William Lyon Mackenzie King was one of Canada's greatest prime ministers, although he did not give a fascinating speech or have an exciting image and only argued that few radical policies. King's opinions were very strong and would not change no matter what. No one could influence King, as evidenced by his leadership during the Great Depression and the 1930 election. When the Great Depression came around 1930, William Lyon Mackenzie King and his government did not respond strongly. Although the depression was obviously evident, King believed that the economic crisis was temporary and that patience was enough to overcome it. It took a while for King to understand how deeply the Depression affected politics. King believed that welfare was a provincial responsibility and no one else's. During the depression, all the provinces wanted to increase the tax in Ottawa, but he did not understand the concept since other provinces were going to use the tax for themselves. King believed it was necessary for the provinces to take initiative and increase their taxes. When the depression bottomed out, many Canadians were unemployed. While Canada changed before his eyes, King's outlook showed no change. In one of his speeches he said: "I submit that there is no evidence in Canada today of an emergency situation which requires anything of this kind." King didn't deal with the depression in the most orderly way, but he was a great liberal leader, he kept liberals united when conservatives were falling apart and new political parties were created to compete for votes. During the depression, King held an election that was one of the most important events to occur middle of paper......, he led Canada during the depression. King was a stubborn man, which led him to lose one of the most important elections in which he gave a speech, the "Five Hundred Speech." People could never impact King; this was both a strength and a weakness for him, which had a huge effect in the 1930 election. Works CitedDuffy, John. Fights of our lives. Toronto: Harper Collins, 2002. Horn, Michiel. Years of despair 1929-1939. Canadian Century Series. Toronto: Grolier Limited, 1986. Levine, Allan. King. Vancouver/Toronto: D&M Publishers, 2011. Neatby, H. Blair. “King, William Lyon Mackenzie.” Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Last edited 2005. Accessed September 25, 2013. http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/king_william_lyon_mackenzie_17E.html. Quinlan, Don, Doug Baldwin, Rick Mahoney and Kevin Reed. The Canadian challenge. Np: Oxford University Press, 2008.