Prime Ministerial Power in Canada: Its Origins under Macdonald, Laurier, and Borden

Many Canadians lament that prime ministerial power has become too concentrated since the 1970s. Notions of “governments of one” abound, as if this is somehow a new phenomenon. This book contradicts this view by demonstrating how prime ministerial power was in fact centralized from the very beginning of Confederation and that the first three important prime ministers – Macdonald, Laurier, and Borden – channelled that centralizing impulse to adapt to the circumstances they faced.

Using a variety of innovative approaches, Patrice Dutil focuses on the managerial philosophies of each of the prime ministers as well as their rapport with senior public servants, resistance to genuine public sector reform, and use of orders-in-council to further their aims. He then compares their managerial habits during times of crisis to those during ordinary times. The research is drawn from extensive archival sources, an exhaustive survey of the secondary literature, budget documents, an examination of 20,000 orders-in-council, and a novel approach to the study of the structure of correspondence.

This is the first book to examine the administrative habits of these three prime ministers. In it, Dutil offers revealing insights into the evolution of prime ministerial power. He also shows how this centralizing grip of these early first ministers inevitably shaped the administrations they headed, as well as those that followed.