Alexander Mackenzie

Mackenzie immigrated to Upper Canada from Scotland as a journeyman stonemason, working with his hands on public canals and courthouses before editing a reform newspaper and entering parliament. Following the Pacific Scandal of 1873, he became Canada's first Liberal Prime Minister.

Renowned for austere personal honesty, Mackenzie created enduring democratic institutions: the Supreme Court of Canada (1875), the secret ballot in federal elections, the Office of the Auditor General, and the Royal Military College of Canada. Refusing knighthood three times, he died as a simple commoner.