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'William Lyon Mackenzie'

William Lyon Mackenzie
Rank:	1st Mayor
Term of Office:	1834
Predecessor:	None
Successor:	Robert Baldwin Sullivan
Date of Birth:	March 12, 1795
Date of Death:	August 28, 1861
Place of Birth:	Dundee, Scotland
Spouse:	Isabel Mackenzie (nee Baxter)
Profession:	Journalist, Politician
Political affiliations:	Reform Party/Clear Grits

'William Lyon Mackenzie ' (March 12, 1795 – August 28, 1861) was a Scottish-Canadian journalist, politician, and leader of an unsuccessful rebellion.
Mackenzie was born in Dundee, Scotland and immigrated to Upper Canada in 1820. From 1824 to 1834 he published the newspaper the ''Colonial Advocate'' in York, Upper Canada (now Toronto, Ontario), attacking the upper class clique known as the "Family Compact" which was in control of the government; and the Welland Canal company, in which many of the family compact, were directly involved.
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★ The main Welland Canal ports were named for 4 family compact members: Port Colborne, Port Robinson, Port Maitland and Port Dalhousie )
He used the newspaper as a forum for expressing the ideas of himself and his reform party. In response to this, fifteen young men from wealthy, well-known families of York raided his printing office, damaged his press, and threw cases of type into Lake Ontario in 1826. In 1828 he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada, but was expelled six times for libel, each time being re-elected.
In 1834 he became the first mayor of Toronto. In 1837 he led the Upper Canada Rebellion against Sir Francis Bond Head and the Family Compact, which was quickly put down. Mackenzie's plan was to march to city hall, beat any threat that may be there, then overthrow the government. He and his rebel group failed completely. By the time his group reached Montgomery's tavern, James Fitzgibbon, a British commander in the army, defeated Mackenzie's party of 100 with his party of 1,000. Mackenzie escaped to the United States, and set up a provisional Republic of Canada government on Navy Island in the Niagara River. He was later imprisoned in the U.S. for his involvement in the Caroline Affair. An amnesty allowed his return to Canada in 1849, and he was a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada from 1851 to 1858.
He died in his house (82 Bond Street) in Toronto in 1861 and is buried in Toronto's Necropolis. The home where he lived his last three years is now a museum.
William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute, a Toronto high school was named for him. Their mascot is a "Lyon". Toronto Fire Services fire boat William Lyon Mackenzie (fireboat) is also named in his honour.
Just down the road from the old site of Montgomery's Tavern, now Postal Station K, where Mackenzie launched his rebellion, is Marshall McLuhan Catholic Secondary School. The school's teams are named the "McLuhan Rebels" in honour of Mackenzie and Montgomery's Tavern.
Among his publications are:

★ ''Sketches of Canada and the United States'' (1833)

★ ''Lives and Opinions of Benjamin Franklin Butler and Jesse Hoyt'' (1845)

★ ''Life and Times of Martin Van Buren'' (1846)

Contents

Publications

Publications

★ Charles Lindsay, ''Life and Times of William Lyon Mackenzie'' (Toronto, 1862; new edition, 1908, in "The Makers of Canada Series")

★ J. C. Dent, ''Story of the Upper Canadian Rebellion'' (Toronto, 1885)

★ John King, ''The Other Side of the Story'' (Toronto, 1886)

★ D. B. Read, ''The Canadian Rebellion of 1837'' (Toronto, 1896)

★ William Kingsford, ''The History of Canada'' volume x (Toronto, 1898)