Last Exit

In a voice that was no longer calm and steady the old man said: "My day's work is done."

After more than 21 years (7,829 days) as Canada's Prime Minister, 73-year-old William Lyon Mackenzie King was bowing out. At his final press conference last week he looked ill. His lined face had a sickly flush, and the thin lock of grey hair that slipped over his right temple made him seem older than his years. His hands trembled as he toyed with the black ribbon of his pince-nez. His voice was unusually low, and sometimes he seemed to be groping for the right word.

During King's absence and illness in London (TIME, Nov. 1), Louis St. Laurent, the man he had picked to succeed him, had moved into the Prime Minister's office in the East Block. But for the press conference, everything was back in the same order in which methodical Mackenzie King had kept it over the years. A picture of Harry Truman, autographed "To Louis St. Laurent," had been taken off the walnut, table-type desk and was half-hidden on a shelf. Mackenzie King sat again in his stuffed blue swivel chair and rested his feet on the worn, carpeted footstool inherited from his predecessor and friend, Sir Wilfrid Laurier.

The last press conference was like many that had gone before: there was little news. When the time came for questions and a newsman asked about his "golden moment" in Canadian public life, sober-sided Mackenzie King could not think of an answer. Said he: "I am proudest . . . of keeping this nation united." On questions about the new cabinet and the next election, King was his artful self in saying nothing. "I have been advised to avoid controversial issues," he said.

This week, the man who, in his years in the East Block, had made Canada a nation, was driven to Rideau Hall, residence of Governor-General Viscount Alexander of Tunis. There he handed in his resignation. Liberal Leader Louis St. Laurent was named to take his place. Then Mackenzie King rode home with his memories to the peace & sepulchral quiet of cavernous Laurier House.

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