MACKENZIE, WILLIAM LYON Canadian politician, was born near Dundee, Scotland, on March 12, 1795. In April 182o he emigrated with his mother to Canada. There he became a general merchant, first at York, then at Dundas, and later at Queenston. The discontented condition of Upper Canada drew him into politics, and on May 18, 1824 he published at Queenston the first number of the Colonial Advocate, in which the ruling oligarchy was attacked with great asperity, and which roused great anger among the social and political set at York (To ronto), which was headed by John Beverley Robinson. In Nov. 1824 Mackenzie removed to Toronto, but he had little capital; his paper appeared irregularly, and was on the point of suspending publication when his office was attacked and his type thrown into the bay by a number of the supporters of his opponents. In an action against the chief rioters he was awarded £625 and costs, which enabled him to set up a much larger plant, and the Colonial Advocate ran till Nov. 4, In 1828 he was elected member of parliament for York, but was expelled on the technical ground that he had published in his newspaper the proceedings of the house without authorization. Five times he was expelled and five times re-elected by his con stituents, till at last the Government refused to issue a writ, and for three years York was without one of its representatives. In May 1832 he visited England, where he was well received by the colonial office. Largely as the result of his representations, many important reforms were ordered by Lord Goderich, afterwards earl of Ripon, the colonial secretary. While in England, he pub lished Sketches of Canada and the United States, a statement of Canadian grievances. On his return in March 1834 he was elected mayor of Toronto. In Oct. 1834 he was elected member of parlia ment for York, and took his seat in Jan. 1835, the Reformers being now in the majority. A committee on grievances was ap pointed, and as chairman Mackenzie presented the admirable Seventh Report on Grievances, advocating responsible government.
In the general election of June 1836 the Tory party won a com plete victory, Mackenzie and almost all the prominent Reformers being defeated at the polls. This totally unexpected defeat greatly embittered him. On July 4, 1836, he began the publication of the Constitution, which openly advocated a republican form of gov ernment. Later in the year he was appointed "agent and corre sponding secretary" of the extreme wing of the Reform party. He was also in correspondence with Papineau and the other leaders of the Reformers in Lower Canada, who were already planning a rising. Early in Dec. 1837 Mackenzie gathered a mob
of his followers at Gallows Hill, Toronto, with the intention of seizing the lieutenant-governor and setting up a provisional Gov ernment. The total failure of the revolt forced Mackenzie to fly to the United States with a price on his head. In the town of Buffalo he collected a disorderly rabble, who seized and fortified Navy island, in the river between the two countries, and for some weeks troubled the Canadian frontier. After the failure of this attempt he was put to the most pitiful shifts to make a living. In June 1839 he was tried in the United States for a breach of the neutrality laws, and sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment, of which he served over eleven. While in gaol at Rochester he published the Carolina Almanac, the tone of which may be judged from its references to "Victoria Guelph, the bloody queen of England," and to the cabinet as "Victoria Melbourne's bloody divan." He returned to Canada under the Amnesty Act In 1851 he was elected to parliament for Haldimand, defeating George Brown. He at once allied himself with the Radicals (the "Clear Grits"), and became one of Brown's lieutenants. He was still miserably poor, but refused all offers to accept a government position. In 1858 be resigned his seat in the house, owing to incipient softening of the brain, of which he died on Aug. 29, 1861.
Turbulent, ungovernable, vain, often the dupe of schemers, Mackenzie united with much that was laughable not a little that was heroic. He could neither be bribed, bullied, nor cajoled. In 1832 he refused from Lord GOderich a position of great influence in Canada and an income of £1,500. He was a born agitator, and the evils against which he struggled were real and grave.
The Life and Times by his son-in-law, Charles Lindsey (Toronto, 2 vols., 1862), is moderate and fair, though tending to smooth over his anti-British gasconade while in the United States. An abridgment of this work was edited by G. G. S. Lindsey for the "Makers of Canada" series (19o9). In The Story of the Upper Canadian Rebellion by J. C. Dent (2 vols., Toronto, 1885) , a bitter attack is made on him, which drew a savage reply from another son-in-law, John King, K.C., called The Other Side of the Story. The best short account of his career is given by J. C. Dent in The Canadian Portrait Gallery, vol. ii. (Toronto, 1880. (W. L. G.)