Figure timeline
William Lyon Mackenzie King was the tenth 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.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
politics · Canadian prime minister (1874–1950) · politician · economist · lawyer · diplomat · diarist · journalist · minister · gentleman · senior civil servant · editor · also William Lyon Mackenzie King, Mackenzie King, King
Born 17 December 1874 · Died 22 July 1950 · Q128633
79 published statements · 0 followers
See & hear
14 photos · 1 audio
Listen
William Lyon Mackenzie King 1937
Media from Wikimedia Commons, hotlinked at the source under its own licence — see each file for author and terms.
Live now
Pulling headlines from trusted outlets — this usually takes a few seconds
Checking the wires…
Feed scan
These are live links, not archived citations — they only join the timeline once a collect run verifies and archives them.
Live pulse
Most recent outstanding titles, awards, and quotes
s intentions to send a separate Canadian diplomat to Washington D.C. (to represent Canada
76%WikipediaSource
“I confess it annoyed me. It is drafted designedly to play the imperial game, to test out centralization versus autonomy as regards European wars...No [Canadian] contingent will go without parliament being summoned in the first instance”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“s intentions to send a separate Canadian diplomat to Washington D.C. (to represent Canada”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Published “Human-level control through deep reinforcement learning” in Nature — cited 23,885 times.
Died 1950-07-22.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Awarded Canadian Newsmaker of the Year (1948).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The Industrial Relations and Disputes Investigation Act was passed; this act safeguarded the rights of workers to join unions while requiring employers to recognize unions chosen by their employees
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Awarded Order of Merit (1947).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
A Child Tax Deduction was introduced for families with children
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Election lost: 1945 election.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career landmark: member of the House of Commons of Canada (1945–1949).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Campaign: 1945 election.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
King called a post-war election, in which the Liberals lost their majority government
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
A Farm Improvement Loans Act was introduced that provided for bank loans for purposes such as land improvement and the repair and construction of farm buildings
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
With the intention of providing federally guaranteed loans or mortgages to individuals who wished to repair or construct dwellings through their own initiative
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
And 1944, neither King nor his senior generals and admirals were invited to take part in any of the discussions
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career landmark: member of the House of Commons of Canada (1940–1945).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
And his Quebec lieutenant and minister of justice and attorney general, Ernest Lapointe, died in 1941
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
With full mobilization on September 1, 1939, the day Germany invaded Poland
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
King asserted Canada's autonomy and convened the House of Commons on September 7, nearly a month ahead of schedule, to discuss the government's intention to enter the war
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Compulsory contributions for pensions for low-income widows and orphans were introduced (although these only covered the regularly employed) while depressed farmers were subsidized from that same year onwards
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
King's government nationalized the Bank of Canada into a crown corporation
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
King's government invited British documentary maker John Grierson to study the situation of the government's film production (which at that time was the responsibility of the Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau)
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“we were prepared to accept what really should not, in the name of liberalism, be tolerated for one moment.”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
King's government established the Trans-Canada Air Lines (the precursor to Air Canada), as a subsidiary of the crown corporation, Canadian National Railways
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The age for blind persons to qualify for old-age pensions was reduced to 40 in 1937, and later to 21 in 1947
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
King visited Nazi Germany and met with Adolf Hitler
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Maurice Duplessis, the conservative Union Nationale premier of Quebec, passed the Padlock Law (the Act to Protect the Province Against Communistic Propaganda), which intimidated labour leaders by threatening to lock up t
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission (CRBC) became the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), a crown corporation
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“s main goal was to have a federal system in which each level of government would pay for its programs out of its own tax sources. King only reluctantly accepted a Keynesian solution that involved federal deficit spending, tax cuts, and subsidies to the housing market. King and his finance minister, Charles Avery Dunning, had planned to balance the budget for 1938. However, some colleagues, to King”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career landmark: member of the House of Commons of Canada (1935–1940).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career landmark: Prime Minister of Canada (1935–1948).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
King's government was in power at the beginning of the Great Depression, but was slow to respond to the mounting crisis
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career landmark: member of the House of Commons of Canada (1930–1935).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
A previous Insurance Act was amended to enable fraternal societies to issue endowment policies for a period of twenty years or longer, and to increase their maximum policies to $10,000 under certain conditions
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Taxes on cables, telegrams, and railway and steamship tickets were removed
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The Government Employees' Compensation Act was amended by the Dominion Parliament to provide (as noted by one study) "that all employees of the Dominion government in Prince Edward Island should be eligible for compensat
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career landmark: member of the House of Commons of Canada (1926–1930).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career landmark: member of the House of Commons of Canada (1926–1926).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career landmark: Prime Minister of Canada (1926–1930).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
But the Conservatives had a geographical advantage that turned into enough seats to give a majority
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Facing a Commons vote that could force his government to resign, King asked Governor General Lord Byng to dissolve Parliament and call an election
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
As Minister of Immigration and Colonization after becoming a Liberal-Progressive
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
In which the Conservatives won the most seats, but not a majority in the House of Commons
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
A Civil Service Superannuation Act was passed with the aim of providing public servants with a suitable income upon retirement from the public service
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The government modified the Immigration Act to allow former subjects of Austria-Hungary to once again enter Canada
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
King's government passed the Chinese Immigration Act, 1923 banning most forms of Chinese immigration to Canada
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
King's government negotiated the Halibut Treaty with the United States
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
And was sworn at Buckingham Palace on October 11, 1923, during the 1923 Imperial Conference
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The Supreme Court Act was amended to expand the jurisdiction of the Court to hear appeals to provincial reference questions
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career landmark: member of the House of Commons of Canada (1922–1925).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
For instance, a measure was introduced and passed "restoring the Crow's Nest Pass railways rates on grain and flour moving eastwards from the prairie provinces
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Campaign: 1921 federal election.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career landmark: member of the House of Commons of Canada (1921–1921).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career landmark: Prime Minister of Canada (1921–1926).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Wrote in his diary, "I thought of the New Day, the New Social Order
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Election won: 1919 leadership election.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career landmark: member of the House of Commons of Canada (1919–1921).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Was a rusty outsider with a weak base facing a nation bitterly split by language, regionalism and class
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
King was elected leader in the first Liberal leadership convention, defeating his three rivals on the fourth ballot
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Paid closer attention to the Prairies, a fast-developing region
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Campaign: 1919 leadership election.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
King won the leadership of the Liberal Party
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career landmark: Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada (1919–1948).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
King, assisted by his friend F
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Canada was in crisis; King supported Liberal leader Wilfrid Laurier in his opposition to conscription, which was violently opposed in the province of Quebec
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
At the beginning of World War I, Canada had been at war by virtue of King George V's declaration, issued solely on the advice of the British government
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Mackenzie King introduced a bill aimed at establishing an 8-hour day on public works but it was killed in the Senate
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
To further promote Canadian autonomy from Britain
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
King was appointed as the first-ever minister of labour by Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career landmark: member of the House of Commons of Canada (1909–1911).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Harvard granted him a PhD degree for a dissertation titled "Oriental Immigration to Canada
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career landmark: member of the House of Commons of Canada (1908–1909).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Before becoming the first federal minister of labour in 1909 under Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
King published a memoir of Harper, entitled The Secret of Heroism
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
King became editor of the federal government-owned Labour Gazette, a publication that explored complex labour issues
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Became deputy minister of the Canadian government's new Department of Labour
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
An LLB degree in 1896, and an MA in 1897, all from the university
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Born 1874-12-17.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Connections