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| king_william_lyon_mackenzie [] – external edit 127.0.0.1 | king_william_lyon_mackenzie [] (current) – external edit 127.0.0.1 |
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| <tab>Though King resigned as prime minister in 1948, he remained the MP for GC till the dissolution of Parliament 30 April 1949. He did not run again in any constituency; the GC election was his last. King attended the Liberal nomination meeting held in Alexandria on 27 May 1949. His name was moved in nomination as the candidate for GC at the forthcoming election, but he refused to allow the nomination to go forward. At the Liberal Party convention of Aug. 1948 which chose Louis St. Laurent to be the new leader of the party, King had voted as the delegate for GC. His vote was for St. Laurent, not for Gardiner, who was also running. King was the grandson of William Lyon Mackenzie, the leader of the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837. Harkness notes it as striking that King ended his political career as MP for a constituency once so associated with the loyal clan of the Macdonells. Earlier, of course, the Macdonells had been Jacobites, and in his speech of 17 July 1945 in Alexandria, Mackenzie King drew attention to the Jacobites of his own family background. | <tab>Though King resigned as prime minister in 1948, he remained the MP for GC till the dissolution of Parliament 30 April 1949. He did not run again in any constituency; the GC election was his last. King attended the Liberal nomination meeting held in Alexandria on 27 May 1949. His name was moved in nomination as the candidate for GC at the forthcoming election, but he refused to allow the nomination to go forward. At the Liberal Party convention of Aug. 1948 which chose Louis St. Laurent to be the new leader of the party, King had voted as the delegate for GC. His vote was for St. Laurent, not for Gardiner, who was also running. King was the grandson of William Lyon Mackenzie, the leader of the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837. Harkness notes it as striking that King ended his political career as MP for a constituency once so associated with the loyal clan of the Macdonells. Earlier, of course, the Macdonells had been Jacobites, and in his speech of 17 July 1945 in Alexandria, Mackenzie King drew attention to the Jacobites of his own family background. |
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| <tab>One of King’s distinguished political opponents in Parliament was John Bracken, premier of Manitoba from 1922 to 1943, who turned to federal politics and was Conservative leader of the opposition from 1942 to 1948 (but with a seat in Parliament only from 1945 to 1949). Bracken was also in Maxville for the Highland Games day in 1948. Later, a bond was formed between the Bracken family and GC when Gordon Bracken of that family married Elizabeth MacCrimmon from one of the long-established farm families of the 9th of Kenyon. (//Lochinvar to Skye//, 303) George Drew, who succeeded Bracken as leader of the Opposition in Parliament, was himself apparently of GC descent or connections. (See entry for George Alexander Drew) See also the entries for G.S.H. Barton, and W.C. Clark, who were prominent deputy ministers of the King era. And see the entries for [[chevrier_joseph-elphege|Lionel Chevrier]], [[macdonald_donald_alexander|Donald A. Macdonald (Q.C.)]], [[macrae_john_donald|J.D. MacRae]], and [[major_william_j|W.J. Major]] (King’s successor as MP for GC), all of whom were prominent in securing the GC seat for King in 1945. | <tab>One of King’s distinguished political opponents in Parliament was John Bracken, premier of Manitoba from 1922 to 1943, who turned to federal politics and was Conservative leader of the opposition from 1942 to 1948 (but with a seat in Parliament only from 1945 to 1949). Bracken was also in Maxville for the Highland Games day in 1948. Later, a bond was formed between the Bracken family and GC when Gordon Bracken of that family married Elizabeth MacCrimmon from one of the long-established farm families of the 9th of Kenyon. (//Lochinvar to Skye//, 303) George Drew, who succeeded Bracken as leader of the Opposition in Parliament, was himself apparently of GC descent or connections. (See entry for [[drew_george_alexander|George Alexander Drew]]) See also the entries for [[barton_george_samuel_horace|G.S.H. Barton]], and [[clark_william_clifford|W.C. Clark]], who were prominent deputy ministers of the King era. And see the entries for [[chevrier_joseph-elphege|Lionel Chevrier]], [[macdonald_donald_alexander|Donald A. Macdonald (Q.C.)]], [[macrae_john_donald|J.D. MacRae]], and [[major_william_j|W.J. Major]] (King’s successor as MP for GC), all of whom were prominent in securing the GC seat for King in 1945. |
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| <tab>It has been speculated that having King as its MP preserved for GC a little longer than would otherwise have been the case the honour, poorly based as it was in terms of the county’s small population, of being a parliamentary constituency in its own right. (Ostrom) Ewan Ross wrote that this distinguished MP “did little for the county and had no real connection with it” (MacGillivray & Ross 538) but the first of these charges was equally true for many of the GC MPs, and the very favour and notice of so great a person as a prime minister must be supposed to bestow a benefit in their own right, just as a president or prime minister does honour to a university by accepting its honorary degree. It has been reported that some of the GC Liberals hoped that as a result of getting King the GC seat, GC might again have a senator. The wistful and bullheaded notion that in some way GC (or even Alexandria) was “entitled” to a senator survived by decades the thirty years during which Dr Donald MacMillan, of Alexandria, was a member of the Senate. | <tab>It has been speculated that having King as its MP preserved for GC a little longer than would otherwise have been the case the honour, poorly based as it was in terms of the county’s small population, of being a parliamentary constituency in its own right. (Ostrom) Ewan Ross wrote that this distinguished MP “did little for the county and had no real connection with it” (MacGillivray & Ross 538) but the first of these charges was equally true for many of the GC MPs, and the very favour and notice of so great a person as a prime minister must be supposed to bestow a benefit in their own right, just as a president or prime minister does honour to a university by accepting its honorary degree. It has been reported that some of the GC Liberals hoped that as a result of getting King the GC seat, GC might again have a senator. The wistful and bullheaded notion that in some way GC (or even Alexandria) was “entitled” to a senator survived by decades the thirty years during which Dr Donald MacMillan, of Alexandria, was a member of the Senate. |
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| <tab>For King’s early connections with a distinguished family of GC origins, and the belief that he came close to marrying a daughter of the family, see James Bethune. See also [[macpherson_alexander|Alexander Macpherson]], newspaperman. | <tab>For King’s early connections with a distinguished family of GC origins, and the belief that he came close to marrying a daughter of the family, see [[bethune_james|James Bethune]]. See also [[macpherson_alexander|Alexander Macpherson]], newspaperman. |
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