Doing anything for two decades will garner anyone a reputation, especially in politics. Therefore it comes as little shock that William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canada's longest serving prime minister at 21 years, 7 months and four days - or a grand total of 7826 days - has a reputation for some odd things. Here are five odd things that Rex King is known for.

1. His belief in the afterlife

His penchant for mediums is by far his most famous legacy, and the one most people think of when remembering King. It is widely known that he was firm believer in the afterlife and used mediums to try to communicate with spirits regularly. His most trusted medium was a lady named Rachel Bleany in Kingston, Ontario. Rex visited her right before the 1925 election, which he lost to Arthur Meighen's and resulted in the infamous King-Byng Affair. And when Rex became sick in 1948, there was a stream of mediums into his room to comfort the ailing politician.
King tried to communicate with his late family through seances, keeping detailed records of every seance and communication with the afterlife. While it seems odd now, it wasn't very odd at the time, with many people, including US President Warren Harding and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle also being dedicated spiritualists at that time.
My Aunt Sara runs through Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto regularly and sent me some photos of King's tomb, where he is likely trying to communicate with people from the afterlife.

King's Tomb — King's Burial

Mount Pleasant Cemetery. Photo by Aunt Sara

Tribute to William Lyon Mackenzie King at his burial in Mount Pleasant Cemetery. Photo by my Aunt Sara.

2. His bachelorhood

William Lyon Mackenzie King was Canada's first bachelor prime minister. While he wasn't the only one, with Mackenzie Bowell being a widower during his short reign as PM, it was certainly odd for a prominent politician in this age to be unmarried. It is still considered odd for a leader not to be married, with many details of their personal and family life to be broadcast and used to determine their leadership style. Other bachelor and bachelorette prime ministers include King's successor, R.B. Bennett and token female PM Kim Campbell, who was a divorcee.
Not only was King a bachelor, it seems he had little interest in nurturing any close relations, female or otherwise. He is said to have few friends, trusting the company of his dogs over people.

3. His dogs

While it is not weird to have and be fond of pets, as mentioned in the previous paragraph, King preferred the company of his three dogs to everyone else. He had three Irish Terriers, each of them named Pat - and that is a little odd. He called one "a god-sent little angle in the guise of a dog... a dear little saviour," which shows more than just an admiration, but rather a worship. He also used seances to communicate with his beloved dogs after they passed and fully believed he would see them when he died and his spirit moved to the other side.

4. His superstitions

Going hand in hand with his belief in the afterlife is his belief in superstitions. These played a large role in his personal and professional life, as he apparently would make decisions based on the wagging of his dogs' tails or the pattern in his shaving cream. According to Mental Floss, Rex would check the hands of a clock when anything of significance occurred, believing when the hands were in a certain position, loved ones in the afterlife were looking over him.
King tied a huge significance to the numbers 7 and 17, and to them as a guide in life. As an example, he was born on December 17, and WW2 was declared won on May 7, 1945.
While superstitions seem harmless enough, it is interesting to think that some of Canada's policies from that era were based upon what shape King's shaving cream made in the morning or how energetic his Pat dogs were that day.

5. His political legacy

...in so much as that he didn't leave much of one, considering he was in power for two decades. This comes with the caveat of comparison. He will always be remember in the Canadian political tapestry, but compared to other political heavyweights of his time, King barely makes a mark. Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Hitler, all of whom were leaders of their respective countries at the time made a larger impact on the greater historical realm than Rex King did. It is also rumoured that King had a favourable impression upon his first meeting with Hitler, declaring he was a man who cared greatly for his people, and boy would he be mistaken about that.
And even in Canadian politics, King is remembered as a bland, well-mannered and private leader. People looked to him as a steady hand in turbulent times, including the Great Depression and World War 2. But while he may be remembered as boring and a bad orator, the revelations about his personal life, including his affinity for the afterlife and the company of his dogs, makes him more interesting than what originally met the eye.

Let's leave it on a quote by William Lyon Mackenzie King, which aptly sums up the Canadian reputation as a whole:

Fortunately, the Canadian people in all their habit, are essentially a temperate people.

Man, have we ever lived up to that reputation.