Mackenzie left his mark on Canada
Re: Carved in stone, June 28. I very much enjoyed Elizabeth Payne’s Observer piece outlining the great work being done restoring the West Block and the care and passion of the young stonemasons doing the work.
In particular, I am sure Alexander Mackenzie, my great-great grandfather, a stonemason and Canada’s second prime minister, would be proud to see that his trade and the West Block’s Mackenzie Tower, are being preserved. Like Bobby Watt, the contractor on the project, Mackenzie emigrated to Canada as a young stonemason. He worked on the Welland and Beauharnois canals and built a number of structures such as the bombproof arch at Fort Henry, the Martello tower on Cedar Island in Kingston and various courthouses and jails in southern Ontario. He even submitted a bid (unsuccessfully) for the construction of the Parliament Buildings.
A passionate believer in equality and democracy Mackenzie entered politics and fought to end political bribery and corruption. Remarkably, the self-educated Mackenzie rose to the highest position in the land, becoming prime minister in 1873. His Liberal government brought in the secret ballot, the Supreme Court, the Office of the AuditorGeneral, Royal Military College and oversaw the deployment of the North West Mounted Police (now Royal Canadian Mounted Police) to bring law and order to the West. As both prime minister and minister of public works, he oversaw the construction of the Library of Parliament and a secret staircase (which is being restored) in the West Block, to avoid patronage seekers.
Mackenzie was known for his absolute honesty and rocksolid principles. He was a very humble man who never sought recognition and declined offers of knighthood three times. It was his duty to serve.
We can be thankful to early Canadians such as Mackenzie, who fought hard for democracy and who installed those democratic institutions that have helped preserve and protect our rights and freedoms. Like many of his structures and buildings, these institutions were built to last.
Alexander Mackenzie, stonemason, he left his mark on Canada, building it from the ground up. John Morgan, Ottawa