William Lyon Mackenzie King - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

Youth

King was born in Berlin, Ontario (today Kitchener). The grandson of William Lyon Mackenzie, leader of the rebellion of High-Canada in 1837, King obtained five university degrees. He obtained from them three of the Université of Toronto; after studies with the University of Chicago, it transferred to the Université Harvard where it took down a Master off Arts in political economy in 1898 and a Ph.D. in 1909.

He was elected for the first time at the Parliament under the banner of the Liberal party of Canada at the time of a by-election in 1908, and he was re-elected at the time of an other by-election in 1909, after having been the first to be appointed Minister for Labor. He lost his seat with the election of 1911, when the conservatives overrode the liberals.

According to its defeat, he worked in the United States for the Rockefeller family. He returned to Canada to stand as a candidate to the election of 1917, which was exploited mainly the question of the conscription, and was demolishes again because of his opposition to the conscription, supported by a majority of English Canadian.

Chief of the Liberal party

In 1919 it was elected chief of the liberals and was allocated to the Parliament at the time of a by-election. It remained in station as liberal chief until in 1948. In 1921 its party gained the elections vis-a-vis the conservatives of Arthur Meighen and he became the Prime Minister.

During its first mandate, he was opposed by the Parti progressist of Canada, which did not support the customs tariffs. King started an election in 1925; the conservatives gained the greatest number of seats, but not enough to hold a parliamentary majority with the House of Commons. King clung to the capacity with the support progressists. However, its second hardly started mandate, a scandal of bribe was revealed within the department of the customs, which transferred a good part of the popular support to the progressists and the conservatives. There was much pressure so that King resigns.

The Prime Minister asked the general governor, Lord Byng, to dissolve the Parliament and to start another election. Byng refused, the only time in the Canadian history that the general governor exerted this power. King resigned, and Byng required has Arthur Meighen to form a new government. When the government of Meighen was demolishes with the communes little time after, Byng was resigned to start an election: in 1926, the liberals of King were taken back with the capacity. One of the principal arguments of its countryside was the fact that Byng was a British Lord and not a Canadian citizen; King promised to correct the situation.

See the article Business King-Byng

Depression and conciliation

During its second mandate, King introduced the retirement pensions. In February 1930, it named Cairine Wilson, which it knew personally, with the Senate of Canada. It was the first woman senator in the history of Canada.

King was demolishes at the time of the elections of 1930 by the conservatives of Richard Bedford Bennett. Unfortunately for the latter, it was the beginning of the great depression and King took again the reins in 1935. The worst of the crisis had passed and it made adopt laws to create social programs like those concerning housing. Its government also created the Société Radio-Canada in 1936, the airline company Trans-Canada Airlines (the precursor of Air Canada) in 1937 and the National office of film of Canada in 1939.

King hoped that the release of the Second world war can be avoided, and it supported the British strategy of conciliation. It had met Hermann Göring and Adolf Hitler, which it judged being a reasonable man who had care of his next, working to improve his country lasting the depression. He entrusted to his diary which he believed that " Hitler could a being day well seen like one of the savers of the monde" and with a Jewish delegation declared that the " Kristallnacht " could be a blessing well.

Such an ignorance gave a rather hard tone to the actions of the government of King; whereas the situation became increasingly intolerable for the Jewish populations of Europe during the Holocauste, the government refused to admit great numbers of Jewish immigrants. This attitude was expressed by civil servant which, when one asked him how much Jews would be allowed to enter to Canada following the second war, retorted: " No, it is already trop." ( Nun is too many. ) This sentence was taken again for the title of a famous book of history which denounced the Canadian immigration policy anti-semite during this period. An example is the steamer St Louis , which transported 907 Jewish people who tried to escape the events in Europe. Of the 907 people on the vessel, none was allowed in Canada. Forty-four known Canadian personalities, including professors, editors and industrialists pled so that King grants asylum to them, but King refused to hear them.

Second world war

King carried out the need for the Second world war before the invasion of the Poland by Hitler in 1939. But contrary to the First World War, when Canada took part automatically in the war as soon as the the United Kingdom had engaged, King affirmed Canadian autonomy while waiting until the September 10th, when a vote take place with the House of Commons, before supporting the decision of the government to enter in war. During this time, Canada could buy weapons with the the United States. Once to have declared the war, Canada could not buy any more of weapons in the United States, the latter having a policy prohibiting to them to arm the belligerent countries.

King promised not to impose the conscription, which contributed to save to him the elections of 1940. But after the fall of the France, it passed a law of conscription for the internal service and the call to the volunteers for the face. King sought to avoid a repetition of the crisis of the conscription of 1917. But in 1942, the army made very strong pressures so that it sends conscripts in Europe. It thus organized a national referendum this same year, asking the nation to raise it of its promise made during the electoral campaign. Its policy which it stated was " the conscription so necessary, but not necessarily the conscription."

The French Canadian, like certain German-speaking communities, were opposed massively to the conscription, but a majority of anglophone Canadian gave their support. In April 1942, it made pass the National Mobilization Act , to organize the conscription. During the two following years, King tried to dodge the question by using a campaign of vigorous Propagande to recruit volunteers after the severe losses at the time of the Débarquement of Dieppe in 1942, Italy in 1943 and the Bataille of Normandy in 1944. At the end of 1944 it decided finally that it was necessary to send conscripts in Europe, which caused a short political crisis. Fortunately for him, the war was finished a few months later. On the 16.000 conscripts, only 2.500 were sent on the face.

See: Crisis of the conscription (1944)

King was extremely unpopular among the Canadian soldiers during the war. During its appearances in the installations of the Canadian army in Great Britain (and, after the June 6th 1944, in Europe), it was invariably accommodated by hootings and whistles.

The reserved treatment with Canadian of Japanese race during the war was highly criticized in the years which followed. In the middle of the war, thousands of Japanese Canadian were moved their residences on the coast of the Pacific and internees in camps and Bidonville S more in the east, supposedly to avoid the danger of spies Japan board living in Canada. No similar precaution was carried out at the place of Canadian-German, on the other hand. King was not the only one to force the emigration of Japanese Canadian; the government of the United States set up a similar plan during the war. However, Japanese Canadian could not regain their houses after the war, contrary to Japanese American. Moreover, the possessions of these families were sold with the biddings during their exile, leaving them little reason want to remain in Canada. One thus offered the option to be to them " repatriés" in Japan, the expenses of the government, instead of bringing back them on the west coast.

Canadian autonomy

During all its years with the capacity, King transformed Canada of a British colony with a responsible government into an autonomous nation within the the Commonwealth. During the Business Chanak in 1922, King refused to support the British without initially consulting the Parliament, while the conservative leader, Arthur Meighen, was ready to support them. The British were disappointed by the answer of King, but it was the first time that Canada had affirmed its independence in terms of foreign politics. After the Business King-Byng, King went to the imperial conference 1926 and pled for a greater autonomy for the Dominions. This had for resulted the Déclaration Balfour from 1926, which announced an equal statute for all the members of the Commonwealth, including the the United Kingdom.

Approach of the war, King played two parts. On a side, he promised with the Canadian English who Canada would undoubtedly enter in war if the England did it. Other side, it and its lieutenant Ernest Lapointe reassured the French Canadian that Canada would take part in the war only if it were in the best interests of the country. With these two messages, King quietly carried out Canada towards the war without causing tensions between the two greater Canadian speech communities. Like a last measurement of assertion of Canadian autonomy, King made sure that the Canadian Parliament made its own declaration of war one day after the British.

Post-war period

The Liberal party of Mackenzie King gained the elections of 1945. He had been regarded as a minor actor in the war at the same time by the American president Franklin D. Roosevelt and the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, in spite of to have obtained that the allied chiefs meet in Quebec in 1943. But nevertheless, it found that Roosevelt gave more attention to him as a allied chief than his British counterpart Churchill.

King took part in the creation of UNO in 1945. In 1948, it took its retirement after nearly 22 years like Prime Minister. Louis the St. Lawrence succeeded to him as a chief of the Liberal party and a Prime Minister of Canada.

Personal life

Mackenzie King was a careful politician who formed his policies according to the opinions in vogue. " The Parliament will decide, " liked he to say when in a hurry to act.

Into private, it was of a very great eccentricity. He liked to call upon the spirits, including those of Léonard de Vinci, Louis Pasteur, his mother deceased and his dog, Pat. He sought personal rassurances near these spirits, rather than of the political councils. Indeed, after its death, one of the médiums which he had consulted stated not to know that he was a politician. King once required if its party would gain the elections of 1935, one of the rare times that the policy entered the meetings. Its occult interests were not largely known during its political career, however, and were publicisés only after its death by its biographers who used his private newspapers that it had kept all its life.

It Maria never, but had a close relation with Joan Patteson, which was married; it spent much its spare time with it. Its country house to Kingsmere in the Parc of Gatineau close to Ottawa is opened with the public.

Mackenzie King died the July 22nd 1950 with its residence close to Ottawa. It was buried with the cemetery Mount Pleasant, with Toronto. It is reproduced on the Canadian ticket of 50 dollars.

External bonds

Biography of the '' biographical Dictionnaire of Canada in line ''
Canadian newspapers and the Second world war - William Lyon Mackenzie King
federal political Experiment
Poem by F.R. Scott