While there is a long standard tradition of considering John A. Macdonald Canada's first Prime Minister, since he was prime minister after Canadian Confederation, a number of modern scholars, foremost amongst them John Ralston Saul, argue that Robert Baldwin and Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine are truly Canada's first Prime Ministers. They were the first to govern the Province of Canada (consisting then of only Canada East and Canada West - modern Ontario and Quebec) as democratically elected leaders.

#	Name	Took Office	Left Office	Party
1.	Sir John A. Macdonald	July 1, 1867	November 5, 1873	Conservative
2.	Alexander Mackenzie	November 7, 1873	October 8, 1878	Liberal
	Sir John A. Macdonald (2nd time)	October 17, 1878	June 6, 1891	Conservative
3.	Sir John Abbott	June 16, 1891	November 24, 1892	Conservative
4.	Sir John Thompson	December 5, 1892	December 12, 1894	Conservative
5.	Sir Mackenzie Bowell	December 21, 1894	April 27, 1896	Conservative
6.	Sir Charles Tupper	May 1, 1896	July 8, 1896	Conservative
7.	Sir Wilfrid Laurier	July 11, 1896	October 7, 1911	Liberal
8.	Sir Robert Laird Borden	October 10, 1911	July 10, 1920	Conservative/Unionist (from 1917)
9.	Arthur Meighen	July 10, 1920	December 29, 1921	Conservative/Unionist
10.	William Lyon Mackenzie King	December 29, 1921	June 28, 1926	Liberal
	Arthur Meighen (2nd time)	June 29, 1926	September 25, 1926	Conservative
	William Lyon Mackenzie King (2nd time)	September 25, 1926	August 7, 1930	Liberal
11.	Richard Bedford Bennett	August 7, 1930	October 23, 1935	Conservative
	William Lyon Mackenzie King (3rd time)	October 23, 1935	November 15, 1948	Liberal
12.	Louis St. Laurent	November 15, 1948	June 21, 1957	Liberal
13.	John Diefenbaker	June 21, 1957	April 22, 1963	Progressive Conservative
14.	Lester Bowles Pearson	April 22, 1963	April 20, 1968	Liberal
15.	Pierre Trudeau	April 20, 1968	June 3, 1979	Liberal
16.	Joe Clark	June 4, 1979	March 2, 1980	Progressive Conservative
	Pierre Trudeau (2nd time)	March 3, 1980	June 30, 1984	Liberal
17.	John Napier Turner	June 30, 1984	September 17, 1984	Liberal
18.	Brian Mulroney	September 17, 1984	June 25, 1993	Progressive Conservative
19.	Kim Campbell	June 25, 1993	November 4, 1993	Progressive Conservative
20.	Jean Chrétien	November 4, 1993	December 12, 2003	Liberal
21.	Paul Martin	December 12, 2003	present	Liberal