In 1932, King met with Etta Wriedt, a medium from Detroit who had conducted séances for Arthur Conan Doyle. She led several séances for King in February 1932 at the Fulford mansion in Brockville. He was very pleased to have been able to communicate with numerous family members, as well as with Sir Wilfrid Laurier himself. King was convinced that his communications with the departed were genuine, and wrote: “There can be no doubt whatsoever that the persons I have been talking with were the loved ones and others I have known and who have passed away. It was the spirits of the departed.”

Several sources confirm that King visited Smiths Falls for fortune telling sessions. In Smiths Falls: A Social History of the Men and Women in a Rideau Canal Community, 1794-1994, author Glenn Lockwood wrote that in the 1930s, one could “have one’s fortune told by Frances Fitzgerald at 42 Aberdeen Avenue.” Lockwood added that “it was no secret in Ottawa that prime minister Mackenzie King came regularly to Smiths Falls to consult with Frances Fitzgerald.” Further research led me to Reading the Rocks: The Story of the Geological Survey of Canada, 1842-1972 and an interview with Eugene Poitevin, Chief, Mineralogy Division, 1922-56. Poitevin shares a story about a meeting he had with a woman who claimed to have a bag of diamonds:

“Madame, these are quartz crystals, they are not diamonds.” She replied, “I went to Smiths Falls, and there’s a woman that told me that.” I said, “This woman, what does she do?” She said, “She has a [crystal] ball and she looked at me, and she said, that I have in my purse something that will be worth more than all things.” “Well,” I said, “Surely you don’t believe what this woman would say?” “Well,” she says, “Well, little man, if Mackenzie King can go down there and believe her, why can’t I?”

Poitevin would later discover that this was an established fact. The Right Honorable William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canada’s tenth prime minister of Canada, regularly visited the famed fortune teller Frances Fitzgerald in Smiths Falls.

Written by Ted Outerbridge for the Hometown News and shared with the Smiths Falls Digital Archives.