William Lyon Mackenzie King
William Lyon Mackenzie King was the prime minister of Canada for three non-consecutive terms from 1921 to 1926, 1926 to 1930, and 1935 to 1948. A Liberal, he was the dominant politician in Canada from the early 1920s to the late 1940s. With a total of 21 years and 154 days in office, he remains the longest-serving prime minister in Canadian history.
King studied law and political economy in the 1890s and later obtained a PhD, the first Canadian prime minister to have done so. In 1900, he became deputy minister of the Canadian government's new Department of Labour. He entered the House of Commons in 1908 before becoming the first federal minister of labour in 1909 under Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier. After losing his seat in the 1911 federal election, King worked for the Rockefeller Foundation before briefly working as an industrial consultant. Following the death of Laurier in 1919, King won the leadership of the Liberal Party. Taking the helm of a party torn apart by the Conscription Crisis of 1917, he unified both the pro-conscription and anti-conscription factions of the party, leading it to victory in the 1921 federal election.
King established a post-war agenda which lowered wartime taxes and tariffs. He sought to strengthen Canadian autonomy by refusing to support Britain in the Chanak Crisis without Parliament's consent and negotiating the Halibut Treaty with the United States without British interference. His government also passed the Chinese Immigration Act, 1923, which banned most forms of Chinese immigration to Canada. In the 1925 federal election, the Conservatives won a plurality of seats, but the Liberals negotiated support from the Progressive Party and stayed in office as a minority government. In 1926, facing a Commons vote that could force his government to resign, King asked Governor General Lord Byng to dissolve Parliament and call an election. Byng refused and invited the Conservatives to form government, who briefly held office but lost a motion of no confidence. This sequence of events triggered a major constitutional crisis, the King–Byng affair. King and the Liberals won the resulting election. Afterwards, King pursued a more independent foreign policy, including by expanding the Department of External Affairs. His government also introduced old-age pensions based on need. King's slow reaction to the Great Depression led to a defeat at the polls in the 1930 federal election.
In the 1935 federal election, King's Liberal Party returned to power in a landslide victory, defeating R.B. Bennett's Conservative government whose response to the depression was unpopular. King negotiated the 1935 Canada-United States Reciprocal Trade Agreement, nationalized the Bank of Canada, and passed the 1938 National Housing Act to improve housing affordability. His government also established the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Trans-Canada Air Lines, and the National Film Board. Days after World War II broke out, King deployed Canadian troops. The Liberals' second landslide victory in the 1940 federal election allowed King to continue leading Canada through the war. After the election, his government signed the Ogdensburg Agreement with the United States, establishing the Permanent Joint Board on Defense. King oversaw the displacement and internment of Japanese Canadians on the domestic front and delayed introducing overseas conscription until late 1944 to appease French Canadians. He also introduced unemployment insurance and later family allowances—Canada's first universal welfare program. Following the Allies' victory in 1945, King called a post-war election, in which the Liberals lost their majority government. In his final years in office, King facilitated Canada's entry into the United Nations, partnered Canada with other Western nations in the deepening Cold War, introduced Canadian citizenship, and successfully negotiated Newfoundland's entry into Confederation.
King retired from politics in late 1948 and died of pneumonia in July 1950. He is best known for his leadership of Canada throughout the Great Depression and World War II, and he played a major role in developing the Canadian welfare state and establishing Canada's international position as a middle power. Meanwhile, King kept secret his beliefs in spiritualism and the use of mediums to stay in contact with departed associates, particularly with his mother, and allowed his intense spirituality to distort his understanding of Adolf Hitler throughout the late 1930s. Historian Jack Granatstein notes, "the scholars expressed little admiration for King the man but offered unbounded admiration for his political skills and attention to Canadian unity." In multiple surveys, scholars have ranked King among the top three Canadian prime ministers.
Early life (1874–1891)
King was born in a frame house rented by his parents at 43 Benton Street in Berlin, Ontario to John King and Isabel Grace Mackenzie. His maternal grandfather was William Lyon Mackenzie, first mayor of Toronto and leader of the Upper Canada Rebellion in 1837. His father was a lawyer and later a lecturer at Osgoode Hall Law School. King had three siblings: older sister Isabel "Bella" Christina Grace, younger sister Janet "Jennie" Lindsey and younger brother Dougall Macdougall "Max". Within his family, he was known as Willie; during his university years, he adopted W. L. Mackenzie King as his signature and began using Mackenzie as his preferred name with those outside the family.King's father was a lawyer with a struggling practice in a small city, and never enjoyed financial security. His parents lived a life of shabby gentility, employing servants and tutors they could scarcely afford, although their financial situation improved somewhat following a move to Toronto around 1890, where King lived with them for several years in a duplex on Beverley Street while studying at the University of Toronto.
King became a lifelong practising Presbyterian with a dedication to social reform based on his Christian duty. He never favoured socialism.
University (1891–1900)
King enrolled at the University of Toronto in 1891. He obtained a BA degree in 1895, an LLB degree in 1896, and an MA in 1897, all from the university. While studying in Toronto he met a wide circle of friends, many of whom became prominent. He was an early member and officer of the Kappa Alpha Society, which included a number of these individuals. It encouraged debate on political ideas. He also was simultaneously a part of the Literary Society with Arthur Meighen, a future political rival.King was especially concerned with issues of social welfare and was influenced by the settlement house movement pioneered by Toynbee Hall in London, England. He played a central role in fomenting a students' strike at the university in 1895. He was in close touch, behind the scenes, with Vice-Chancellor William Mulock, for whom the strike provided a chance to embarrass his rivals Chancellor Edward Blake and President James Loudon. King failed to gain his immediate objective, a teaching position at the university but earned political credit with Mulock, the man who would invite him to Ottawa and make him a deputy minister only five years later. While studying at the University of Toronto, King also contributed to the campus newspaper, The Varsity, and served as president of the yearbook committee in 1896. King subsequently wrote for The Globe, The Mail and Empire, and the Toronto News. Fellow journalist W. A. Hewitt recalled that, the city editor of the Toronto News left him in charge one afternoon with instructions to fire King if he showed up. When Hewitt sat at the editor's desk, King showed up a few minutes later and resigned before Hewitt could tell him he was fired.
After studying at the University of Chicago and working with Jane Addams at her settlement house, Hull House, King proceeded to Harvard University. While at the University of Chicago, he participated on their track team as a half-mile runner. He earned an MA in political economy from Harvard in 1898. In 1909, Harvard granted him a PhD degree for a dissertation titled "Oriental Immigration to Canada." King was the first Canadian prime minister to have earned a PhD.
Early career, civil servant (1900–1908)
In 1900, King became editor of the federal government-owned Labour Gazette, a publication that explored complex labour issues. Later that year, he was appointed as deputy minister of the Canadian government's new Department of Labour, and became active in policy domains from Japanese immigration to railways, notably the Industrial Disputes Investigations Act which sought to avert labour strikes by prior conciliation.In 1901, King's roommate and best friend, Henry Albert Harper, died heroically during a skating party when a young woman fell through the ice of the partly frozen Ottawa River. Harper dove into the water to try to save her, and perished in the attempt. King led the effort to raise a memorial to Harper, which resulted in the erection of the Sir Galahad statue on Parliament Hill in 1905. In 1906, King published a memoir of Harper, entitled The Secret of Heroism.
While deputy minister of labour, King was appointed to investigate the causes of and claims for compensation resulting from the 1907 anti-Oriental riots in Vancouver's Chinatown and Japantown. One of the claims for damages came from Chinese opium dealers, which led King to investigate narcotics use in Vancouver, British Columbia. Following the investigation King reported that white women were also opium users, not just Chinese men, and the federal government used the report to justify the first legislation outlawing narcotics in Canada.
Early political career, minister of labour (1908–1911)
King was first elected to Parliament as a Liberal in the 1908 federal election, representing Waterloo North. In 1909, King was appointed as the first-ever minister of labour by Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier.King's term as minister of labour was marked by two significant achievements. He led the passage of the Industrial Disputes Investigation Act and the Combines Investigation Act, which he had shaped during his civil and parliamentary service. The legislation significantly improved the financial situation for millions of Canadian workers. In 1910 Mackenzie King introduced a bill aimed at establishing an 8-hour day on public works but it was killed in the Senate. He lost his seat in the 1911 general election, which saw the Conservatives defeat the Liberals and form government.