It always strikes me odd, as a Canadian, when I look at the other threads, and see how many Americans have such reverence for and ascribe such mythic, heroic attributes to their dead Presidents. Canadians on the other hand, generally do not view their Prime Ministers as usually anything more than dead politicians.

Trudeau may have been an exception, but he came at a time when Canadians wanted something of the sex appeal of Kennedy and saw in Trudeau, youth, fresh possibility and new beginnings; a different form of politics. Maybe some Canadians are cynical because a lot of that promise did not come to fruition, particularly for their children.

Or perhaps a Canadian's cynicism regarding politicians may have been set even earlier by the cynicism of Canada's own politicians. Whereas George Washington is remebered for "Father, I cannot tell a lie, I cut the tree", Canada's Conservative Father of Confederation, Sir John A. MacDonald was heard to say "The job of a politician is to shake the acorns from the tree to the pigs below". Maybe we can forgive him because he was also quite regularly drunk.