View source for Malcolm McKenzie

{{Short description|Canadian politician (1863–1913)}}
{{for|the Australian politician|Malcolm McKenzie (Australian politician)}}
{{Use Canadian English|date=January 2023}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name               = Malcolm McKenzie
|image              = Malcolm McKenzie pb-714-1.jpg
|alt                = A middle aged white man with a dark beard and prominent moustache
|office             = Alberta Provincial Treasurer
|term_start         = May 4, 1912
|term_end           = March 15, 1913
|predecessor        = [[Arthur Sifton]]
|successor          = [[Arthur Sifton]]
|office2            = Member of the [[Legislative Assembly of Alberta]]
|term_start2        = March 22, 1909
|term_end2          = March 15, 1913
|predecessor2       = New district
|successor2         = [[William Moffat (Alberta politician)|William Moffat]]
|constituency2      = [[Claresholm (provincial electoral district)|Claresholm]]
|term_start3        = November 9, 1905
|term_end3          = March 22, 1909
|predecessor3       = New district
|successor3         = [[Colin Genge]]
|constituency3      = [[Macleod (provincial electoral district)|Macleod]]
|birth_date         = {{birth date|1863|5|31}}
|birth_place        = [[Kincardine, Ontario|Kincardine]], [[Ontario]]
|death_date         = {{Death date and age|1913|3|15|1863|5|31}}
|death_place        = [[Edmonton]], [[Alberta]]
|party              = [[Alberta Liberal Party|Liberal]]
|children           = One son, Malcolm
|residence          = [[Fort Macleod]], [[Alberta]]
|alma_mater         = [[Queen's University at Kingston|Queen's University]]
|occupation         = Lawyer
}}

'''Malcolm McKenzie''' (May 31, 1863 – March 15, 1913) was a Canadian politician who served as a member of the [[Legislative Assembly of Alberta]] and, briefly, as Alberta Provincial Treasurer.

== Early life ==
Malcolm McKenzie was born in [[Kincardine, Ontario|Kincardine]], [[Canada West]], in 1863. He attended [[Queen's University at Kingston|Queen's University]], from which he graduated with a gold medal in philosophy, and then studied for a year in [[Toronto]], Ontario. He came west around 1888 and, after a brief stay in [[Calgary]], [[Northwest Territories|North-West Territories]] (NWT), settled in [[Fort Macleod]], NWT, where he joined the law firm Haultain, McKenzie and McNeill. That firm dissolved when its senior partner, [[Frederick W. A. G. Haultain]], went to [[Regina, Saskatchewan|Regina]] to serve as the first [[Premier of the Northwest Territories]].<ref name="obit">{{cite news |title=Death Calls Provincial Treasurer |work=[[Edmonton Bulletin]] |date=March 15, 1913 |pages=1–2 |url=http://www.ourfutureourpast.ca/newspapr/np_page2.asp?code=n6pp0696.jpg |accessdate=2010-03-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924100703/http://www.ourfutureourpast.ca/newspapr/np_page2.asp?code=n6pp0696.jpg |archive-date=September 24, 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref> McKenzie established another law firm with [[John W. McDonald|John McDonald]] and another lawyer; that firm was called McDonald, Martin and McKenzie.<ref name="newliblead">{{cite news|title=The New Liberal Leader|publisher=The Lethbridge Herald|date=March 28, 1930|work=XXIII |page=1}}</ref>

== Political career ==
McKenzie first sought office in the [[1904 Canadian federal election|1904 federal election]], when he ran as the [[Liberal Party of Canada|Liberal]] candidate in [[Alberta (Provisional District)]]. He was narrowly defeated by [[John Herron (Alberta politician)|John Herron]] of the rival [[Liberal-Conservative Party]].<ref name="1904 results">{{cite web |url=http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Sites/LOP/HFER/hfer.asp?Language=E&Search=Cresdetail&Election=4546 |title=Election results for Alberta (Provisional District), 1904 |publisher=Parliament of Canada |accessdate=2010-03-24}}</ref> When the province of [[Alberta]] was created out of the [[Northwest Territories|North-West Territories]] in 1905, McKenzie then ran in the [[1905 Alberta general election|1905 Alberta election]], the province's first, as the [[Alberta Liberal Party|Liberal]] candidate in [[Macleod (provincial electoral district)|Macleod]], where he handily defeated his two opponents.<ref name="1905 results">{{cite web|url=http://www.abheritage.ca/abpolitics/administration/maps_choice.php?Year=1905&Constit=Macleod| title=Macleod Official Results 1905 Alberta general election | publisher=Alberta Heritage Community Foundation | accessdate=May 21, 2020}}</ref> In the first legislature he, along with most members from the province's south, favoured [[Calgary]] over [[Edmonton]] as the Alberta's permanent capital; his side was out-voted 16 to 8.<ref>Thomas 38</ref> He also proposed the successful name for [[Granum, Alberta|Granum]], located in his district and hitherto known as Leavings Switch; the area around Granum was known as excellent grain land, and "granum" is [[Latin]] for grain.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.placenamesofalberta.ca/300_names_definitions/granum.html |title=Granum |publisher=Friends of Geographical Names of Alberta |accessdate=2010-03-31 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20110706193826/http://www.placenamesofalberta.ca/300_names_definitions/granum.html |archive-date=2011-07-06 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In the [[1909 Alberta general election|1909 election]], McKenzie was re-elected in the new district of [[Claresholm (provincial electoral district)|Claresholm]], by a margin still larger than the one he had achieved in 1905.<ref name="1909 results">{{cite web |url=http://www.abheritage.ca/abpolitics/administration/maps_choice.php?Year=1909&Constit=Claresholm |title=Election results for Claresholm, 1909 |publisher=Alberta Online Encyclopedia |accessdate=2010-03-24}}</ref>  During the [[Alberta and Great Waterways Railway scandal]], he remained loyal to the Liberal government of [[Alexander Cameron Rutherford]]; when that government fell, he transferred his allegiance to the new Liberal government of [[Arthur Sifton]], though several other former Rutherford partisans (including Rutherford himself) opposed the new regime.<ref>Thomas 113</ref> His loyalty was rewarded in May 1912 when Sifton appointed him Provincial Treasurer.<ref>Thomas 125</ref> In keeping with the era's custom, McKenzie responded to the cabinet appointment by resigning his seat in the legislature to contest it in a by-election. Despite his previous wide margins, in 1912 he carried Claresholm by only 14 votes.<ref>Thomas 127</ref><ref name="by-election">{{cite web|title=Past By-Election results |url=http://www.elections.ab.ca/Public%20Website/742.htm |publisher=Elections Alberta |accessdate=2010-03-24 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090607094042/http://www.elections.ab.ca/Public%20Website/742.htm |archivedate=2009-06-07 }}</ref>

McKenzie's tenure as treasurer was not to last long: he caught a chill while attending the convention that nominated him as the Liberals' Claresholm candidate in the [[1913 Alberta general election|1913 election]], and by the time he returned to Edmonton on March 10, 1913, he was sufficiently ill to confine himself to bed. He had developed [[peritonitis]], and died from it early in the morning of March 15, 1913. The Liberal ''[[Edmonton Bulletin]]'', in mourning his passing, said that "no lawyer in the province had such a firm grasp in legal matters. No member of the house performed his legislative duties so admirably and so well. He has left his impression on more legislation than any other member."<ref name="obit" />  He was survived by a wife and one son.<ref name="obit" />

== Electoral record ==
===Provincial elections===
{{1905 Alberta general election/Macleod}}
{{1909 Alberta general election/Claresholm}}
{{1912 Alberta provincial by-elections/Claresholm}}

===Federal elections===
{{1904 Canadian federal election/Alberta (Provisional District)}}

== References ==
* {{cite book |first=Lewis Gwynne |last=Thomas |title=The Liberal Party in Alberta |url=https://archive.org/details/liberalpartyinal0000thom |url-access=registration |year=1959 |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |location=[[Toronto]], [[Ontario]]}}

== Notes ==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mckenzie, Malcolm}}
[[Category:1913 deaths]]
[[Category:Alberta Liberal Party MLAs]]
[[Category:Lawyers in Alberta]]
[[Category:Candidates in the 1904 Canadian federal election]]
[[Category:People from Bruce County]]
[[Category:People from the Municipal District of Willow Creek No. 26]]
[[Category:Queen's University at Kingston alumni]]
[[Category:1863 births]]
[[Category:Members of the Executive Council of Alberta]]
[[Category:Liberal Party of Canada candidates for the Canadian House of Commons]]
[[Category:20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta]]