William Lyon Mackenzie

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William Lyon Mackenzie, the Prime Minister of Toronto and the Leader of the Rebellion in Upper Canada is perceived as both heroic and infamous. In Mackenzie’s speech, The Proclamation to the People of Upper Canada, he is shown to be a strong democratic leader striving for change in the government not only for his own needs but for the people’s needs as well. However, in a political cartoon “Short Fuse”, illustrated by Terry Mosher, Mackenzie is represented as a short-tempered leader, who led his army into an explosive bomb. Both sources have visible differences such as reliability as well as similarities such as a bias perspective.
In The Proclamation, Mackenzie can be represented as having seen the need for change in Upper Canada and was willing to take action to allow for democracy to be present in the government. However in the political cartoon, Mackenzie is depicted as a ticking time bomb, ready to go off at any time. Analysing The Proclamation speech, Mackenzie promised freedom for the people; the freedom of trade, true representation in government through a judiciary, no mandatory military service and the promise of education for every citizen (Lindsay 364-365). Mackenzie was not seen as a God, but a man with valour and bravery as seen through his radical statements. Not only did Mackenzie promise freedom from an oligarchy, but he guaranteed “ a legislature […] chosen by the people […] an executive, to be composed of a Governor elected by public voice” (Lindsay, 364-365). Mackenzie appealed to the people’s desires, which would draw conclusions that Mackenzie was a valiant war and political hero. On the other hand, Terry Mosher, the artist of the political cartoon draws a cartoon of Mackenzie’s head fused into a stick of dyn...

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...econd similarity that can be found between the two sources is their accurate representation of Mackenzie. From different perspectives, Mackenzie can be portrayed as heroic as well as querulous. Even though the similarities between the two sources representing Mackenzie are less obvious then their contrasting views, similarities such as their accuracy and bias perspectives are present.
At first glance analyzing the sources, The Proclamation to the People of Upper Canada, a speech given by Mackenzie, and the political cartoon “Short Fuse”, the differences were easy to spot while the similarities were non-existent. However, while analyzing deeper and more thoroughly the two sources, similarities such as bias perspectives and accurate representations of Mackenzie were almost as evident as the contrasting views on Mackenzie and their reliability between the two sources.

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