King, Mackenzie

The Age of Mackenzie King

William Lyon Mackenzie King has perhaps the most enduring legacy of any Canadian Prime Minister: his policies shaped Canadian politics, economics and international relations for much of the twentieth century. His influence remains hotly debated and controversial: this book is one of the first to counter the official hagiography of King promulgated by the Liberal Party.

The Age of Mackenzie King offers a compelling alternative to the official history of the vital early years of Mackenzie King's career. It considers his role as a labour relations expert and official, the beginning of his close working relationship with powerful forces in the United States, notably the Rockefeller family, and his emergence as a leading Liberal politician. It traces the influences, alliances and experiences that provided the basis for Mackenzie King's highly sucessful vision of Liberal party poltics, a vision that had tremendous implications for Canadian development in the twentieth century.

The Age of Mackenzie King is a groundbreaking study of one the most influential and enigmatic figures in Canadian history.

Memoirs of a Very Civil Servant: Mackenzie King to Pierre Trudeau

Born in Saskatchewan in 1917, Gordon Robertson worked at the centre of government power from 1945 until his retirement in 1979. He worked directly with Prime Ministers King, St-Laurent, Pearson, and Trudeau, serving as senior advisor to the latter two. Commissioner of the Northwest Territories from 1953 to 1963, he also became the first Deputy Minister of the new Department of Northern Affairs under Jean Lesage. In this memoir he presents a first-hand account of the events and personalities that shaped Canada during the critical post-war period.

Robertson tells of Canada's development from colony to nation and the prime ministers who presided over the process. He provides an assessment of each prime minister in action: how they organized the cabinets, what their qualities were and how these related to their failures and successes. Himself influential in many areas of government, Robertson played a key role in the long debate on constitutional reform and national unity. Even after his retirement, he remained active as an unofficial contitutional networker.

Gordon Robertson has written no ordinary memoir. Along with the key events and personalities of his day he describes the development of his own ideas about the nature of Canada and its constitutional future. The result is a significant historical document, one that brings much insight to the history of post-war Canada.

Ernest Lapointe: Mackenzie King's Great Quebec Lieutenant

This is a long-overdue study of one of Canada's most important political relationships. Highly readable and engaging, this work details the relationship between Quebec lieutenant Ernest Lapointe and Prime Minister Mackenzie King, showing how the close association of the two affected Canadian history in many important ways.

Lapointe was the dominant French Canadian in federal politics from the start of the 1920s to the early years of the Second World War, serving as Minister of Justice and King's Quebec lieutenant. In return for promoting Liberal policies in Quebec, he was given an unusual amount of autonomy in his constituency, and, because the Prime Minister had a poor understanding of the province and of the French language, he was relied upon to give King the French-Canadian perspective. Lapointe's role in maintaining Liberal party unity, and, by extension, national unity, was crucial. Lapointe was equally important when it came to foreign affairs. He was known to take the lead over King, and the isolationist stance of both politicians served to undermine the League of Nations in its dealings with Italy over the invasion of Ethiopia.

Lita-Rose Betcherman draws on key primary sources for her material, including the Lapointe Papers, the King Papers, the King Diary, and the media of the times. Ernest Lapointe thus documents Canadian politics and society in a rigourous and accessible manner that will appeal to a scholarly and general audiences.

Mackenzie King, premier ministre du Canada;: L'homme et ses idées

Sir George Mackenzie King's Advocate

Lang, Andrew. Sir George Mackenzie King's Advocate, of Rosehaugh, His Life and Times 1636(?)-1691. London, New York, Bombay, and Calcutta: Longmans, Green and Co., 1909. xi, 347 pp. Illustrated. Reprinted 2005 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN 1-58477-616-1. Cloth. * Reprint of the standard biography of MacKenzie. Lord Advocate during the reigns of Charles II and James II, MacKenzie persecuted Scottish Presbyterians with such zeal that he was known as "The Bloody MacKenzie." (In many cases, he bent the law to secure a conviction.) Also an important scholar and author, he founded the Advocates Library, which is now the National Library of Scotland. His works include The Laws and Customs of Scotland, In Matters Criminal (1678), which is available as a Lawbook Exchange Reprint.

MacKenzie King's Ghost and Other Personal Accounts of Canadian Hauntings

William Lyon Mackenzie King: A memoir presented for the earnest consideration of all patriotic Canadians

A lifetime of public service;: A brief biographical sketch of Mackenzie King,

The MacKenzie King Record, 1947-48

Ernest Lapointe and Quebec's Influence on Canada's Foreign Policy

Currently the stakes are higher than ever for anglophone Canada to recognize and understand the extent and nature of Quebec's role in the shaping of the nation. John MacFarlane's revision of anglophone history is a compelling step in that process.

Historians often emphasize how, during both the difficult inter-war years and the Second World War, the Liberal government of Mackenzie King successfully reconciled the needs of majority rule with the recognition of minority voice, particularly in foreign affairs. How did a consummate anti-Catholic, who did not even speak French, manage to acknowledge and accommodate the vastly different demands of the French-speaking population? Issues such as conscription, relations with Great Britain, and Canadian policy at the League of Nations threatened to divide Canada when the instability of the international scene urgently required a unified voice. Ernest Lapointe, officially the minister of justice (1924-5, 1926-30, 1935-41) and minister of fisheries (1921-4), represented francophone Quebeckers in the federal cabinet. His ability to influence and reflect the views of the Quebec population, his loyalty to Mackenzie King, and in some cases, his threats of resignation, awarded him considerable weight in many external affairs questions. Yet his influence, as a major figure of twentieth century Canadian political history, is one of the least understood. Analysing seventeen foreign policy decisions, the author uncovers Ernest Lapointe's relationship with King, and the voice of Quebec represented by his skilful interceptions.