He sometimes plagiarized other newspapers, did not attribute direct quotations, and invented misattributed quotations. He also printed information after promising his sources that he would not. Political philosophy and views Political philosophy Mackenzie promoted a wide range of policies but was never the lead advocate on any issue. He believed that a person's political ideas should be shaped by their experience and that politicians should be willing to change their political position on an issue. This belief caused Mackenzie to frequently change the issues for which he advocated and his position on government policy. He constantly disagreed with the province's administrators and refused to compromise, believing political institutions were corrupt. Mackenzie chose his political positions impulsively and replaced rational arguments with energetic actions. Mackenzie's articles in his newspapers favoured radical reform causes. He followed a political theory that believed outlining problems publicly would lead to solutions. He professed in the Colonial Advocate he was a British Whig but became a Jacksonian democrat of the Locofocos faction after meeting Andrew Jackson in 1829. One of Mackenzie's biographers, John Charles Dent, said his policies aligned with Conservative Party policies of the 1880s. John King, Mackenzie's son-in-law, disagreed and stated all Canadian political parties adopted Mackenzie's policies and called him a Liberal. Armstrong described Mackenzie in the 1850s as politically left of the Clear Grits. John Sewell, a biographer of Mackenzie and mayor of Toronto in 1978, said previous biographers described Mackenzie as radical but that current scholars regard him as "an ideologue ranting against the Family Compact". The social causes Mackenzie supported were conservative for their time. He adopted a puritanical outlook towards gambling and prostitution and wanted women to return to an agrarian lifestyle of taking care of the home. He opposed performers coming to York because of their amoral skits and double entendres. Rasporich described his editorials on Jews, Catholics, French Canadians and black people as prejudiced and in opposition to reform causes. According to Armstrong, Mackenzie's views on minority groups depended on their support for his policies; he was not concerned with the social standing of impoverished or oppressed people. The income gap between the richest and poorest people in Great Britain disturbed Mackenzie and he wanted to avoid this disparity in North America. Mackenzie wanted the Canadian colonies to keep the Constitution of the United Kingdom but believed British institutions had to be modified for the Upper Canadian