History has often dismissed William Lyon Mackenzie as a comical figure, or as the political hothead who bungled the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837. Former Toronto mayor John Sewell suggests he may actually be the best model this country has ever had of a responsible politician.

In Mackenzie: A Political Biography of William Lyon Mackenzie, Sewell brings the fiery politician to life. He describes his subject's early years in Scotland, speculating about the political experience Mackenzie may have gained during the 1820 uprisings in Glasgow. He tells us about Mackenzie, feisty journalist and publisher of the Colonial Advocate; Mackenzie, first mayor of Toronto, who diligently served the city; Mackenzie, leader of the Rebellion of 1837, a man paradoxically more inclined to discussion than insurrection. Most importantly, he paints a vivid portrait of a passionate champion of a still inchoate idea -- democracy. Throughout, Sewell traces Mackenzie's attempts to grasp and understand the concept of democracy and the obligations it demands of its adherents.

Mackenzie, his political beliefs, and his experiences more than 150 years ago remain relevant to us today. This stimulating and insightful political biography comes from one of Mackenzie's spiritual descendants and a man himself well known as a Toronto reform politician.

JOHN SEWELL served as an alderman on Toronto City Council during the 1970s and was mayor of Toronto from 1978 to 1980. He chaired the Metro Toronto Housing Authority from 1986 to 1988 and the Commission on Planning and Development Reform in Ontario from 1991 to 1993. Sewell wrote an urban affairs column for The Globe and Mail from 1984 to 1986, currently writes for Now, a Toronto weekly, and is the author of Up Against City Hall, Police: Urban Policing in Canada, and the recently published The Shape of the City: Toronto Struggles with Modern Planning.

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