William Lyon Mackenzie (1795 1861), journalist and politician, is one Upper Canada's most recognizable historical figures. He represented York County in the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada and was the first mayor of Toronto. At first aligned only with Reformers, he became increasingly more radical, eventualy leading the rebels in the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837. Afterwards he fled to the United States but eventually the parliament of the Province of Canada granted him amnesty. After his return he represented the constituency of Haldimand County in the province's legislature from 1851 to 1858. He published his first newspaper, the Colonial Advocate, in 1824 and continued to publish it weekly into the 1830s. Over its twelve years of publication, Mackenzie explicitly advocated constitutional change for a responsible government that worked for the people. The Advocate was used as a voice for constitutional reform, educating and inspiring citizens to take action against their government. However, besides a newspaper, the Colonial Advocate Press published treatises such as this Catechism of Education. Mackenzie believed education should be available to everyone, not just the elite, so that everyone could benefit. "Political Education consists in a right understanding of the science of Government, the business of which is to increase to the utmost the pleasues, and diminish to the utmost the pains, which men derive from one another ..." (p. 44). Most of each page consists of Annotations and Illustrations which support the author's views. These points make entertaining reading, as they include quotations from sources as diverse as the 1st Annual Report (1829) of the Philadelphia House of Refuge (p. 11), Wiliam Penn's letter to his family (p. 24), John Locke (p. 19), and the Book of Proverbs (p. 5).
