James Moore

You finally got your majority.

I said, thank you.

You know, I got three in a row.

Yes, I know, Prime Minister, you got three in a row.

And he said, and then I said, well, I said, do you have any advice?

Majority government versus minority government?

he said he said well you know majority governments are very good because you can plan for the future you can start you know taking uh taking the longer view of things you're not worried about a confidence vote all the time you can be more reflective and you can think about policy and then maybe even actually think about legacy a little bit and do all this and uh and so majority governments are very very good because you can really do take show real uh opportunities of leadership and the person who was who was next to me said but prime minister you know i noticed that you had yes you have three majorities in a row but

But I noticed in each of your majorities, you basically left a year on the table.

You're elected in 93 and then you had election 97, but you lost a year basically because you called a quick election in 97 to 2000.

You lost a year.

You sort of took advantage of Stockwell days, you know, weakened leadership.

And then you left because Paul Martin and all that.

But you could have had like an extra year.

Two or three years of a majority government is talking about how great majorities are.

And he said, let me tell you something.

Majority governments that last year of a majority government can be tough because your backbenchers who aren't getting in cabinet, they start thinking, who is this old guy?

And they start leaking and being unhelpful.

The cabinet ministers think they can do a better cabinet ministers who think they can do a better job than you start planning their leadership and bureaucracy.

You know, the bureaucracy who thinks that maybe you're not going to get back, they start getting lazy.

And the opposition knows when the election's coming so they can plan.