COMMENTARY: Joe Biden’s long departure from power has a precedent in Canada
Peter Black
Local Journalism Initiative reporter
peterblack@qctonline.com
Joe Biden’s sudden but evidently long-overdue withdrawal from the United States presidential race sent legions of Canadian politics buffs scrambling to the history books to find a similar situation – or maybe it’s just me.
That situation, just to be clear, is that of an incumbent party leader in power who steps aside to make way for another leader, all the while staying in power until the new leader is chosen or the party loses power.
In the case of Biden, he stays president, barring a rapid deterioration in his health, until the next president is sworn in next January. That’s a full six months as a lame-duck POTUS (President Of The United States), with lots of time to check things off his to-do list, including, apparently, reforming the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris either banishes Donald Trump in the November election to a fate that may include imprisonment, or Trump wins and Americans will never have to vote again (according to the former president).
While recognizing the Canadian and American political systems are radically different, still, there is, according to the history books, one instance resembling the Biden situation in the 157 years since Confederation.
The fact is, except for that one example, to be discussed shortly, sitting Canadian prime ministers have not lingered excessively while their party sought a replacement to step in as leader of Canada.
Whereas eight U.S. presidents have died in office – four by illness, four by bullets – only two Canadian PMs gave up the ghost while still holding power. Sir John A. Macdonald was nearly 76 when he died of a stroke after serving a total of nearly 19 years and winning six majority governments (and losing one election).
The Old Chieftain passed on three months after winning his last election in March 1891.
The only other PM to leave the top office by the pearly gates was Sir John Thompson, Macdonald’s second of four immediate Tory successors, who had the embarrassing misfortune of expiring from a heart attack shortly after being knighted by Queen Victoria in December 1894. He was 49 and unhealthily overweight. In fact, one of the items on his agenda during his stay in England was to consult with British doctors about his deteriorating health.
The most frequent practice has been for a leader to announce his intended departure and then beat a retreat to retirement immediately after a new leader (and PM) is chosen. That was the case with Brian Mulroney, who announced his departure in February 1993 and was gone in June, leaving Kim Campbell, who narrowly beat Jean Charest, to steer the Tory Titanic to the nearest iceberg.
Pierre Trudeau’s second resignation, after his electoral resurrection in 1980, came in February 1984 with his famous walk in the snow. He left office that June, once the party had chosen John Turner, whose term as PM was even shorter than Campbell’s (132 vs. 79 days).
Back to the sole Canadian example of a Bidenesque long goodbye. Fittingly, it was Mackenzie King, the longest-serving prime minister, who took the longest time to actually pass the torch.
In January 1948, King, then 73, informed the Liberal Party executive of his long-rumoured plan to retire and August was chosen for the leadership convention. King had already persuaded (begged) his invaluable Quebec lieutenant and external affairs minister Louis St. Laurent to succeed him.
St. Laurent, for his part, had wanted to get out of politics, return to his law practice in Quebec City and make some money. He was also not convinced Canadians would elect a second francophone prime minister after Sir Wilfrid Laurier.
Still, St. Laurent consented and won the leadership at a more or less scripted convention, where six fellow cabinet colleague “contenders” dropped out before voting began.
Having won the Liberal Party leadership in August, St. Laurent, then 66, had to wait until Nov. 15 to be sworn in as prime minister, nearly a year after King had effectively handed him the top job.
After the ceremony, St. Laurent chaired his first cabinet meeting.
“Uncle Louis,” according to Dale Thomson’s biography, “drew out his silver cigarette case, fitted a cigarette into his holder, and lit it. Other ministers followed suit.”
Call it a defiant gesture – King banned smoking at the cabinet table – by the personable but impatient new prime minister, finally taking power after King’s long farewell.