King mastered the necessities as well as the niceties of working with people in politics. He had no hesitation about surrounding himself with powerful Cabinet ministers, the strongest and ablest men he could find (there was never a woman in a King cabinet; there were still hardly any in Parliament). He was better than either Macdonald or Laurier at working with powerful personalities, knowing how to delegate authority in Cabinet, knowing when to massage bruised egos, when to defer to better judgment, when to overrule, and...when to fire. Aging leaders usually lose touch with the young and like to surround themselves with sycophants. Macdonald, Laurier, and possibly Trudeau had that tendency. Incredibly, King's Cabinets got stronger as he got older. Some of the ministers occasionally resisted him on points of high principle; he fought back and always won. When he left office he engineered a smooth transition of power to one of the most competent Cabinets in Canadian history. By comparison with this consummate professional, Meighen and most of King's other opponents were rank amateurs.
Michael Bliss, Right Honourable Men (HarperCollins: 1994), p. 140.
