According to CUPE Local 79:
179 years ago, Toronto was born. Our first mayor, William Lyon MacKenzie, was a champion of public service and hired the first three city employees. Today CUPE Local 79 members are 20,000 strong and taking care of our great city. Join us as we celebrate Toronto’s history this summer and Chill with Will.
Ahem. The above comes from a website promoting a series of brand awareness ads from Toronto government employees. Though why a government union needs such a campaign is a bit murky. These ads, paid for indirectly by Torontonians' tax dollars, have been plastered through out the city and on the TTC. A daily reminder that Big Brother may or may not be watching you, but he is always wasting your money.
It seems unlikely that William Lyon Mackenzie was the chillin' sort of dude. In fact he was a notorious hot-head. Nor was he fond of big government. During his brief and ill-starred rebellion Mackenzie actually had a flag made up with the word LIBERTY written on it. He was a libertarian avant la lettre and would likely be utterly horrified at the size and scope of modern municipal government. For a public sector union to appropriate him as a sort of mascot for "public service" is chutzpah at its finest.
One of the many things that rankled Mackenzie, he was inclined to react strongly to injustice, was tightly knit oligarchies who use government power to fleece the ordinary citizen. In his day they called it the Family Compact. Today we might call it the Liberal-NDP-Government Union Axis. Not as catchy, but again I'm not WLM. I'm omitting the provincial Tories as their haplessness renders them more amusing than contemptible at the moment.
The CUPE Local 79 website, which is dedicated to the "memory" of Toronto's first mayor, has these insights into his life and times:
How have times changed in Toronto? Delightful question! From humble beginnings, Toronto has evolved into a remarkable place to live — one well beyond your pal Will’s expectations. We are a city brimming with both culture and diversity. A city that rises up to provide assistance to its elderly, infirm, and financially disadvantaged. A city focused on health, happiness, and productivity – giving each resident, young and old, the ability to contribute. How very proud this makes me!
How very sick it makes me!
I haven't the slightest clue as to Mackenzie's views on diversity, the Upper Canada of his day was as white as a lily. From the records that have come down to us he seems to have been a fairly enlightened man. What he would have made of Toronto's demographics we can only guess at. We are on more certain ground as to government providing "assistance to its elderly, infirm and financially disadvantaged." Mackenzie would almost certainy have opposed government involving itself in such essentially private matters. Those incapable of fending for themselves were the responsibility of the churches, private charities and of last resort the municipal government. Relief for the poor was remarkably stingy both from necessity and principle.
The solution to "poverty" in early Victorian Canada was typically an axe and a few acres of land. There is little indication in the historical record that the rebel of 1837 was some kind of proto-socialist. That CUPE is implying as much is disgraceful.
Here is how Wikipaedia describes Mackenzie's views. The below is taken from the period shortly after his return from exile:
For the next seven years, Mackenzie was the loudest advocate in the Assembly for the cause of "true reform". This involved a resumption of several of his political stances from the 1830s, including opposition to the clergy reserves and to state funding of religious colleges, and calls for abolishing the Court of Chancery. He now also became an opponent of government overspending, and was especially critical of state aid for railways, especially when those railways were monopolies.
I wonder what he would have thought of a public transit monopoly. Not much I suspect. His principles, unlike those of most politicians, extended to his own personal conduct:
Once Mackenzie's old friend John Rolph entered the Hincks-Morin ministry, he offered Mackenzie a plum job in Haldimand County, but Mackenzie refused, saying that he would not burden the Canadian taxpayers with an unnecessary post.
Considering that it is the business of CUPE Local 79 to expand the number of public sector employees, regardless of their necessity to the public good, we can be fairly confident that Mackenzie would have loath these people with his trademark passion.
This insipid little co-option of a Great Canadian to the statist agenda actually gets worse. In "tribute" to Mackenzie's paper The Colonial Advocate, where he coined the phrase Family Compact, CUPE Local 79 has put out a four page newsletter called The Toronto Advocate. In the second edition of the newsletter we have word that an actor playing the city's first mayor is doing a sort of tour. He is accompanied by a "trope of performers." I can only hazard a guess as to the quality of their performance.
If you want to preach statism to the masses, you're free to do so, thanks to men like William Lyon Mackenzie. But please leave the man's memory in peace. We've had quite enough vandalism of this country's history by Trudeaupian apologists. Defacing one of our greatest defenders of liberty is just too much.
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