William Lyon Mackenzie King’s “Very Double Life”? William Lyon Mackenzie King (1874-1950) was the tenth prime minister of Canada for twenty-two years (1921-26, 1926-30, 1935-48) -- longest serving prime minister in the history of the British Commonwealth. In a recent poll, historians ranked him as the most successful Canadian prime minister. But there are other sides to Mackenzie King, such as his philandering with prostitutes and his spiritualism, that he revealed in his personal diary. We will look in detail at Mackenzie King’s “very double life,” and how this should influence our assessment of him as a public figure. Back to Lecture Outline

* Chronology for Lecture Notes *

Link to PowerPoint presentation (PDF format)

 

Reading:

H. Blair Neatby, "King, William Lyon Mackenzie," in DCB

or

M. Bliss, Right Honourable Men, ch. 5-6.

 

Dennis Lee, "William Lyon Mackenzie King"

William Lyon Mackenzie King
Sat in a corner and played with string,
Loved his mother like anything,
William Lyon Mackenzie King.

F.R. Scott, “W.L.M.K.”

How shall we speak of Canada,
Mackenzie King dead?
The Mother's boy in the lonely room
With his dog, his medium and his ruins?

He blunted us.

We had no shape
Because he never took sides,
And no sides
Because he never allowed them to take shape.

He skilfully avoided what was wrong
Without saying what was right,
And never let his on the one hand
Know what his on the other hand was doing.

The height of his ambition
Was to pile a Parliamentary Committee on a Royal Commission,
To have "conscription if necessary
But not necessarily conscription,"
To let Parliament decide--
Later.

Postpone, postpone, abstain.
Only one thread was certain:
After World War I
Business as usual,
After World War II
Oderly decontrol.
Always he led us back to where we were before.

He seemed to be in the centre
Because we had no centre,
No vision
To pierce the smoke-screen of his politics.

Truly he will be remembered
Wherever men honour ingenuity,
Ambiguity, inactivity, and political longevity.

Let us raise up a temple
To the cult of mediocrity,
Do nothing by halves
Which can be done by quarters.

For a Chronology of Mackenzie King's Life visit the National Archives of Canada website, “Behind the Diary”: http://www.collectionscanada.ca/05/0532/053201/0532011303_e.html

Further Reading

Adapted from my further reading section in Mackenzie King: Citizenship and Community eds. J. English, K. McLaughlin, and P.W. Lackenbauer (Toronto: Robin Brass Studio, 2002).

Bibliographies

Grant, Madeline. “William Lyon Mackenzie King: A Bibliography,” in Mackenzie King: Widening the Debate, eds. English, John and J.O. Stubbs. Toronto, Macmillan Press, 1978. 221-53.

Henderson, George F., comp. W.L. Mackenzie King: A Bibliography and Research Guide. Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1998.

Owram, Doug, ed. Canadian History: A Reader’s Guide, vol. 2: Confederation to Present. Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1994.

Books

Beck, J. Murray. Pendulum of Power: Canada's Federal Elections. Scarborough, Prentice-Hall of Canada, 1968.

Bercuson, David J. True Patriot: The Life of Brooke Claxton, 1898-1960. Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1993.

Bertrand, Luc. L'énigmatique Mackenzie King. Vanier, Éditions L'Interligne, 2000.

Betcherman, Lita-Rose. Ernest Lapointe: Mackenzie King's Great Quebec Lieutenant. Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2002.

Bliss, Michael. Right Honourable Men: The Descent of Canadian Politics from Macdonald to Mulroney. Toronto, HarperCollins, 1994.

Brennan, Patrick H. Reporting the Nation’s Business: Press-Government Relations During the Liberal Years, 1935-1957. Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1994.

Craven, Paul. ‘An Impartial Umpire’: Industrial Relations and the Canadian State, 1900-1911. Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1980.

Creighton, Donald. The Forked Road: Canada 1939-1957. Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, 1976.

Dawson, R. McGregor. The Conscription Crisis of 1944. Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1961.

Dawson, R. McGregor. William Lyon Mackenzie King: A Political Biography, vol. 1: 1874-1923. Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1958.

English, John and Stubbs, J.O. eds. Mackenzie King: Widening the Debate. Toronto, Macmillan Press, 1978.

Esberey, Joy. Knight of the Holy Spirit: A Study of William Lyon Mackenzie King. Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1980.

Ferns, H.S. & Ostry, B. The Age of Mackenzie King: The Rise of the Leader. London, William Heinemann, 1955.

Graham, Roger, ed. The King-Byng Affair, 1926: A Question of Responsible Government. Toronto, Copp Clark, 1967.

Granatstein, J.L. Canada’s War: The Politics of the Mackenzie King Government, 1939-1945, 2nd ed. Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1990.

Granatstein, J.L. How Britain's Weakness Forced Canada into the Arms of the United States. Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1989.

Granatstein, J.L. Mackenzie King: His Life and World. Scarborough, McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1977.

Granatstein, J.L. and J.M. Hitsman. Broken Promises: A History of Conscription in Canada. Toronto, Oxford University Press, 1977.

Gray, Charlotte. Mrs. King: The Life and Times of Isabel Mackenzie King. Toronto, Viking, 1997.

Hardy, Reginald. Mackenzie King of Canada: A Biography. Toronto, Oxford University Press, 1949.

Haydon, Andrew. Mackenzie King and the Liberal Party. Toronto, Allen, 1930.

Hutchison, Bruce. The Incredible Canadian: A Candid Portrait of Mackenzie King: His Work, His Times, and His Nation. Toronto, Longmans Green, 1953.

LeSueur, William D. William Lyon Mackenzie: A Reinterpretation, edited and with an introduction by A.B. McKillop. Toronto, Macmillan, 1979.

Lewis, John. Mackenzie King, The Man: His Achievements. Toronto, Morang, 1925.

Ludwig, Emil. Mackenzie King: A Portrait Sketch. Toronto, Macmillan, 1944.

King, William Lyon Mackenzie. Industry and Humanity: A Study in the Principles Underlying industrial Reconstruction. Toronto, Thomas Allen, 1918. Reprinted with
an introduction by David Jay Bercuson, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1973.

MacFarlane, John. Ernest Lapointe and Quebec's Influence on Mackenzie King's Foreign Policy. Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1999.

Mackenzie King: A Personal View. Waterloo, Association for Canadian Studies, 1977.

McGregor, Fred A. The Fall and Rise of Mackenzie King, 1911-1919. Toronto, Macmillan, 1962.

Neatby, Blair. The Politics of Chaos: Canada in the Thirties. Toronto, Macmillan, 1972.

Neatby, Blair. William Lyon Mackenzie King: The Lonely Heights, vol.2: 1924-1932. Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1970.

Neatby, Blair. William Lyon Mackenzie King: The Prism of Unity, vol.3: 1933-1939. Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1975.

Nicolson, Murray. Woodside and the Victorian Family of John King. Studies in Archeology, Architecture and History. Ottawa, National Historic Parks and Sites Branch of Parks/Environment Canada, 1984.

Pickersgill, J.W. The Liberal Party. Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, 1962.

Pickersgill, J.W. Seeing Canada Whole: A Memoir. Toronto, Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 1994.

Pickersgill, J.W. and Donald Forster, eds. The Mackenzie King Record, vols. 1-4. Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1960-70.

Regehr, T. D. The Beauharnois Scandal: A Story of Canadian Entrepreneurship and Politics. Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1990.

Roazen, Paul. Canada's King: An Essay in Political Psychology. Oakville, Mosaic Press, 1998.

Rogers, Norman. Mackenzie King. Toronto, G.N. Morang, 1935

Saint-Aubin, Bernard. King et son époque. Montreal, La Presse, 1982.

Smith, David E., Regional Decline of a National Party: Liberals on the Prairies (Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1981)

Stacey, C.P. Arms, Men and Governments: The War Policies of Canada, 1939-1945. Ottawa: Queen’s Printer, 1970.

Stacey, C.P. Canada and the Age of Conflict: A History of Canadian External Relations. Vol.2: 1921-1948, The Mackenzie King Era. Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1981.

Stacey, C.P. Mackenzie King and the Atlantic Triangle. Toronto, Macmillan, 1977.

Stacey, C.P. A Very Double Life: The Private World of Mackenzie King. Toronto, Macmillan, 1976.

Teatero, W.R. Mackenzie King: A Man of Vision. Don Mills, Nelson and Sons, 1978.

Von Baeyer, Edwinna. Garden of Dreams: Kingsmere and Mackenzie King. Toronto, Dundurn Press, 1990.

Wardhaugh, Robert A. Mackenzie King and the Prairie West. Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2000.

Whitaker, Reg. The Government Party: Organizing and Financing the Liberal Party of Canada, 1930-1958. Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1977.

Articles and Chapters*

Baker, William M. “The Miners And The Mediator: The 1906 Lethbridge Strike and Mackenzie King.” Labour 11 (1983). 89-117.

Baker, William M. “The Personal Touch: Mackenzie King, Harriett Reid, and the Springhill Strike, 1909-1911,” Labour 13 (1984). 159-176.

Blackburn, Robert H. “Mackenzie King, William Mulock, James Mavor, and
the University of Toronto Students' Revolt of 1895,” Canadian Historical Review 69/4 (1988). 490-503.

Carter, John. "The Reciprocity Election of 1911: Waterloo North, A Case Study," Waterloo Historical Society 62 (1974). 77-87.

Cooper, Barry. “On Reading Industry and Humanity: A Study in the
Rhetoric Underlying Liberal Management,” Journal of Canadian Studies 13/4 (1978-79). 28-39.

Courtney, John C. “Mackenzie King and Prince Albert Constituency: The 1933 Redistribution,” Saskatchewan History 29/1 (1976). 1-13.

Courtney, John C. “Prime Ministerial Character: An Examination of Mackenzie King’s Political Leadership,” Canadian Journal of Political Science 9/1 (1976). 77-100.

Craven, Paul. “King and Context: A Reply to Whitaker,” Labour 4 (1979). 165-186.

Crowley, Terence A. “Mackenzie King and the 1911 Election,” Ontario History 61/4 (1969). 181-196.

Dryden, Jean E. "The Mackenzie King Papers: An Archival Odyssey,” Archivaria 6 (1978). 40-69.

Esberey, Joy E. “Personality and Politics: A New Look at the King-Byng Dispute,” Canadian Journal of Political Science 6/1 (1973). 37-55.

Esberey, Joy E. “Prime Ministerial Character: An Alternative View,” Canadian Journal of Political Science 9/1 (1976). 101-06.

Ferns, H. S. “Mackenzie King On Television,” British Journal of Canadian Studies 3/2 (1988). 308-312.

Flanagan, Thomas. “Problems of Psychobiography,” Queen’s Quarterly 89/3 (1982). 596-610.

Fleming, R. B. “Hostess to a Nation.” Beaver 77/4 (1997). 7-14.

Granatstein, J.L. and Robert Bothwell. “A Self-Evident National Duty, 1935-39,” Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 3/2 (1975). 212-33.

Harbour, Frances V. “Conscription and Socialization: Four Canadian Ministers,” Armed Forces & Society 15/2 (1989). 227-247.

Hoogenraad, Maureen. “Mackenzie King in Berlin.” Archivist 20/3 (1994). 19-21.

How, Douglas. “One Man's Mackenzie King,” Beaver 78/5 (1998). 31, 33-37.

Humphries, Charles W. “Mackenzie King Looks at Two 1911 Elections,” Ontario History 56/3 (1964). 203-206.

Keyserlingk, Robert H. “Mackenzie King's Spiritualism and His View of
Hitler in 1939,” Journal of Canadian Studies 20/4 (1985-86). 26-44.

Kurial, Richard. “Odd Man Out: Mackenzie King and the First Quebec
Conference August 1943,” Journal of Unconventional History 5/1 (1993).
60-87.

MacFarlane, John. “Double Vision: Ernest Lapointe, Mackenzie King and the Quebec Voice in Canadian Foreign Policy, 1935-1939,” Journal of Canadian Studies 34/1 (1999). 93-111.

MacFarlane, John. “Mr. Lapointe, Mr. King, Quebec and Conscription,” Beaver 75/2 (1995). 26-31.

Maitland, Leslie. “At Home with the Prime Ministers: National Historic Sites.” Archivist 20/3 (1994). 6-8.

Mallory, J. R. “Mackenzie King and the Origins of the Cabinet Secretariat,” Canadian Public Administration 19/2 (1976). 254-266.

Martin, Ged. “Mackenzie King, the Medium and the Messages,” British Journal of Canadian Studies 4/1 (1989). 109-135.

Martin, Joe. “William Lyon Mackenzie King: Canada’s First Management Consultant?,” Business Quarterly 56/1 (1991). 31-36.

Neatby, H. Blair. “Mackenzie King and the Depression: The Reluctant Reformer,” Canadian Issues 3 (1987). 39-49.

Neatby, H. Blair. “Mackenzie King and French Canada,” Journal of Canadian Studies 11/1 (1976). 3-13.

Neatby, H. Blair. “Mackenzie King and the National Identity,” Transactions of the Historical and Scientific Society of Manitoba 24 (1967/68). 77-87.

Neatby, H. Blair. "The Political Ideas of William Lyon Mackenzie King,” in Les idées politique des premiers ministres du Canada / The Political Ideas of the Prime Ministers of Canada ed. Marcel Hamelin. Ottawa: L'université d'Ottawa, 1969. 121-137.

Pennanen, Gary. “Battle of the Titans: Mitchell Hepburn, Mackenzie King, Franklin Roosevelt, and the St. Lawrence Seaway,” Ontario History 89/1 ((1997). 1-21.

Pollock, Fred E. “Roosevelt, the Ogdensburg Agreement, and the British Fleet: All Done with Mirrors,” Diplomatic History 5/3 (1981). 203-220.

Prang, Margaret. “Mackenzie King Woos Ontario, 1919-1921,” Ontario History 58/1 (1966). 1-20.

Rea, J. E. “Clay from Feet to Forehead": The Mackenzie King Controversy.” Beaver 73/2 (1993). 27-34.

Rea, J. E. “The Conscription Crisis: What Really Happened?” Beaver 74/2 (1994). 10-19.

Read, Colin and Donald Forster. “’Opera Bouffe’: Mackenzie King, Mitch Hepburn, the Appointment of the Lieutenant Governor and the Closing of Government House, Toronto, 1937.” Ontario History 69/4 (1977). 239-256.

Salaff, Stephen. “The Diary and the Cenotaph: Racial and Atomic Fever,” Canadian Dimension 13/3 (1978). 8-11.

Sauer, Angelika. "Goodwill and Profit: Mackenzie King and Canadian Appeasement,” in A Country of Limitations: Canada and the World in 1939 / Un pays dans la gene: le Canada et le Monde en 1939 ed. Norman Hillmer et. al. Ottawa, Canadian Committee for the History of the Second World War, 1996.

Senese, Donald. “Willie and Felix: Ill-Matched Acquaintances,” Ontario History 84/2 (1992). 141-148.

Sharp, Mitchell. “Decision-Making in the Federal Cabinet,” Canadian Public Administration 19/1 (1976). 1-7.

Spaulding, William B. “Why Rockefeller Supported Medical Education In Canada: The William Lyon Mackenzie King Connection,” Canadian Bulletin of Medical History 10/1 (1993). 67-76.

Stacey, C.P. "The Divine Mission: Mackenzie King and Hitler", Canadian Historical Review 61/4 (1980). 502-512.

Stacey, C. P. "’A Dream of My Youth’: Mackenzie King in North York,” Ontario History 76/3 (1984). 273-286.

Stacey, C.P. " Mackenzie King Diaries, 1891-1931 ", Canadian Historical Review 58/2 (1977). 234-36.

Staebler, H. L."Mackenzie King," Waterloo Historical Society 38 (1951). 10-13.

Swainson, Donald. “Neurosis and Causality in Canadian History,” Queen's Quarterly 89/3 (1982). 611-616.

Tessaro, Annamaria. "Mackenzie King in North Waterloo," Waterloo Historical Society 66 (1978). 18-40.

Waite, P. B. “Debauching the Archangels.” Beaver 74/6 (1994-95). 17-28.

Waite, P. B. “Late Harvest: Mackenzie King and the Italian Lady,” Beaver 75/6 (1995-96). 4-10.

Waite, P. B. “Mr. King and Lady Byng,” Beaver 77/2 (1997). 24-30.

Ward, W. Peter. “British Columbia and the Japanese Evacuation,” Canadian Historical Review 57/3 (1976). 289-309.

Wardhaugh, Robert. “Awaiting the Return of Commonsense: Mackenzie King and Alberta,” National History 1/3 (1997).

Wardhaugh, Robert A. “A Marriage of Convenience? Mackenzie King and Prince Albert Constituency.” Prairie Forum 21/2 (1996). 177-199.

Wardhaugh, Robert. “The ‘Impartial Umpire’ Views the West: Mackenzie King and the Search for the New Jerusalem.” Manitoba History 29 (1995). 11-22.

Whitaker, Reginald. “The Liberal Corporatist Ideas Of Mackenzie King,” Labour 2 (1977). 137-169.

Whitaker, Reginald. “Political Thought and Political Action in Mackenzie King,” Journal of Canadian Studies 13/4 (1978-79). 40-60.

Wilbur, Richard. “Canada as Interpreted by W.L.M. King and Others,” Acadiensis 7/1 (1977). 136-141.

The King Diaries

The Mackenzie King diaries are available to researchers online through the National Archives of Canada website:
http://www.collectionscanada.ca/05/0532/053201_e.html

They are also available in the UW Library on 492 microfiches (Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1973-1980).

An accessible source for the post-1939 period is J.W. Pickersgill and Donald Forster, eds. The Mackenzie King Record, vols. 1-4 (Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1960-70), which provides an edited version of the diaries where the official biography stopped. These four volumes cover the main political issues revealed by King to his diary, but do not delve into King’s personal peculiarities.

 

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