Local author J.D.M. Stewart’s The Prime Ministers looks at Canada’s 24 leaders

By JESSICA SHACKLETON

East Toronto author J.D.M. Stewart will be celebrating the release of his new book about Canada’s leaders at an event this month.

The Prime Ministers: Canada’s Leaders And The Nation They Shaped is the first book in more than 25 years to chronicle the history of all of Canada’s prime ministers. Stewart said it’s vital to have a fresh look at our top decision-makers as historical perspectives change with time.

“It’s always important to have a reassessment of important historical topics because the way we look at history changes over time,” he said.

“For example, in previous books about prime ministers, there’s nothing about their Indigenous policy, nothing about their environmental policies, and those are pretty important issues in our time.”

Stewart’s The Prime Ministers takes a chronological look at each of Canada’s 24 leaders over our country’s 158-year history.

He said most Canadian prime ministers have at least one book written specifically about them, but bringing them all together in one book makes the history and them and their stories more accessible.

“This makes it easily digestible for the average citizen. It also makes it very useful as a handy research tool for high school students, university students, and journalists,” said Stewart.

“Maybe somebody doesn’t want to read a whole biography of one of these prime ministers, so they can pick up this book and have a nice sampling of everybody.”

Stewart wrote Being Prime Minister in 2018, and it was a behind-the-scenes look at what daily life as prime minister was all about. The Prime Ministers is a more academic approach and examines the legacies of each prime minister, including how they are (or may be) remembered by Canadians.

In preparation for the book launch party at Noonan’s Pub, 141 Danforth Ave., on Thursday, Nov. 20, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., Stewart has been in Montreal, Halifax, and other events around Toronto talking about The Prime Ministers.

“We’ve been having conversations about why the history of prime ministers is important, because in recent times there has been an inclination to dismiss prime ministers because they’re white men, but I’m trying to argue here that that kind of stuff doesn’t matter,” he said. “We’ve been having conversations about people who make decisions at the highest level and about the importance of understanding Canadian history.”

As a former high school history teacher, Stewart taught about prime ministers in his class but acknowledges that there is always pressure in a history class to cover so many different topics that it is difficult to teach about every prime minister in depth.

“My introduction is about some high school students who didn’t know who Lester B. Pearson was, and the teacher in charge of the event said, ‘Oh, we don’t really teach about prime ministers anymore,’ and I was taken aback by that,” said Stewart.

In Ontario, only a Grade 10 history credit is required to graduate from high school. Most universities offer more focused history courses, specifically on political history, but not everyone is interested enough to take them. 

Stewart is also passionate about the importance of understanding one’s own history.

“How do you understand the country in which you live if you don’t know what happened before, if you don’t have any sense of why the country is the way that it is. Right now, we’re in this moment where our sovereignty is being threatened by the United States. It’s hard to have sovereignty if you don’t understand what your history is,” he said.

“It’s part of being an active, engaged citizen, having some familiarity with your past. An understanding of history helps you understand the present.”

Stewart said his goal is to have The Prime Ministers as a book in every high school’s history curriculum. It features a detailed index, photographs, and sections for each leader.

“It’s an accessible entry point into the great themes, people, and events in Canadian history in an era where people are looking to find things that band people together,” said Stewart. “It’s the Goldilocks of Canadian history; just right.”

Published by Sutherland House, a Canadian non-fiction publisher, The Prime Ministers is available at most book stores. To learn more, please visit https://www.jdmstewart.ca/