How many minorities have been the Prime Minister of Canada?

Question

I know a few Canadians, and they always love to say how they are race-free and Americans and disgusting and racist and blah blah blah. Can you tell me how many blacks have been prime minister of Canada? How many women have been? How many have been close? How many blacks or women have been Minister of Foreign Affairs? How many Attorney Generals have been Hispanic, black, asian, or females? I'm just curious if Canada's immense tolerance and lack of racism is all talk or not.

Answer 1

Lol, Former PM Jean Chretien IS NOT FROM THE UKRAINE, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Chr%C3... He was born in quebec, You have to be born in Canada to become the PM. No we have not had a single PM that wasnt a white guy or girl.

Our former governor general which in wriitng has more power than the PM was Adrienne Clarkson who was born in Hong Kong. And our new Governor General Michaëlle Jean is a black women from Haiti. These people are appointed by the Queen of england but the general public like them more than the PM.

I don't think it is fair to judge it by how many people we have elected that are minorities. I would judge it more on the amount of hate crimes that are committed every year in your country. Take the city of Toronto for example, its the most racially diverse city in all of AMERICA and it is one of the most safe. Canadians are generally are more accepting of other ethnicities than Americans. We have a more diverse population and you cant deny that we live in a safer country with better quality of life. Sry did I just rub it in.

Answer 2

Whoa!!! Did you get up on the wrong side of the bed this morning or what?

Some individuals are racist and some are sexist. This is hardly earth shattering news in any country. But as nations go we are not a nation of  racists or sexist folk. And I'll be buggered if I will apologize to you or anyone else for that.

Re: Mr. Chretien - I have not got his genealogy chart in front of me so it is a bit possible that he has some Ukrainian blood though I have never heard that. Mr. Chretien is a French Canadian, not a Ukrainian.



And the word minority is not limited to colour or s*x. It also applies to languages and originating nationalities among other things. In Canada, just because there are more English speaking people and French speaking people, Ukranians would qualify as a minority on both language and nationality counts. That does not make them any less; it simply makes them different.

It should please you to know that you sir are among the very few American's who have apparently heard of Canada, Canadians and what we talk about. You must be in the 1 percent who knows that there are other places beyond the borders of the U.S.A. and I am really glad you didn't ask if we live in igloos or wear mukluks or eat pemican. You are to be commended on your grasp of International affairs. I should feel humbled in your presence..........................But I don't.  :o)

Answer 3

There have been no black Prime Ministers however most Canadians have an ancestry from another country.

There has been 1 female Prime Minister - Kim Campbell

There have been 3 Governors General that are female, including the current one (Jean Sauve, Adrienne Clarkson, Michaelle Jean).

There have been 2 female Attorneys General - Kim Campbell and Anne McLellan.

Answer 4

All of them.  White people are a tiny minority if you look at the whole world.

Answer 5

Actually we did have a woman Prime Minister Kim Campbell... didn't last too long becuase she was Conservative after Brian Molruney, but nonetheless... she is the only PM I've ever met before.

Other than that, we have never had a Prime Minister of another race other than white.  

I personally think it's much more important to stress qualifications for PM as opposed to race or gender... I don't care who the PM is, so long as he/she is going to be a good PM.  Wouldn't you consider that more important?

I'm not going to sing and dance about my country.  Is there racism in Canada?  Of course there is, look at our history.  Am I racist?  No I'm not.  And I can tell you for a fact most Canadians are not racist.

So I don't really care how you view us.  I enjoy my life here, and so do millions of other Canadians no matter what their gender, race may be.

I'm not the one telling you how great our country is compared to yours, becuase I feel it's extremely immature to do something like that.  I don't view my country based on a contradiction to yours.  But I think we both know (or.. maybe not) that Canada is generally not very racist.

there's plenty of diversity on both sides of the border... I like it that way.

Answer 6

One female Prime Minister, Kim Campbell,,   although females are a factual majority in the population of Canada not the perceived minority.

The Prime Minister is traditionally chosen  by their respective Party as their leader through a party convention, during which the Party candidates are up for election, as Leader..

If that Party subsequently wins the majority of seats in a public election then the elected  Leader of that Party becomes the Prime Minister.  Even if that Leader winds a landslide in his/her personal electoral riding, he/she can fail to gain office if the Party being represented does not garner enough votes for its respective candidates  to win the number of total seats necessary to form a Government.

As for the Prime Ministerial position, this is the only time a public election actually places anyone in a Ministerial position, and even then it is indirect, as the Party already had its own election to choose that person..



All other Ministerial positions are appointed by the Prime Minister, through Cabinet, so the public cannot vote anyone into any of those positions.

Answer 7

Canada hasn't had any visible minorities as Prime Ministers. The reason being is the relative small population of them. However, as demography changes. This shall change as well.

We've had one woman Prime Minister

Answer 8

Very interesting question.  I had to think for a second!

I'm very sorry that any Canadian was badmouthing an American as "disgusting and racist".  Please do not take those opinions as representative of Canadians as a whole.  

All of the PMs have been predominantly while male (except for the brief time Kim Campbell was PM).  But when i think about it, I don't think a visible minority has ever run for PM.  If they did, I don't think there would be the same hoopla over race as what has been happening in the US.  Our PM doesn't have the same celebrity-like status as in the US.  I think we would just listen to what each candidate was saying and vote accordingly.  

There are plenty of people in positions fo power who are visible minorities.  The other posters have offered many examples.  We could offer more if anyone kept track of something like this, but I don't think anyone does. For example, I do not know of any poll that says how many Blacks are MPs.  We don't take polls like that.  

And someone from the Ukraine IS a minority -- they are just not a visible minority.  There is more to race than just black or white.

I would not say there is a "lack of racism" as racism will exist everywhere.  However, I would say there is significantly less racism in Canada when compared to other places I have lived/visited.

Answer 9

One reason Canadians get along better is they don't push for group identity politics, except for the French, and the whole "were to good for the English here in Quebec so we're taking our ball and playing with ourselves" thing. You don't have all the Jerks like Jessie Jackson stirring up c**p and fanning fires of anger for their own financial benefit.

Blacks in the US are THE most racist group in the US. No one dares say that, because they will be destroyed and demonized over it, but it's absolutely true. There is also the Mexicans, with their la Raza (which translates to "the race" right there with them. Those 2 groups are now fighting it out, and Obama might have a lot of trouble with the Mexican vote over the problems because blacks in power treat Mexicans as bad as they do Whites, but the Mexicans are a special group too and can say something about it. It's kind of a glaring but unspoken law (all taboo to talk about) that no one can be called racist unless they are white, and if it's a white man? They are almost automatically racist and sexist unless they pander like crazy for the favor of other racial groups and women's groups by giving them favorable treatment.

You get a lot of liberal press in the US talking about those who want equal rights as if they were racist, because they don't like giving favoritism to anyone over color or gender, which used to be non biased, but things change right? lol.

In Canada everyone (but the French) are just seen as people, and you don't get into segregated groups. That's what we should do in the US, but it's so profitable to the democrats and the so called civil rights leaders to keep things hot that the media goes with it (they always go democrat, because thats who most of them are, and that's not me saying it, it's a statistical fact).

The democrats push this racial stuff for their own advantage, and Republicans (who were actually formed to free the slaves in the US) are seen as automatically racist in the press and on the lips of every democrat. That's funny because Republicans are he least bigoted and the least focused on superficial differences. Democrat whites formed the KKK, and Obama still has trouble in the South because many whites there just don't want a black man as president. A republican like JC Watts, Colon Powell, or Condelisa Rice would never have that problem with republicans. The democrats are absolutely more bigoted, but they pander and buy favor by giving things that are not fair or equitable, to groups who vote for them. Did you ever notice how the lying scum bag has the story that sounds the best? Before you really understand what's really going on? Well, that's the democrats in the US, the scum bags who sounds great, until you find out what's really going on.

Thank God you don't have those dynamics in Canada, they are ugly in deed, and make true victims out of everyone. Those who feel kept down, and those who are blamed for it, while those who really do the keeping down are seen as great spokesmen and get rich off of the misfortune they purposely generate.

edit: There we go, Mathew H has the Canook attitude I know and love.

Answer 10

ex pm cretchian is origionally from ukrain.

ex leftenant general adrian clarkson is from japan

current leftenant general is from haiti

ex pm (i forgot her name) is a woman.

speaking as an african immigrant in canada, i can say even though racism exists in canada, it's not as bad as it is in the US. there are lots of pronvincial members of parliament who are immigrants, most of whom are chinese and indians.

Answer 11

Dude, there are more white people in the WORLD, so obviously there will always be a higher percentage of white people.  Yes, of course there are many countries where white is the minority race, but this certainly does not hold true for both Canada and the United States.

So when you look at those running the government, or corporations, or simply those riding the bus, you will see more white faces than any other colour.  BUT in Canada, you will see more colour in various positions and a higher degree of tolerance.  How do I know?  I'm a black Canadian and up to my mid 20s when I left Toronto, I'd never experienced racism or even seen it... I moved to Florida and within the first month I was called the N-word three times (once I was just sitting at a stop light)... this was not ages ago, this was in 1999.... then upon moving to Texas (Houston - a large supposedly cosmopolitain city) I experienced racism from BOTH black and white Americans.... the black Americans took issue with the fact that I "sounded white" and "acted white."  So h**l YEAH, Canadians are way more tolerant, and we don't need to sit and list our minority government members in order to prove it.  Common sense dictates that if these countries are populated by more whites, then society will reflect that.. but in the U.S. there is a disproportionate effect of white predominance often because of prejudices, in Canada, there are still more white faces, but a good mix of other colours.  We are far more tolerant and colour is not the first thing we see when we look at a person, we are less prejudiced.  You should go visit and see for yourself.

Answer 12

Whereas, I feel as a Canadian we aren't racist free as we think.  However, ask how many Blacks or Hispanics are elected when we have very few of these is a bit far fetched.  The large minority similar to those in Canada is French Canadian.  The first French Canadian Prime Minister was elected in 1896.  Since then we have elected a French Canadian 13 times, or 40 percent of the time.

And our First Female Prime Minister was 15 years ago.