CanadaWho was John A. Macdonald?
John Alexander Macdonald was born in Glasgow in 1815 and emigrated with his family to Upper Canada as a child. He practised law in Kingston and entered politics in 1844, becoming a leading Conservative in the Province of Canada. He was the key architect of Confederation in 1867 and became the first prime minister of the new Dominion. He resigned in 1873 over the Pacific Scandal, returned to power in 1878 and governed until his death in 1891. During his governments Canada grew from four provinces to seven and acquired the vast North-West.
Political views
Favoured a strong central government and, early on, a legislative union rather than a loose federation.
Source: biographi.caOpposed extensions of the franchise and the secularisation of the clergy reserves in his early career, as a conservative defender of the British connection.
Source: biographi.caEnacted the high-tariff National Policy to protect Canadian manufacturing from foreign competition.
Source: biographi.caBuilt the Canadian Pacific Railway with large public subsidies to link British Columbia to the east.
Source: biographi.caSuppressed the 1885 North-West Rebellion, after which the Métis leader Louis Riel was hanged.
Source: biographi.caExpanded residential schooling for First Nations children and sought on racial grounds to restrict Chinese immigration.
Source: biographi.caDesigned the Senate as an appointed body to represent the propertied element of Canadian society.
Source: biographi.caSupported the first tariff system of 'incidental protection' for Canadian industry in 1858, a forerunner of the National Policy.
Source: biographi.ca
Legacy
Macdonald is widely credited with creating the Canadian federation, extending it from coast to coast and establishing its national institutions; for generations he was honoured on currency, statues and place names. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography also states that his residential school policies had appalling consequences for Indigenous peoples. The BBC reports that he has been accused of allowing famine and disease among Indigenous communities, and a 2015 national report described the residential school system as cultural genocide. Since 2018 several of his statues have been removed or toppled, while others argue his nation-building record should be remembered alongside these harms.