Harmony step failed updating region

The Liberal party is in tatters, and the Bloc Québécois is devastated.

The NDP, inexperienced in the limelight and leaning to the left, is a reliable target.

The big three Mackenzie King topped the 1997 list, but now there’s a new number one, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, lauded for his combination of “enormous style and considerable substance,” in the words of historian Hector Mackenzie.

Laurier ranks first because he had the deft unifying touch and sure sense of the whole country that the experts think Canada’s leaders lack in our age of focus groups and wedge politics.

The three top-rated prime ministers served at least 15 years in office.