> > Heh. My mother says that in first form at her boarding school, years and years ago, the main part of the Geography final consisted of a blank sheet and those exact same instructions: "Draw a map of the world from memory, complete with political borders and physical features." Her English Orals consisted of reciting and interpreting huge chunks of Shakespeare from memory, too.
> >
> > Wolf "Looks like both Latin, German, and Technical Drawing were required subjects back then" spirit
>
> My first assignment in high school Social Studies (three years ago) was "draw a map of Canada complete with political borders, and label the capitals of each province on the map". We then got tested on a bunch of Canadian trivia ("Which Canadian Prime Minister served for the shortest term?")
>
> The point of these exercises was to convince us that even after nine years in public education, we still had lots to learn about our country.
>
> Of course, even /after/ high school, I couldn't do much better on those assignments.
>
> -SB

OK, I would like to see if I'm as politically inept as I think I am.

Shortest term: I have two guesses, depending on how you define "term". If you define "term" as period in office even if it spans multiple elections, then the shortest term is probably Joe Clark. (Poor guy is in my riding this year... I'm not sure he'll get his seat.) If "term" is defined as being in office between any two elections (even if you were in power during the previous or subsequent terms), then I would say Pierre Elliott Trudeau for his confidant election call after something like six months in office (to prove a point, and because we were rich and could afford it.) Wow, my grammar in this post sucks. I'm too tired to care. I hope I'm not politically inept. I should shut up now.

Don