New Champion

As a long-distance runner in Canadian politics, William Lyon Mackenzie King had already broken all endurance records as Prime Minister of Canada. (Previous champion: Sir John A. Macdonald, 19 years.) Last week, he passed an Empire milestone. By completing 7,620 days (20 years, 10 months and 10 days) in office, Mackenzie King toppled the mark set by Robert Walpole for service as the King's First Minister (1721-42).

Mackenzie King had set his heart on breaking Walpole's record. When the great day came, no one knew exactly what to say. There had been so many landmarks to note in his long career that only weathered phrases were left. M.P.s rang what changes they could in the House last week. King himself declared with conscious modesty: "Today's record makes clear that to gain and to retain power in a free country . . . it is not necessary [to] be either a superman or a dictator."

Except for their political tenacity, there were few obvious resemblances between Canada's King and Britain's Walpole. King, grandson of William Lyon Mackenzie, who in 1837 led a futile rebellion against the tight clique ruling Upper Canada, began his career as a social worker. Walpole, to the manor born, worked for the good of the landed gentry. A high liver, a great man for the ladies, he was also a follower of the hounds. Bachelor Mackenzie King lives austerely. Though he has been known to ride, he would be miserable in a pink coat.

The two men, however, had their similarities. Walpole was calm and cautious; so is King. Walpole stayed in office by his skill in holding together discordant Whig factions; King owes his long tenure to skill in welding the dissimilar Liberals of French and English Canada.

In Ottawa's Parliament Building, Walpole's portrait hangs first in the gallery of 42 British Prime Ministers. Last week a waggish newsman draped the frame with black paper, and pasted on a label: "Scratched."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.