William Lyon Mackenzie King
William Lyon Mackenzie King was a Canadian statesman and politician who was the tenth prime minister of Canada for three non-consecutive terms from 1921 to 1926, 1926 to 1930, and 1935 to 1948. A Liberal, he was the dominant politician in Canada from the early 1920s to the late 1940s. King is best known for his leadership of Canada throughout the Great Depression and the Second World War. He played a major role in laying the foundations of the Canadian welfare state and established Canada's international reputation as a middle power fully committed to world order. With a total of 21 years and 154 days in office, he remains the longest-serving prime minister in Canadian history.
King in 1942
King in 1899
Wearing court uniform as minister of labour in 1910
King standing behind former Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, 1912
King's Privy Council for Canada
The King's Privy Council for Canada, sometimes called His Majesty's Privy Council for Canada or simply the Privy Council (PC), is the full group of personal consultants to the monarch of Canada on state and constitutional affairs. Practically, the tenets of responsible government require the sovereign or his viceroy, the governor general of Canada, to almost always follow only that advice tendered by the Cabinet: a committee within the Privy Council composed usually of elected members of Parliament. Those summoned to the KPC are appointed for life by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister of Canada, meaning that the group is composed predominantly of former Cabinet ministers, with some others having been inducted as an honorary gesture. Those in the council are accorded the use of an honorific style and post-nominal letters, as well as various signifiers of precedence.
The Office of the Prime Minister and Privy Council building is the seat of the Privy Council
Andrew Scheer, then leader of the opposition, being sworn into the Privy Council at Rideau Hall in 2017
Prince Edward (front row, fifth from left), at Rideau Hall, in Ottawa, two days after being appointed to the King's Privy Council for Canada
The first meeting of the Privy Council before the reigning sovereign; in the State Dining Room of Rideau Hall. Queen Elizabeth II is seated at centre, with Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, to her left, and Prime Minister John Diefenbaker at her right; 14 October 1957.