The Enduring Riddle of Mackenzie King

An examination of polarizing former Canadian prime minister Mackenzie King.

A giant of Canadian history. A racist and anti-Semite typical of his generation. A devoted occultist. An uncontested Liberal party leader. The Enduring Riddle of Mackenzie King explores the character, thoughts, and actions of Canada’s longest-serving prime minister.

Patrice Dutil leads a who’s who of political historians to explain the life of William Lyon Mackenzie King. Although King often headed minority governments and was sometimes personally defeated in elections, his accomplishments are unmatched. He led the nation during the expansionist 1920s and part of the 1930s depression, and managed the Canadian war effort in the 1940s, garnering both praise and blame. His inaction on numerous files and the racism of many of his policy approaches were reprehensible, but he kept the country united during the Second World War and ushered in the welfare state.

These essays shed new light on how King may—or may not—be the greatest of all Canadian prime ministers.

Patrice Dutil is professor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at Toronto Metropolitan University, a senior fellow of the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History at the University of Toronto, and a senior fellow of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. He is the author of Prime Ministerial Power in Canada: Its Origins under Macdonald, Laurier, and Borden and Devil’s Advocate: Godfroy Langlois and the Politics of Liberal Progressivism in Laurier’s Quebec.