed by bureaucrats and others. Lastly, both of these leaders believe in incremental change and both have lasted long enough to achieve significant incremental changes that have benefitted Canadians albeit that most are utterly clueless in this regard. If Harper wins in 2015 as I expect him to, he will have done what even King - the longest serving PM with 22 years in office - could not do which is to win four consecutive elections.

Maybe, just maybe, if you are morbidly obese, more than a hundred pounds overweight, and suffering from a variety of health problems including breathing problems, and if you've been arrested some thirty times in the last few years, and if you are openly violating the law right in front of police officers, you really should refrain from resisting arrest. Or maybe if you are black you should get a free pass to do whatever you want to do and we should declare a state of anarchy and amnesty for blacks because over a century after slavery and trillions of whites' taxpayer dollars spent on trying to help inner city blacks to improve their lot in life, the bill still has not been paid. Or so Al Not-So-Sharpton and other race baiters and hustlers would have you believe.

jbg ... Yes, Sir John won 4 out of 5 including his last four elections and he passed away at age 76 within weeks of winning his final campaign in 1891. Don't bother to look these things up, LOL. In the immortal words of Muhammad Ali, "If I tell you a bumblebee can pull a plough, don't argue, hitch him up". The momentum has now shifted to Harper who was trailing Trudeau by fully ten points just this past summer on the question of who voters would prefer as prime minister and is now leading by four points and, as I said, can only go up from here once uncommitted Canadian voters begin to focus more closely on the leaders, the issues, the party platforms and the records of results from which they can choose. It is the uncommitted voters, that 35-45% of generally moderate Canadians, who decide elections not the committed ones who will never be swayed from their biases by such oddities as facts, stats, reason and comparative analysis. Reading a couple of the truly absurd Harper hating posts here in this last segment - posts too ridiculous to merit responses - illustrates perfectly what I mean by the "committed" voters who, in some cases, probably deserve to be committed and who meet Churchill's definition of a fanatic - "someone who won't change their mind and won't change the subject".

Prime ... Good and tough question. Let me suggest that when applying to take over the biggest and most consequential and most complex executive job in the country it is best that one has already run something other than one's mouth, i.e. has some executive experience. (This is why, for example, former governors (e.g. FDR, Reagan, Clinton) tend to make much more effective presidents than do senators like Obama and why the Americans are highly likely to choose a sitting or former governor over a sitting or former senator in 2016.) In addition to executive experience, it would be neat if the candidate has actual accomplishments or successes to point to in their executive careers. As for education, some fields of study are obviously more relevant than others, for example economics and business administration and finance and law and history are all helpful to get off to a quick and successful start and to be less reliant on the counsel/brainwashing of the bureaucracy. As to policy pronouncements, Trudeau has made almost none and while I realize that - at least based on the Chretien platform of 1993 and the McGuinty Ontario platform of 2003 - Liberals are going to lie through their teeth in terms of election promises, I am an old fashioned guy who believes in simple notions like policy commitments and accountability to the electorate. - I could go on and on but you tell me if you really think that the most consequential and difficult executive job in the land should go to a management novice and if so for heaven's sake enlighten me as to why. Last time I looked, there was no management training program in the PM's office.

If we could get back to the actual topic of this thread for just a second, recent polling trends have made it abundantly clear that Trudeau's amazing free ride at the top of the polls despite having virtually no relevant education or experience or accomplishments or policy pronouncements relevant to the PM role is now at an end. PM Harper is now about 4 points up on Trudeau in the "who would make the best prime minister" question and the two parties are dead even give or take a single point in the polling averages. As 2015 unwinds and voters start to actually pay some attention to the leaders, parties and platforms, Stephen Harper has only one way to go and that is straight back up to the top to become the only prime minister other than MacDonald and Laurier to win four elections in a row. Put your money on it now while you can still get decent odds on your bet.