WARMINGTON: Sir John A. Macdonald will soon be freed from his wooden encasement

Article content

Symbolically imprisoned Sir John A. Macdonald will soon be free from his box.

Tuesday was not just a day fit for a King but for the Father of Canadian Confederation, too. On a day where the King and Prime Minister made it clear Canada’s traditions are back in vogue, it’s fitting the country’s first prime minister was given his proper due, as well.

King Charles’ coming-out party will also go down as the day they finally let Sir John A. Macdonald return from his banishment.

The Ontario government’s Board of Internal Economy voted to remove the hoarding around the “Sir John A. Macdonald statue,” which was erected in 1894, on the front lawn of Queen’s Park once it is cleaned up.

Although this news dropped while the King was delivering the throne speech in Ottawa, the decision was actually made earlier this month. They are talking about restoring Macdonald by summer but like when the Berlin wall came down in 1989, it should happen fast.

Perhaps Canada Day would be fitting.

As Ontario government Speaker Donna Skelly said Tuesday, people can come to the lawn to celebrate Macdonald’s accomplishments or protest them. He was a controversial figure. But there would be no Canada without him and to judge his words or actions from a century and a half ago by today’s standards, is a standard few would ever pass.

It was a different time. History is history. Erasing it, erases the very foundation of a country.

Macdonald’s contribution to Canada was huge and his reputation as a tough negotiator and his admiration for First Nations is well documented.

He respected them. They respected him. He wanted them to have a vote. He wanted them to be educated. He wanted them to be Canadian.

While perhaps well intentioned, in the fullness of time, it’s clear Indigenous people are proud of their heritage and asking someone to give up their culture and traditions was an error in judgement. But in Macdonald’s day, the thinking was different.

Political correctness was many decades away. Cancelling him forever does not help us learn lessons from the past. His body of work was as phenomenal as it was historic. His warts and missteps should be scrutinized but not at the expense of his tremendous achievements and accomplishments.

People seem to get that now.

Hopefully, his hometown of Kingston, his former riding of Victoria, B.C., and other places that removed his likeness, will follow Ontario’s lead, and put back up their statues of him. Perhaps it would be in the interest of justice to also throw out the mischief charges on activist Daniel Tate, who allegedly wrote “free John” on that wooden sarcophagus.

Well intentioned, perhaps it’s time to clean the slate for all actions and mistakes made concerning Sir John A. Macdonald and instead honour his legacy.

This historic day in Ottawa has helped open the door for that. Captains Brian Patterson and Alistair Stark, proud retired members of Canada’s premium infantry regiment, 48th Highlanders, who have met the King before, said he was not only at his best Tuesday but was having the best time.

Perhaps, not since 1866 and again in 1982 has there been a more significant meeting between a Canadian prime minister and a British Commonwealth monarch.

So, it was highly appropriate on the very day that new Prime Minister Mark Carney invited King Charles to present his government’s throne speech in Ottawa, the powers that be at Queen’s Park in Toronto decided it was finally time to remove the boards that have surrounded Macdonald since 2020.

Premier Doug Ford told The Toronto Sun he was pleased to see this vote finally happen. The timing could not have been more perfect.

It was poignant since 159 years ago, Macdonald travelled to London to meet with Queen Victoria to establish the British North America Act making Canada a country. The Scottish-born, Kingston-raised lawyer would be appointed the country’s first prime minister July 1, 1867 and later that summer won Canada’s first election.

In 1982, Queen Elizabeth joined then-prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau in Ottawa for the formal signing of the Constitution Act.

Recommended video

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

Play Video

But when Canada elected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2015, there came a movement to make Canada a post-national state. Throw in the Indigenous residential school scandal in which there were said to be mass graves of First Nation’s children buried on site, there was a fever to lay the blame on Macdonald. He was targeted even though the schools were in place decades before he was prime minister and for a century after.

But the mood is changing in that searches so far have not found mass graves on these sites and U.S. President Donald Trump’s 51st state rhetoric has galvanized the country into a more pro-Canada position. It was heart-warming to see Canada’s Indigenous people playing such a key role in the King’s visit and the King’s clear affection for them.

This feels like a new day in Canada. It’s cool people want to be Canadian again. But you can’t be pro-Canada when you’re hiding your first prime minister.

The good news is — like the statues at Queen’s Park and on Parliament Hill of Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth — soon Sir John A. Macdonald will be out of hiding.