Alexander Mackenzie (January 28, 1822 – April 17, 1892) was a Scottish-Canadian stonemason and politician who served as the second prime minister of Canada from 1873 to 1878. He led the Liberal Party from 1873 to 1880 and was the first Liberal prime minister. He was also a member of Parliament (MP) from 1867 to 1892.
Mackenzie was born in Logierait, Perthshire, Scotland. He left school at the age of 13, following his father's death, to help his widowed mother, and trained as a stonemason. Mackenzie immigrated to the Province of Canada when he was 19, settling in what became Ontario. His masonry business prospered, allowing him to pursue other interests – such as the editorship of a pro-Reformist newspaper called the Lambton Shield. Mackenzie was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada in 1862, as a supporter of George Brown.
In 1867, Mackenzie was elected to the new House of Commons of Canada for the Liberal Party. He became leader of the party (and thus leader of the Opposition) in mid-1873, and a few months later, following John A. Macdonald's resignation in the aftermath of the Pacific Scandal, he succeeded Macdonald as prime minister. Mackenzie and the Liberals won a majority government in the 1874 federal election. He was popular among the general public for his humble background and consistent democratic principles.
As prime minister, Mackenzie continued the nation-building program which began under his predecessor. His government introduced the secret ballot, established the Supreme Court of Canada and Royal Military College of Canada, enacted the Indian Act, and created the District of Keewatin to better administer Canada's newly acquired western territories. It struggled to deal with the aftermath of the Panic of 1873 and made limited progress on the transcontinental railway. Mackenzie's Liberals were defeated in the 1878 federal election. He remained leader of the Liberal Party for another two years, and continued on as an MP until his death from a stroke.
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Early life
Mackenzie was born on January 28, 1822, in Logierait, Perthshire, Scotland, the son of Mary Stewart (Fleming) and Alexander Mackenzie Sr. (born 1784) who were married in 1817. The site of his birthplace is known as Clais-'n-deoir (the Hollow of the Weeping), where families said their goodbyes as the convicted were led to nearby Gallows Hill. The house in which he was born was built by his father. He was the third of 10 boys, seven of whom survived infancy. Alexander Mackenzie Sr. was a carpenter and ship's joiner who had to move around frequently for work after the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. Mackenzie's father died on March 7, 1836. Alexander Mackenzie Jr. was then forced to end his formal education at 13 years old to help support his family. He apprenticed as a stonemason and met his future wife, Helen Neil. They met in Irvine, where her father was also a stonemason. The Neils were Baptist and shortly thereafter, Mackenzie converted from Presbyterianism to Baptist beliefs. In 1842, the couple and her family immigrated to Canada to seek a better life. Mackenzie's faith linked him to the increasingly influential temperance cause. The cause was particularly strong in Canada West (now Ontario) and this would become a constituency which he represented in the House of Commons.
Mackenzie, Helen, and her family settled in Kingston, Canada West. The limestone in the area proved too hard for his stonemason tools, and not having money to buy new tools, Mackenzie took a job as a labourer constructing a building on Princess Street. The contractor on the job claimed financial difficulty, so Mackenzie accepted a promissory note for summer wages. The note later proved to be worthless. Subsequently, Mackenzie won a contract building a bomb-proof arch at Fort Henry. He later became a foreman on the construction of Kingston's four Martello Towers – Murney Tower, Fort Frederick, Cathcart Tower, and Shoal Tower. He was also a foreman on the construction of the Welland Canal and the Lachine Canal. While working on the Beauharnois Canal, a one-ton stone fell and crushed one of his legs. He recovered, but never regained the strength in that leg.
While in Kingston, Mackenzie became a vocal opponent of religious and political entitlement and corruption in government.
Mackenzie was a Baptist and a teetotaller. He was known as a prankster (stuffed chimney on young in-laws; rolled boulder down Thunder Cape towards friend A. McKellar; burned Tory campaign placards in hotel woodstove early in morning). He took pride in his Scottish heritage.
Early political involvement
Mackenzie involved himself in politics soon after arriving in Canada. He fought passionately for equality and the elimination of all forms of class distinction. In 1851, he became the secretary for the Reform Party for Lambton. George Brown, who was the owner of the Reformist paper The Globe convinced Mackenzie to run in Kent/Lambton. Mackenzie campaigned relentlessly for the 1851 election, helping Brown to win his first seat in the Legislative Assembly. Mackenzie and Brown remained close friends and colleagues for the rest of their lives.
In 1852, Mackenzie became editor of another reformist paper, the Lambton Shield. As an editor, Mackenzie was perhaps a little too vocal, leading the paper to a lawsuit for libel against the local conservative candidate. Because a key witness claimed Cabinet Confidence and would not testify, the paper lost the suit and was forced to fold due to financial hardship.
Alexander Mackenzie was petitioned to run after his brother, Hope Mackenzie declined to run for re-election. Alexander won his first seat in the Legislative Assembly as a supporter of George Brown in 1861. In 1865, Brown resigned from the Great Coalition over negotiations of a reciprocity trade treaty with the United States. This led to Mackenzie being invited to be president of the council. Wary of Macdonald's motivations and true to his principles, Mackenzie declined.
He entered the House of Commons of Canada in 1867, representing the Lambton constituency. No cohesive national Liberal Party of Canada existed at the time, and with Brown losing his seat, no official leader emerged. Mackenzie was asked but did not believe he was the best qualified for the position. Although he resisted offers of the position, he nevertheless sat as the de facto leader of the Official Opposition.
Prime Minister (1873–1878)
When the Macdonald government fell due to the Pacific Scandal in 1873, the Governor General, Lord Dufferin, called upon Mackenzie, who had been chosen as leader of the Liberal Party a few months earlier, to form a new government. Mackenzie formed a government and asked the governor general to call an election for January 1874. The Liberals won a majority of the seats in the House of Commons having garnered 40% of the popular vote.
Mackenzie remained prime minister until the 1878 election when Macdonald's Conservatives returned to power.
For a man of Mackenzie's humble origins to attain such a position was unusual in an age which generally offered such opportunity only to the privileged. Lord Dufferin expressed early misgivings about a stonemason taking over government, but on meeting Mackenzie, Dufferin revised his opinions:
However narrow and inexperienced Mackenzie may be, I imagine he is a thoroughly upright, well-principled, and well-meaning man.
Mackenzie served concurrently as Minister of Public Works and oversaw the completion of the Parliament buildings. While drawing up the plans for the West Block, he included a circular staircase leading directly from his office to the outside of the building, which allowed him to escape the patronage-seekers waiting for him in his ante-chamber. Proving Dufferin's reflections on his character to be true, Mackenzie disliked intensely the patronage inherent in politics. Nevertheless, he found it a necessary evil to maintain party unity and ensure the loyalty of his fellow Liberals.
In keeping with his democratic ideals, Mackenzie refused the offer of a knighthood three times, and was thus the only one of Canada's first eight Prime Ministers not to be knighted. He also declined appointment to the UK Privy Council and hence does not bear the title "Right Honourable". His pride in his working class origins never left him. Once, while touring Fort Henry as prime minister, he asked the soldier accompanying him if he knew the thickness of the wall beside them. The embarrassed escort confessed that he didn't and Mackenzie replied, "I do. It is five feet, ten inches. I know, because I built it myself!"
Supreme Court appointments
Mackenzie chose the following jurists to be appointed as justices of the Supreme Court of Canada by the Governor General:
Sir William Buell Richards (Chief Justice) – September 30, 1875
Télesphore Fournier – September 30, 1875
William Alexander Henry – September 30, 1875
Sir William Johnstone Ritchie – September 30, 1875
Sir Samuel Henry Strong – September 30, 1875
Jean-Thomas Taschereau – September 30, 1875
Sir Henri Elzéar Taschereau – October 7, 1878
Later life
Despite his government's defeat, he retained the East York seat and remained Leader of the Opposition for another two years, until 1880. In 1881, he became the first president of The North American Life Assurance Company.
He was soon struck with a mysterious strange ailment that sapped his strength and all but took his voice. Although sitting in silence in the House of Commons, he held his House of Commons East York seat until his death in 1892.
He suffered a stroke after hitting his head during a fall in 1892. He died on April 17 in Toronto at the age of seventy. A funeral took place at Jarvis Street Baptist Church in Toronto, and again at St. Andrew's Church and burial in Lakeview Cemetery in Sarnia, Ontario.
Legacy
In their 1999 study of the prime ministers of Canada, which included the results of a survey of Canadian historians, J. L. Granatstein and Norman Hillmer found that Mackenzie was in 11th place just after John Sparrow David Thompson.
Namesakes
The following are named in honour of Alexander Mackenzie:
The Mackenzie Mountain Range in the Yukon and Northwest Territories
Mount Mackenzie, in the Selkirk Mountains of British Columbia
The Mackenzie Building, and the use of the Mackenzie tartan by the bands at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario, "Alexander Mackenzie", the Royal Military College of Canada March for bagpipes, was composed in his honour by Pipe Major Don M. Carrigan, who was the College Pipe Major 1973 to 1985.
Mackenzie Hall in Windsor, Ontario
Alexander Mackenzie Scholarships in Economics and Political Science at McGill University and the University of Toronto
Alexander MacKenzie Park in Sarnia, Ontario
Alexander Mackenzie High School in Sarnia
Alexander Mackenzie Housing Co-Operative Inc. in Sarnia
Mackenzie Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario
Mackenzie Tower, West Block, Parliament Hill, Ottawa, Ontario
Other honours
A monument is dedicated to his tomb in Lakeview Cemetery, Sarnia, Ontario
"Honourable Alexander Mackenzie" (1964) by Lawren Harris, head of the Department of Fine Arts, Mount Allison University, now hangs in the Mackenzie Building, Royal Military College of Canada. The unveiling ceremony was performed by the Right Honourable Louis St. Laurent, a Canadian former prime minister, and the gift was accepted by the Commandant, Air Commodore L.J. Birchall. The painting was commissioned in memory of No. 244, Lieut.-Col, F.B. Wilson, O.B.E., her deceased husband, by Mrs, F.W. Dashwood. Also taking part in the ceremony was the Honourable Paul Hellyer, Minister of National Defence, President and Chancellor of the college. In attendance was Mrs. Burton R. Morgan of Ottawa, great-granddaughter of Alexander Mackenzie.
Burgess tickets presented to Alexander Mackenzie in Dundee, Dunkeld, Logierait, Irvine, and Perth Scotland