Wl Mackenzie King

William Lyon Mackenzie King

I. Introduction

William Lyon Mackenzie King (1874-1950) was the tenth prime minister of Canada. William Lyon Mackenzie King led Canada's Liberal Party from 1919 to 1948. He achieved many great feats. His greatest accomplishment was the preservation of unity between Canada's French-speaking parts and English-speaking parts

II. Early Life

King was born in Berlin, Ontario, in 1874. (Berlin is now Kitchener.) He was named after his grandfather, William Lyon Mackenzie, a leader in an unsuccessful 1837 rebellion against British rule. King's father came from a family that was loyal to Britain.

In 1891, King went to the University of Toronto to study economics and government. He won a scholarship to the University of Chicago and he also furthered his studies at Harvard University.

In Toronto and in Chicago, King was shocked by the poverty of "big cities". In the summer of 1897, he acquired a job as a reporter for the Toronto Mail and Empire and made a study of circumstances in the garment business. He found that the contractors for postmen's uniforms ran some of the worst sweatshops. King told the facts to a postmaster general who was a family friend, Sir William Mulock, and suggested that a fair-wage clause be included in future contracts. Sir William Mulock took the advice. In 1900, Sir William Mulock invited W.L Mackenzie King to direct Canada's first department of labor. King gladly accepted and at the age of 25 became deputy minister of labor.

III. Early Career

A. Civil Servant

For the next eight years, King remained a civil servant, working to develop labor conditions all over the country. He helped resolve about 40 strikes, and he planned the labor legislation.

Although technically a civil servant, King was deeply engaged in politics and was interested in little else. In 1908 King was the Liberal candidate from Waterloo North, Ontario for a seat in the House of Commons. Although the area was mainly Conservative, he was easily elected because of his vigorous and well-organized campaign. In 1909 Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier asked King to be minister of labor. In 1911 the Conservatives in the general election defeated the Liberal government, and King lost his post and his seat in the House of Commons.

B. Rise To Leadership

King worked in minor political posts in the Liberal Party. In 1914 he took a job in the United States as director of industrial research with the Rockefeller Foundation, which was impressed by his record in labor negotiations.

In Canada the outbreak of World War I in 1914 caused conflict in the Liberal Party over the issue of conscription, or compulsory enrollment in the armed forces, also called the draft. The Conservative prime minister, Sir Robert Borden, offered Laurier a post in the coalition cabinet. As the leader of QuÐ"©bec, Laurier refused to join a government that favored the draft. However, most of his Liberal colleagues did join, and by 1917 the Liberal Party had almost no strength outside QuÐ"©bec. King remained loyal to Laurier and in the 1917 election ran against a coalition candidate. This was a gesture of loyalty, because King had no chance of winning.

In 1918 King wrote Industry and Humanity, in which he set out his ideas about labor and capitalism. These were much more liberal than his party's general views. The book advocated cooperation between the community, labor, and the owners of industry. It recommended a larger share for the state in the control of capital, and it represented a step toward a welfare state. The book was as close as King came to formulating a political creed, but it made little impression on his colleagues.

C. Party Leader

After many Liberal leaders deserted the party over the draft issue, King became Laurier's political heir. Laurier died in February 1919, and the party met in August to choose a new leader. Because he had refused to accept the draft, King had most of QuÐ"©bec's votes, and he was elected.

King knew how to impress Parliament and was a great tactician. The Liberal Party was still small and divided. He had to reconvert members who had joined the coalition government, without angering Liberals who had remained faithful.

King tried to unify his party by attacking the coalition government. He maintained that the coalition had been formed during wartime and had no right to stay in power after the war. Further, he stated that Canadian industry was controlled by friends of the coalition government and was favored by lucrative contracts and protected by high tariffs, taxes on imports. King also made a long speech in Parliament, defending in detail his reasons for not having fought in the war, the main one being the necessity of supporting his family. The speech, although humiliating, prevented an attack on King because of his war record.

IV. First Term As Prime Minister

In the election of 1921 the Liberal Party campaigned solely on the issue of lowering tariffs, but the party did not back the issue strongly. It did not want to lose the East, which supported tariffs, in order to gain the West, which favored free trade. However, the postwar economic depression worked against the Conservatives. Although the Conservatives did not do well in the election, it was not a complete victory for the Liberals. King did not have a majority. The Progressives were the second strongest party in Parliament, and although they refused to join King's government, they also refused to act as the official opposition. King could govern if the Progressives voted with him, which they did because the Progressives despised the Conservatives under Arthur Meighen.

In the next few years King initiated few new policies. He left his ministers to their own devices, as long as their actions did not embarrass the government. He concentrated mainly on organizing the party. Realizing the special conditions in QuÐ"©bec, King wisely left QuÐ"©bec politics entirely in the hands of native French Canadian Ernest Lapointe, who had campaigned with King. Until Lapointe died in 1941, he remained King's second-in-command.

King was careful to avoid most issues that would cause problems, but some were forced on him. In 1922 the British government asked him for support in a threatened war with Turkey. King refused to commit Canada without the consent of his Parliament. The next year the British tried to achieve a common foreign policy for all the parts of the Empire. By standing firmly against this plan, King helped