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The Office of Prime Minister

Accession number: 
1962.0022
Alternate Titles: 
The Office of the Prime Minister
Alternate title
Production Years: 
1962 to 1968
Release Year: 

Languages:

Film Properties: 
Length (feet): 
2178 (16mm)
Length (minutes): 
57
Holding Institutions: 

Library and Archives Canada: 16mm.
"Film attempts to explain the role of the Prime Minister within the Canadian parliamentary system. It provides an examination of the qualities common to Prime Ministers from different eras and features interviews with and statements from former Prime Ministers from Confederation to 1967. Patrick Watson is the on-camera host and interviewer and provides the narration. Highlights include: the constitutional crisis of 1926 and Mackenzie King's arguments resulting in the clarification of the role of the Governor General regarding the selection of the Prime Minister (prohibited from interfering) and dissolution (could not refuse); the conscription crisis of 1944; an interview with J. W. Pickersgill discussing the different styles of Louis St. Laurent and Mackenzie King two Liberal Prime Ministers with whom he worked; excerpts from interviews conducted by Gratton O'Leary with John Diefenbaker and Blair Fraser with Lester Pearson in which they discuss personality, power, and the checks and balances along with qualities necessary to be Prime Minister; majority versus minority governments; the Diefenbaker cabinet revolt of 1963; the power of dissolution; Pearson and the changes he foresees in the role of the Prime Minister in which he mentions the pressures of the television age, instant communication and elections that focus more on personalities than party policy. Patrick Watson concludes with the observation; 'How much the fortunes of a party leader and of the party he leads depend upon his qualities and his actions is one of the most fascinating and yet probably unanswerable questions raised by the politics of democracy.'"

York University, Toronto, Ontario: 16mm.
"In three parts: Part 1, Sir John A. Macdonald to Sir Charles Tupper; Part 2, Sir Wilfred Laurier to Mackenzie King; Part 3, Louis St. Laurent to Lester Pearson. Describes the constitutional basis of the office, and the contribution made by each of the 14 prime ministers since Confederation."

Langara College, Vancouver, British Columbia: VHS.
"Examines the questions: 'What qualities go to make a real Prime Minister? What elements are in common between such different personalities as have occupied this office?' To illustrate these questions, the Fisheries question and the Riel Rebellion are examinied from the Prime Minister's standpoint, by quotes from his speeches and letters as well as that of others."

"Quotes, actual scenes, and comments illustrate how each of the Prime Ministers--Laurier, Borden, King, and Bennett--acted in periods of crisis."

"How much the fortunes of a party leader and of the party he leads so depend upon his qualities and his actions is one of the most fascinating and probably unanswerable questions raised by democracy."

Bibliography: 

University of Waterloo Audiovisual Services Catalog.
"This program describes the constitutional basis of the office and the contribution made by each of the 14 prime ministers since Confederation."

Crawley Films, Free Films: Sources of Free 16mm Sponsored Films in Canada Compiled and Published by Crawley Films (Ottawa: Crawley Films, April 1969): 26.
"A new film telling the story of Canada's Prime Ministers from 1867 to 1967."