The distinguished political scientist, H.S. Ferns, had worked for a time in King's office, and in the 1950s had co-authored a harshly critical book on King's early ambition....In his 1983 memoirs Ferns made a point of correcting the impression "that Canada was governed by a superstitious lunatic":
This is not at all the impression that members of his secretarial staff, observers in the Parliamentary Press Gallery, or members of Parliament had of the Prime Minister at that time. He appeared to us as...a sensitive, clear-headed, political technician with an unrivaled sense of the nuances of Canadian politics. One did not need to agree with Mackenzie King about everything he said or did to acknowledge that he was an extremely able politician. Even his worst enemies paid him the compliment of saying 'Willy is always too clever by half,' and many of them considered it grossly unfair that the Prime Minister had been endowed with better brains, quicker responses, and more guile than themselves. In terms of understanding the political problems of Canada and in knowing what the Canadian people as a whole were willing to accept from a government, Mackenzie King was miles ahead of any of the active participants in politics.
...It will take a long time to rescue the reputation of Mackenzie King from the psychologists and the pornographers, and to leave it to the judgement of those interested in what is truly relevant in the man: his activity as a Canadian politician in a period of extreme political disturbance....
H.S. Ferns quoted in Michael Bliss, Right Honourable Men (HarperCollins: 1994), p. 127-128.
