Winners and Losers: The Book of Canadian Political Lists

Toby Rupert was a librarian living in Toronto.

Here is a useful handbook that deals with Canadian federal elections (since 1867). Part one presents biographies, in point form, for each of the prime ministers since Confederation. These are arranged chronologically and each has a caricature rendered by Tom Andres. The time period is to mid-1984, hence neither Turner nor Mulroney is included (but, of course, they will be here in subsequent editions). Part two gives some election maps for votes since 1867, the leaders for each election, and a listing of what provincial governments existed at the time of that election. Part three lists the provincial governments and leaders since 1867, with house standings since 1967. There are also some trivia of quotations and dates of note strewn about. A fourth major section includes some comparative statistical data, lists, and charts: the average number of years the former PMs lived after leaving the Prime Minister’s office (11.5); which PMs were bachelors and which had honorific titles; marriages; military service; resignations and successions; who the speakers of the house were, and so forth. Most of the material here can be accessed elsewhere, such as in the Canadian Parliamentary Guide, but Winners and Losers is in an easy-to-use format (certainly the comparative data are very hard to obtain elsewhere). Highly recommended for most kinds of libraries that deal with politics.