List of prime ministers of Canada by religious affiliation

This is a list of prime ministers of Canada by religious affiliation. It notes party affiliation after the name. All Canadian prime ministers have affiliations with Christianity.

In early Canadian history, religion played an important role in politics. The Conservative Party was composed mainly of Anglicans and conservative French-Canadian Catholics while the Liberal Party was backed by reform-minded French Canadian Catholics and non-Anglican English Canadians due to their support in Quebec and Ontario.

List of prime ministers by religious affiliation

Name	Party	Religion	Denomination	Years in office	Notes
Sir John Thompson	Liberal-Conservative	Christian	Roman Catholic	December 5, 1892–December 12, 1894	Born a Methodist but converted to Catholicism when he married.
Sir Wilfrid Laurier	Liberal	Christian	Roman Catholic	July 11, 1896–October 6, 1911	Strongly anti-clerical.
Louis St. Laurent	Liberal	Christian	Roman Catholic	November 5, 1948–June 21, 1957
Pierre Trudeau	Liberal	Christian	Roman Catholic	April 20, 1968–June 4, 1979, March 3, 1980–March 30, 1984	Believer in Catholic Personalism. Former board member of the Humanist Fellowship of Montreal.[1]
Joe Clark	Progressive Conservative	Christian	Roman Catholic	June 4, 1979–March 3, 1980
John Turner	Liberal	Christian	Roman Catholic	June 30, 1984–September 17, 1984
Brian Mulroney	Progressive Conservative	Christian	Roman Catholic	September 17, 1984–June 25, 1993
Jean Chrétien	Liberal	Christian	Roman Catholic	November 4, 1993–December 12, 2003	Strongly anti-clerical in his youth.
Paul Martin	Liberal	Christian	Roman Catholic	December 12, 2003–February 6, 2006	Came into conflict with the Catholic Church over his support for the Civil Marriage Act, by not allowing Cabinet ministers to have conscience votes.
Justin Trudeau	Liberal	Christian	Roman Catholic	November 4, 2015–Present	Baptized and raised as a Catholic, became a lapsed Catholic in his youth until the death of his brother Michel. Mother is Anglican.[2]
Sir John A. Macdonald	Liberal-Conservative	Christian	Anglican	July 1, 1867–November 5, 1873, October 17, 1878–June 6, 1891	Raised Presbyterian, converted in 1875.
Sir John Abbott	Liberal-Conservative	Christian	Anglican	June 16, 1891–November 24, 1892
Sir Robert Borden	Conservative (historical)	Christian	Anglican[3]	October 10, 1911–July 10, 1920	Raised Presbyterian.
Kim Campbell	Progressive Conservative	Christian	Anglican	June 25, 1993–November 4, 1993	Does not attend church and criticizes the treatment of women by organized religion. In 2004 she stated that religion "gets in the way of morality".[4][5]
Sir Mackenzie Bowell	Conservative (historical)	Christian	Presbyterian	December 12, 1894–April 27, 1896	Orange Order leader
Arthur Meighen	Conservative (historical)	Christian	Presbyterian[6]	July 10, 1920–December 29, 1921, June 29, 1926–September 25, 1926	Became a major fundraiser for the Salvation Army.
William Lyon Mackenzie King	Liberal	Christian	Presbyterian	December 29, 1921–June 28, 1926, September 25, 1926–August 7, 1930, October 23, 1935–November 15, 1948	Also a believer in various forms of mysticism.
Alexander Mackenzie	Liberal	Christian	Baptist	November 7, 1873–October 8, 1878	Raised Presbyterian, but converted to Baptist at age 19 or 20.[7]
Sir Charles Tupper	Conservative (historical)	Christian	Baptist	May 1, 1896–July 8, 1896	Born a Baptist, married an Anglican and attended that church with his family. On his own sometimes attended Baptist churches.
John Diefenbaker	Progressive Conservative	Christian	Baptist	June 21, 1956–April 22, 1963
Richard Bedford Bennett	Conservative (historical)	Christian	United Church of Canada	August 7, 1930–October 23, 1935	Was a Methodist before that denomination merged into the United Church of Canada.
Lester B. Pearson	Liberal	Christian	United Church of Canada	April 22, 1963–April 20, 1968	Was a Methodist before that denomination merged into the United Church of Canada.
Stephen Harper	Conservative (modern)	Christian	Christian and Missionary Alliance[8]	February 6, 2006–November 4, 2015	Raised in the United Church of Canada.[9]

Timeline

See also

• Religion in Canada
• Religious affiliations of chancellors of Germany
• Religious affiliations of prime ministers of the Netherlands
• Religious affiliations of presidents of the United States

References

1. Bushfield, Ian (September 21, 2013). "Political Atheists". Terahertz. Retrieved October 27, 2017.
2. "Justin Trudeau fumes at Tory MP's 'bad Catholic' taunt". Retrieved October 29, 2020.
3. Brown, Robert Craig (2004). "Borden, Sir Robert Laird". Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved December 7, 2006.
4. Dobbin, Murray (1993). The Politics of Kim Campbell: From School Trustee to Prime Minister. James Lorimer.
5. "Morality vs Religion". 2004. Retrieved October 27, 2017.
6. Glassford, Larry A. (2004). "Meighen, Arthur". Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved December 7, 2006.
7. Forster, Ben (1990). "Mackenzie, Alexander". In Halpenny, Francess G (ed.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. XII (1891–1900) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
8. Campbell, Colin (February 20, 2006). "The church of Stephen Harper". Maclean's. Archived from the original on November 14, 2006. Retrieved December 7, 2006.