William Lyon Mackenzie King, grandson of rebel Ontario political reformer William Lyon Mackenzie, holds the record for longest time spent as Prime Minister of Canada. He intrigues many people today for the fact that he held Spiritualist beliefs and apparently regularly consulted his dead mother on matters of politics and policy.

King was born in Kitchener-Waterloo into a lawyer's family. After graduation from the University of Toronto, he studied economics at Harvard and the University of Toronto. In 1908, he ran for the federal Liberals in Ontario's North York riding; in 1909 he became Wilfrid Laurier's Minister of Labour. He was defeated in the 1911 and 1917 elections.

King also worked as a strike conciliator and labour consultant. In 1918, he published Industry and Humanity, a book that outlined his view that governments, acting on behalf of society as a whole, had an interest in the peaceful resolution of labour disputes.

Following Laurier's death, King became the leader of the liberal party in 1919. He would go on to lead the Liberal party to victory in 1921, 1926, 1935, 1940, and 1945. In the 1925 election, the Liberals did not win a majority; in an effort to keep his minority government in power, King agreed to introduce old age pensions in return for the votes of the two Labour members of the house, Abraham Heaps and J.S. Woodsworth.

It would be wrong, however, to think that King agreed to introduce this legislation only for political reasons. King was a social gospeller who said on one occasion that "private rights cease when they become public wrongs." When the agreement to introduce old age pension was finalized, King wrote, "This morning at my office we accomplished a really important stroke of work."

In 1940, King introduced unemployment insurance to placate the worries of those Canadians who feared that when the war ended, a depression would follow in its wake, as the high industrial production of wartime wound down. He also introduced a post-war reconstruction program that included family allowances and proposals for health insurance.

King resigned as Prime Minister in 1948, and died two years later.

As Prime Minister of Canada, William Lyon Mackenzie King drew a salary of $15,000 in 1926 (about $288.50 per week). What was the purchasing power of such an income? To find out, click on the list of typical 1920s prices.