Mackenzie, Alexander, 1822-1892 : Prime Minister of Canada (1873-1878)
Alexander Mackenzie was born in Logierait, Perthshire, Scotland on 28 January 1822 to Alexander Mackenzie and Mary Stewart Fleming. When his father died in 1836, Alexander went to work to help support the family, training as a stonemason.
Mackenzie emigrated from Scotland to Canada West in 1842 working on canals and construction projects in Kingston, St. Catharines and Montréal. He settled in Sarnia, established himself as a builder and developer, and in 1845 married Helen Neil, a fellow Scottish immigrant. The couple had three children, two of whom died young, and Helen passed away in 1852. In 1853, Mackenzie married Jane Sym; the couple had no children.
Mackenzie died in Toronto on 17 April 1892 and both he and Jane (d. 30 March 1893) are buried in Lakeview Cemetery in Sarnia.
Mackenzie participated in local politics in Sarnia, involving himself in the Reform movement, advocating for George Brown's election to the Province of Canada Legislative Assembly in 1851, and serving as editor of the Lambton Shield, a Reform newspaper. Mackenzie ran for and secured a seat in the Legislative Assembly in 1861. He was a proponent of Confederation and was elected to the newly established House of Commons in 1867, pursuing dual provincial-federal representation until the practice was abolished in 1872. Mackenzie was named leader of the Liberal party in opposition in March 1873.
In the wake of the Pacific Scandal, Governor General Lord Dufferin requested that Mackenzie form a government. Still not a unified and powerful opposition party, Mackenzie pieced together various factions out of Reformers from Ontario, Rouges from Québec, moderate Liberals, and Maritimers disillusioned by Sir John A. Macdonald's government.
Mackenzie called an election in 1874 in which the Liberals platformed on reform, provincial rights, and economic stability, and won a majority in each province except for British Columbia. The economic reality of the mid-1870s meant that the depression dominated political and social conditions, affecting industry and urban areas through unemployment and outmigration. The Liberal economic response was cautious, which caused further delays in the promised construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Mackenzie, who served as Prime Minister and Minister of Public Works, was able to roll out a spate of policies and legislation that sought to reform a variety of political, legal, social, and economic conditions. This included patchwork policies on temperance, the establishment of the Supreme Court of Canada and the Auditor General's Office, the creation of the Royal Military College, clarifying the role of the governor general and passing the Corrupt Practices Act. Mackenzie's government also significantly changed the elections process by passing the Dominion Elections Act, which implemented the secret ballot, same day elections, controlled election expenses, and placed contested elections in front of the courts.
Mackenzie's tenure as Prime Minister did not present a marked shift away from Macdonald's systematically racist and destructive policies and actions toward Indigenous Peoples. The suite of policies under Macdonald, which caused tremendous ongoing trauma, displacement, disenfranchisement and exclusion continued under Mackenzie's government, and his Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs, David Laird. They pursued the on-going negotiation and signing of the Numbered Treaties, the introduction and assent of The Indian Act (1876) which consolidated and broadened several colonial laws that sought to eliminate First Nations' culture through assimilation, as well as the expansion of the Reserve System and the Residential Schools program.
Mackenzie's time as Prime Minister ended with the 1878 election, which was mainly fought amid the economic recovery platforms of Mackenzie's Free Trade versus Macdonald's platform of a National Policy, centred around protective tariffs, a completed railway, and western immigration. Macdonald and the Conservatives won the election with majorities in each province except for New Brunswick. Mackenzie continued as party leader until Edward Blake replaced him in 1880, and retained his seat representing Lambton and later York East until his death in 1892.
Outside of politics, Mackenzie expanded his business interests, including his fire insurance company, and later taking the position of president of the North American Life Assurance Company. He also took to writing, publishing The life and speeches of Hon. George Brown in 1882.
