In April of 1934, Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King met with Homer and Phoebe Watson at the siblings’ home in Doon. The meeting between them was regarding the upcoming Oxford South by-election, but they weren’t having a traditional discussion about politics. Instead, the group decided to see if they could get a peek at the future results using supernatural means.
As spiritualists, Homer Watson and Mackenzie King believed in the power of séances, and that messages from the spirit world contained important information. That evening, they “tried the table”[1] and allegedly summoned the spirit of the then-recently deceased M.P. Lawrence Alexander Wilson while “Miss [Phoebe] Watson made the notes.”[2] Wilson had been appointed to the Senate of Canada in 1930 and died on March 3rd, 1934. During the séance, they believed the ghost predicted that the liberal party would win the election by 1600 votes.
Wilson wasn’t the only politician King attempted to contact, and the following evening he held another séance to contact Sir Wilfrid Laurier – who apparently gave him an even grander margin of victory:
“Question: Sir Wilfrid Laurier is it – Yes – Glad to be here tonight. Look out for a big majority tomorrow – Gag the Tories. Question: How big a majority do you think we will get? – 1800.”[3]
It was, however, the original prediction from the supposed spectre of Wilson that came true, and the liberals did in fact win by approximately 1600 votes. This prediction further cemented Homer Watson’s belief in the existence of the spirit world and wrote to King afterwards that he was “delighted to see [King] had such psychic power.”[4]
King continued to use divination techniques like séances and tealeaf reading for election predictions multiple times, though he didn’t often have the same amount of success as the prediction from the spirit of M.P. Wilson.
The Watsons and King remained friends for many years and continued to bond over art and spiritualism. King received two Homer Watson paintings, Moonlit Stream and Evening Moonrise, which were displayed in his bedroom at Laurier House in Ottawa. He treasured the works and saw the mystical, ethereal quality of the art as a reminder of their shared spiritual experiences.
[1] Anton Wagner, “The Spiritualist Prime Minister: Mackenize King and the New Revelation Vol. 1”, 2024 (Surrey: White Crow Books), 138.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid., 139.
[4] Ibid., 186.
