The King’s Ear

William Lyon Mackenzie King was the grandson of one of Canada’s most famous rebels and heir to our strongest twentieth-­century political brand. Born in 1874, he is best known for his long run as prime minister (twenty-­two years), for his devotion to his mother, Isabel King (mentioned thousands of times in his diaries), and for his “double life,” which included a passion for the occult. He would live until 1950, and many observers credit him as the architect of an independent Canadian foreign policy.

For those who care deeply about Canada’s role on the global stage, Mackenzie King in the Age of the Dictators will be a difficult, uncomfortable read. It attacks conventional wisdom, while delivering an excruciating account of how one of our most dominant political leaders — inheritor of Laurier’s “sunny ways” and mentor of St. Laurent and Pearson — cravenly coddled dictators.

Roy MacLaren — a former diplomat, Liberal cabinet...