Since Canadian Confederation in 1867, twenty-one men and one
woman have served as Prime Minister of Canada, assuming the
ultimate challenge of political leadership in Canada's federal
parliamentary system; They successfully battled both party
rivals and opposition parties to gain, and hold, the office that
has been called "the apex of power" in Canada; And they left an
extraordinary documentary record. Library and Archives Canada
(LAC) was founded in 1872 by Canada's first prime minister, Sir
John A. Macdonald; Fittingly, Macdonald's papers (125 linear
feet) were LAC's first prime ministerial acquisition, in 1914;
The Prime Ministers Collection has subsequently grown to include
approximately 12,700 linear feet of textual records, 18.9
gigabytes of electronic records, 700 reels of microfilm, and
over one million photographs, as well as numerous paintings,
caricatures, posters, films, videocassettes, audio cassettes,
philatelic items, medals, and political buttons. The collection
held at LAC encompasses the ori