Ian Alistair Mackenzie
Politician
1890 – 1949
Who was Ian Alistair Mackenzie?
Ian Alistair Mackenzie, PC was a Canadian parliamentarian.
Born in Assynt, Scotland, Mackenzie entered politics by winning a seat in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in the 1920 BC election. In 1930, he was appointed to Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King's pre-election Cabinet as Minister of Immigration and Colonization and Superintendent of Indian Affairs. While he won his seat in the 1930 federal election the Liberal Party was defeated across the country. Mackenzie entered Parliament as an Opposition Member of Parliament.
When the Liberals returned to power through the 1935 election, Mackenzie returned to Cabinet as Minister of National Defence where he had the responsibility for pre-war rearmament. With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, however, Mackenzie was moved to the position of Minister of Pensions and National Health, in part because of his role in a scandal involving the awarding of a contract to manufacture the Bren Gun. In 1944, he became Minister of Veterans Affairs.
Mackenzie was an able parliamentarian, and when the increasing pressures of war led Prime Minister King to decide to delegate some of his responsibilities in the House of Commons to the new position of Government House Leader, he chose Mackenzie as the first MP to hold that responsibility.
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