As King remembered it in his diary, Hitler told him: "So far as war is concerned, you need have no fear of war at the instance of Germany. When King met Hitler in 1937, the 62-year-old prime minister had an overall favorable impression of the German Chancellor. His initial response to the Depression wasn't King's only act of short-sightedness. The agreement strengthened U.S.-Canada ties and helped bring about an economic turnaround. in 1935, which helped open the American market to Canadian products and brought about significant increase in trade. So in 1935, the Liberal Party roared back with a crushing majority, returning King to the prime minister seat with the slogan " King or Chaos."Īlthough getting Canada back on its feet was tough going, the King government passed the Reciprocal Trade Agreement with the U.S. Led by R.B Bennett, the Conservative policy initiatives, however, could not lift Canada from the economic hole. As a result of his tight-pursed policies, the Conservatives swept to power in 1930. He also said he " would not give a five-cent piece" to any province with a Conservative government. He believed the Depression would pass and did little to relieve high unemployment in the western provinces. He also somehow had the resilience to bounce back from his own shortsightedness.Īlthough King had studied economics (and law) at the University of Toronto and the University of Chicago, he didn't recognize the scale of the economic crisis when the stock market crashed in 1929. He served Canada through a period of industrialization, much of the Depression, and World War II. He wrote or dictated a diary entry nearly every day for 57 years, and keeping his strange behaviors under wraps in his diaries may have helped keep him in office as Canada's longest-serving prime minister.ĭespite his odd habits, King obviously had the talent, ambition, and determination of a politician and leader. These idiosyncrasies, however, didn't come to light until after his death in 1950, when his personal diaries were revealed. ![]() He sought political advice from his dog, the dead, and even the patterns in shaving cream. He once said "It is what we prevent, rather than what we do that counts most in Government," and that may have summed up his somewhat uninspiring approach to leadership. King's speeches were said to be lackluster, and his public persona was far from colorful. His endurance may seem odd, considering that many viewed him as "self-righteous, egotistical, petty, vain, moralistic, paranoid, selfish, self-centered, and vindictive,” according to biographer Allan Levine. For 22 years, over three terms (1921-1926, 1926-1930, and 1935-48), William Lyon Mackenzie King served as prime minister of Canada.
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