The Fifth

Canada’s first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, died in office on June 6, 1891. What followed was the most unusual ­period of political succession in the country’s history: four Conservative ­leaders — Sir John Abbott, Sir John Thompson, Sir Mackenzie Bowell, and Sir Charles Tupper — each had a short term as prime minister. Abbott retired due to poor health in 1892 and died a year later. Thompson died in his sleep at Windsor Castle in 1894, after Queen Victoria had named him to the Privy Council. Tupper lost to Sir Wilfrid Laurier and the Liberals in the 1896 election and again in 1900. He retired in 1901.

Then there’s Bowell.

Although he served for years as a Conservative cabinet minister, few Canadians are familiar with his short stint as our nation’s leader. In fact, there wasn’t even a full-length biography of Bowell until relatively recently. Betsy Dewar Boyce, a local historian from the Bay of Quinte region in Ontario, produced one in 2007, but...