Of all the PMs I've even done marginal research on so far (which is probably 13) John Abbott is the one I most want to have dinner with. I want to ask him some questions about his life, as he was quite an influential Canadian before his time in the prime ministers chair. At the height of his career, he was the highest paid lawyer in Canada, which was one of the highest paid professions in Canada - meaning he was arguably the highest paid person in the country in the 1870s and 1880s. He led a church choir and had a voice of an angel, was the Dean of Law at McGill University at age 34, and is the great-grandfather of Christopher Plummer. Yeah, I mean, I have some questions for him.

When looking at his time in the PMO, one thing is amazingly clear - the man did not want the job. He wasn't into the charade of politics, with the banquets and the party politics and the people pleasing. He wanted to remain where he had been in Canadian politics for decades - behind the scenes. But John Macdonald's sudden death in 1891 left the Conservative Party without a leader and thus Canada without a PM.

The Tories originally asked John Thompson to lead the party, but he too was reluctant of stepping into JAM's big shoes, and declined the offer (he would become PM, just a year after... so I get to write about him next week). Abbott was second runner up for the job - imagine that, being second runner up for a job you never really wanted in the first place.

“I hate politics. I hate notoriety, public meetings, public speeches, caucese, everything to do with politics except going public work to the best of my ability” - John Abbott, third PM of Canada.

That's what I find most interesting about Abbott - his open disdain for politics and everything surrounding it. He had experience success in every other aspect of his life: a long and illustrious career, a strong and happy marriage, producing eight children, and being the highest paid lawyer in the country. He had to need to fulfill some political ambition or try to change Canada - so he didn't. He was just kind of a figure head, not ruffling any feathers or advancing the country towards any political revolutions. As Pierre Berton - the man I quote most because I want to write like him one day - wrote, Abbott knew he was totally unqualified for the position:

"...he would enjoy a brief and not too glorious moment as the first native-born prime minister of Canada, in spite of his late leaders declared belief that he had not a single qualification for the office."

After a year in the job, he urged John Thompson, the man the Tories originally wanted, to take the prime ministership off his hands, and retired for mere months before dying himself. He died in Montreal on October 30, 1893.

John Abbott was the first "caretaker" prime minister, just going through the motions but making no waves, but he was not the country's last. Caretaker PMs are something this country has oddly relied on, almost as much as the PMs who lead the country for decades. If Abbott did anything, he was the first one who really didn't want this job.