Who is the best leader your country never had?

[Syt]

Friedrich Wilhelm IV accepting the emperorship in 1848 from the Frankfurt parliament. That would have set Germany on course for a parliamentarian constitutional monarchy and not the authoritarian Prussian state we got two decades later.

Interesting. I would have said Frederick III, father of Wilhlem II. Technically, he was a leader, but his illness and death (he died within 100 days of accession) left him basically ineffective, and there's strong indiciation that he may have attempted to liberalize Germany after the British model.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Friedrich Wilhelm IV accepting the emperorship in 1848 from the Frankfurt parliament. That would have set Germany on course for a parliamentarian constitutional monarchy and not the authoritarian Prussian state we got two decades later.

Interesting. I would have said Frederick III, father of Wilhlem II. Technically, he was a leader, but his illness and death (he died within 100 days of accession) left him basically ineffective, and there's strong indiciation that he may have attempted to liberalize Germany after the British model.

There is a short story in there Syt. Instead of building a time machine and going back and assassinating Hitler, the time traveller trains as a cancer specialist, embeds himself in German society c.1880 and treats Frederick successfully 

[Syt]

... only to be assassinated by his resentful son who keeps the timeline intact.

[Richard Hakluyt]

............or the new liberal German Empire leads to even greater chaos and horror for some strange reason or other 

[Gups]

Denis Healey for me. Or possibly Butler.

If we can only have leaders of the opposition who were never PM, Gaitskell is the only reasonable option. Britain would be a different place had he won in 1955 and Suez has been avoided.

[Syt]

............or the new liberal German Empire leads to even greater chaos and horror for some strange reason or other 

See, that'w why Willie kills Fred - time travelers from an even more distant future explain to him that the outcome will be much worse without him taking over. This will be the final scene twist.

[Archy]

To be honest this one is difficult for countries with a coalition style govt. all the time.
In most cases for us it wouldn't change too much.

[jimmy olsen]

Teddy Roosevelt 1912

[mongers]

Denis Healey for me. Or possibly Butler.

If we can only have leaders of the opposition who were never PM, Gaitskell is the only reasonable option. Britain would be a different place had he won in 1955 and Suez has been avoided.

Yes he's a good choice.

[The Larch]

Ferdinand could have been bullied into accepting the Constitution of 1812 though.

Not really, the liberals had little factual power at the time. Such a pity, Spain's biggest historical missed opportunity.

The second biggest was when a few years later the liberals *did* have enough power to reinstate the 1812 Constitution and we got invaded by France to restore absolutist power. Thanks for that.

Yeah, he was eager to go back to the pre-Napoleonic era as if nothing had happened, and there was support in the country for that option. I mean, even some members of the Cádiz Cortes straight out told him to ignore the 1812 constitution.

[viper37]

Somewhat inspired by Raz's thread (Your ideal politician), but more grounded in reality.

What's the one election you really think your country got wrong?  Who, with hindsight, would have been a far better national leader than the person who was elected?

Harper should have won once more

Seriously, one who has never been elected to the office before? hmm.  Hard to tell.  Most Canadian Prime Ministers were horribly bad for Quebec, but most of the opposition leaders were just as bad.  So I don't know.
I think Joe Clark would have been a very fine Prime Minister if he had been in office for longer.

Well the couple of names that came to my mind were, of course, Preston Manning but also Robert Stanfield.  Far too red toryish for my liking (he campaigned on wage and price controls in '72 for pete's sake), but he would have saved us from Trudeau Sr.

If we were talking about Quebec specifically though... René Lévesque or Lucien Bouchard as PM of an independant Quebec.  Despite being social-democrats, they had their heads on their shoulders and would have reduced govt spending in time.

For Quebec-province, my vote goes to Mario Dumont, 2008.  He would have made a fin PM after a couple of years.

[DGuller]

The good thing about being Ukrainian is that there are no what-ifs to answer about the old country.  In that particular case, it really is the case that all the leaders and all the potential leaders are total shit.

[Tamas]

It's not a straight election, but in the 1830s and 40s Count Szechenyi, a super-wealthy aristocrat managed to build a westernising/industrialising movement around himself. Financing the Science Academy, building the first permanent bridge over the Danube at Budapest (the Lanchid, or "chain bridge, it's still there), supporting the building of railroads, he was indispensable in kickstarting whatever little modernisation the country saw.

In politics he had the agenda of slow and steady progress and gaining strength, slowly winning concessions from the Habsburgs. It was a plan that had the country's interest in mind while not forgetting there is an actual world outside its borders.

It was the second to last chance to modernise Hungary and avoid the collapse and disintegration of the country that happened in 1920.

But a more radical wing of politics appeared, headed by Kossuth, who was a lawyer with a dubious background, and a vile nationalist populist.

The nation flocked behind Kossuth, Szechenyi grew insane in desperation of seeing his 20 years of effort being drowned and ruined in Trump-like yelling and sword-rattling, then committed suicide.

[Tamas]

The good thing about being Ukrainian is that there are no what-ifs to answer about the old country.  In that particular case, it really is the case that all the leaders and all the potential leaders are total shit.

This did make it easier for me to leave the old country as well  There is just no person and/or force that could make the place any better in the next 20 years.

[Razgovory]

Gary Hart.  My family would have gotten  jobs in Washinton if he had won.