The best leaders of your country

[Shock and Awe]

My personal favorite is Dwight Eisenhower, he had his shit together.

 

[Dfskelleton]

I don't care how awful he was as a president, I think Nixon was hilarious. Not because he was trying to be, just his voice, mannerisms and appearance amuse me. He was such a strange looking little man.

As for leaders I genuinely liked, George Washington seemed to be a pretty cool guy, IMO.
And no, it's not just because of this (even though most of it is true):

 

[octafish]

For the United Kingdom:

- Oliver Cromwell. His policies on religious freedom and reform of the law / Parliament were incredibly ahead of their time. It took until the Great Reform Act of 1832 to re-establish what Cromwell had set up during his reign.

Gonna have to disagree with you there. He was a brutal dictator and a religious fanatic who cracked down on anything that wasn't Puritan. The fucker even banned Christmas. That's pretty low. Oh, and there was the small matter of wiping out 30% of the Irish population. He gets the title "Butcher" for a very good reason.

Sure most of that is true, except no. He didn't crack down on anything that wasn't puritan. He championed religious freedom. MasterOfHisOwnDomain was right about the reforms he made. There was a state church under his rule, but no-one was forced to attend and Catholics and Jews were able to worship how they wished. Oh and he didn't ban Christmas, although he did back a law that would have down played the celebrations of Saints days and Christmas, but his minority government had trouble passing it and it was widely ignored.

EDIT: I'm not saying he wasn't an absolute bastard to the Irish, just that he is more complex than popular history/myth would have you believe. If you are Irish you have the right to be aggrieved.

As a soldier he was very Mongol in his approach, massacring a couple of cities to ensure the surrender of many more. Fair enough that he is not fondly remembered in Ireland.

I find Cromwell fascinating, full of contradictions and surprises, and not quite as brutal a monster as history would have you believe. For example the Irish massacres were totally legal in the articles of war at the time.

 

[sb666]

jPaul Keating is my choice. Arrogant, abusive, combatative, brilliant, and commited to his ideals. He is the only Australian leader to have inspired a successful musical. For proof of his brilliance I'd like to post his Redfern speech but I can't work out how to grab the youtube info with my phone.

By the way Poms, are you forgeting Benjamin Disraeli?

I agree he was one of my favourite pms of australia.

 

[Prince Regent]

Tough one. Being Dutch we like our modern leaders (say the last 150 years) boring but capable. Since they wouldn't make for a interesting discussion Some historical figures.

William the silent.

Did not speak much. Maybe the whole boring dutch leader thing actually started with him. He did lead a rebellion agains the king of Spain though and is considered the "Father of the fatherland" of the Netherlands.

Thankfully the part of the netherlands where I'm from Frisia has some leaders of it's own. The most famous being. Grutte Pier (Big Pier)

He's the guy with the massive cleaver.

He was a Frisian Warlord, Pirate and Folk hero. Though he might not have been the "best" leader for all intense and purposes, he could according to legend chop off the heads of several opponents in one blow and that has to count for something right?

 

[Dectomax]

Winston Churchill was a fucking criminal. Almost as bad as the leaders of the axis.

How so?

[sub]I have the feeling this thread will soon be moving to the religion and politics sub-forum...[/sub]

His treatment of the Germans after WW2 was rather horrid. He wanted to kill everyone.

Every leader in WW2 was a fucking scumbag, on both sides, and every one of them did their fair share of atrocities, be it executing jews, sending jews to Germany to be executed, torturing prisoners.... Which is why it pisses me off when one of them is portrayed as a hero. People need to fucking wake up and realize neither Churchill nor Hitler were heros.

EDIT: Just an example of what a fucking nutjob Churchill was: after the second world war he said that if one day England found itself in an economic slump simular to the one Germany found themselves in before Hitler took over, he would want a man like Hitler to lead Britain. Lovely.

I know this is a few posts late ( 4 pages... ) but honestly, I agree with him - I'd want a guy like Hitler to run our country if we ended up in that kind of position. Don't get me wrong, what he did was wrong - but his Charisma, his leadership and his ability to turn a crippled Germany into an economic superpower capable of fighting on four fronts? You've got to admire the leadership there. What I don't agree with is his treatment of the ethnic and religious groups - killing them was inhumane and hoenstly evil. You give me a leader like hitler, without the racial superiority complex; I'd vote for him.

 

[MasterOfHisOwnDomain]

Gonna have to disagree with you there. He was a brutal dictator and a religious fanatic who cracked down on anything that wasn't Puritan. The fucker even banned Christmas. That's pretty low. Oh, and there was the small matter of wiping out 30% of the Irish population. He gets the title "Butcher" for a very good reason.

Going to disagree with all that:

He held some extreme religious views, as an Independent, but he was incredibly tolerant of other religions and sects - so much so that it frightened many people, who were unused to these people being in positions of power. This was the man who readmitted the Jews into England after all.

He 'banned' Christmas because it was an excuse to get drunk and party. I have no problem with that, but for a man with strict Puritan views, this was anathema, clearly. But he also banned cock-fighting and bear-baiting, as well as being drunken and disorderly in towns - many people would consider dealing with the latter a priority in Modern Britain... He wasn't a brutal dictator, and in fact made several attempts to set up Parliaments (the Rump and then the Barebones Parliament) - he only became "Lord Protector" after they invited him to be.

His policy in Ireland is a blot on his name. But as hard as it is to defend genocide, it has to be seen in the context of multiple previous attempts to subjugate Ireland and the fact that the country had rebelled within his lifetime and effectively triggered the Civil War. Cromwell simply did too well in defeating the Irish.

I could talk about how Cromwell made widespread Parliamentary reforms or his astounding foreign policy, but... another time...

I find Cromwell fascinating, full of contradictions and surprises, and not quite as brutal a monster as history would have you believe.

This. So glad to have been able to study him.

 

[purf]

Willy Brandt. Cool cat.

 

[Chairman Miaow]

For the United Kingdom:

- Oliver Cromwell. His policies on religious freedom and reform of the law / Parliament were incredibly ahead of their time. It took until the Great Reform Act of 1832 to re-establish what Cromwell had set up during his reign.

Yup, the guy who banned most sports, make-up, doing anything on a Sunday, celebrating on Christmas, and subjugated and murdered a bunch of Irish people after saying they wouldn't be harmed and turned their children into slaves for no reason other than he assumed all Irish Catholics were traitors was a brilliant leader. That's why the minute he was out of power the monarchy was restored.

 

[CAMDAWG]

Who are your favourite leaders who were the head of the country you live in or are from.
Gough Whitlam introduced free health care, free education, destroyed conscription and gave women equal pay.
John Curtin saved us during World War 2.
Paul Keating man was hilarious.

I'll agree with that. I just wish that Gough's free uni stuff had stuck around longer.

I'd also add Ben Chifley to that list. He took over after Curtin died, and set up the snowy hydro scheme, ANU, expanded the CSIRO, an early Pharmaceutical benefits scheme, and he tried to nationalise the banks, which failed, but he did get through some other banking regulations, which helped us avoid the GFC a little bit.

 

[MasterOfHisOwnDomain]

Yup, the guy who banned most sports, make-up, doing anything on a Sunday, celebrating on Christmas, and subjugated and murdered a bunch of Irish people after saying they wouldn't be harmed and turned their children into slaves for no reason other than he assumed all Irish Catholics were traitors was a brilliant leader. That's why the minute he was out of power the monarchy was restored.

He never said the Irish wouldn't be harmed; he made it perfectly clear he intended to make them pay for their uprising against the English that partly caused the English Civil War. Subjugating Ireland was not Cromwell's bright idea, he was merely the most successful person at it - thus making him a brilliant leader.

The monarchy was restored because there was a power struggle after his death between his Parliament and the Army. Richard Cromwell resigned the position of Lord Protector, and the Army kicked out Parliament. Then things started to fall apart, and the General in charge of order in Scotland came down with the only held-together army and returned the King to power - for lack of imagination.

That's why the monarchy was restored not because "Cromwell was a bad man". Which he wasn't.

 

[Wintermoot]

I don,t really like any of the mooks that ran my country.
but if you ask me which one I dislike the least it would be Mark Rutte

unlike the guy that came before him he looks less like Harry Potter/the guy that everybody in the government would give a wedgie. Also as far as I know (and I don,t really know allot about his decisions) he hasn't fucked up (or ran our country into bankruptcy)

 

[James Crook]

I'm French, so, most obviously, it would be King Henri IV, the protestant Henri of Navarre who rose up to take the throne of France away from these dastardly,ultra-catholic, fanatical nobles and shut them the fuck up. Too bad that stupid ************ Ravaillac just had to go and stab him. Then we got the Louis XIII and Richelieu pair, which were great too, but everybody else that followed was vastly incompetent, including that megalomaniac Louis XIV who went senile just at the moment his ministers went out of order and fucked everything up by repealing the Édit de Nantes...

 

[Chairman Miaow]

Yup, the guy who banned most sports, make-up, doing anything on a Sunday, celebrating on Christmas, and subjugated and murdered a bunch of Irish people after saying they wouldn't be harmed and turned their children into slaves for no reason other than he assumed all Irish Catholics were traitors was a brilliant leader. That's why the minute he was out of power the monarchy was restored.

He never said the Irish wouldn't be harmed; he made it perfectly clear he intended to make them pay for their uprising against the English that partly caused the English Civil War. Subjugating Ireland was not Cromwell's bright idea, he was merely the most successful person at it - thus making him a brilliant leader.

The monarchy was restored because there was a power struggle after his death between his Parliament and the Army. Richard Cromwell resigned the position of Lord Protector, and the Army kicked out Parliament. Then things started to fall apart, and the General in charge of order in Scotland came down with the only held-together army and returned the King to power - for lack of imagination.

That's why the monarchy was restored not because "Cromwell was a bad man". Which he wasn't.

Regardless of why he did it or whether or not people did it before him, Cromwell committed genocide. And when I say wouldn't be harmed, I'm talking in particular about the siege of Drogheda and the sack of Wexford, where he most certainly did promise they wouldn't be harmed.

 

[Deathmageddon]

In the US all we have at the moment are Democrats who clearly have never read Atlas Shrugged and Republicans who love the taste of foot in their mouth.

Even though I'm a Republican (so I obviously <3 Reagan), I gotta respect Andrew Jackson. The dude know how to get stuff done and balance a budget.

 

[VeryOddGamer]

I'm Finnish, so most of our leaders have actually been Swedish or Russian.
I'm going to with:
- Alexander I of Russia, because he gave Finland autonomy.
- Alexander II of Russia, for re-establishing the Diet of Finland, increasing our autonomy, for giving us our own currency and for just being a nice guy.
- Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, the first Finn on my list, for being a great military commander who saved Finland from Soviet occupation and took care not to waste lives of his soldiers and for skillfully handling the political situation with the Soviets and the Nazis without even subordinating to Hitler.

 

[BeretedWalrus]

Taiwanese-Canadian here: ohgoodyigettodo2countries

Taiwan/Republic Of China/Formosa/That one island that keeps pissing actual China off:
-Chiang Ching-kuo, not a great leader, but loosened the authoritarian rule of his father Chiang Kai-shek. Paved the way for later politicians like...
-Lee Teng-hui, the first Taiwanese-born President of Taiwan. Supported Taiwanese independance and truly made Taiwan a democracy, even if he may have had a few shady business deals on the side.

Canada:
-Wilfrid Laurier, the famous negotiator. Our first French-Canadian PM, established the Canadian Navy, set up free trade with the United States, and largely responsible for making Canada a little bit less British.
-Pierre Trudeau, Canada's third French-Canadian PM. Responsible for making sure Quebec didn't become it's own separate country, established the Charter of Rights and Freedoms within Canada's Constitution, officially made Canada bilingual, and introduced the Multicultural policy.

And, on a side note, John A. MacDonald doesn't get to be on this list. Sure, he founded Canada, but he was also a racist drunk.

 

[cathou]

canada

it pre-date canada, but still i guess i would have to give a thumbs up to Louis de Frontenac, to have repel a british invasion in 1690, in part by trick the british to think that they were a lot of soldiers in Quebec when there was not that much, and because he manage to expend the nouvelle-france fontiers down to the mississippi

Lester Bowles Pearson, which have created for the most part the UN armed forces, put in place health care, student loans and many social mesure still in place in canada today

Pierre Eliot trudeau, even if i dont agree with what he did, he was a true leader.

 

[Phisi]

We Have Saxton Hale, wait what timeline is this on again?