Fresh Old Ideas

Arnold Malone

There are too many well intentioned yet misguided people with an imagined disgrace about our early leaders, and who want to expunge their names forever. 

If history was left to them, they would erase those names from schools, public buildings, parks, roadways or any other venue. All in the name of a false purity. They preach about a single objection while ignoring the conditions of the time and the overwhelming good that these amazing leaders provided.

Sir John A. MacDonald has been the primary victim of this nonsense. Across Canada, nine out of 10 statues of MacDonald have been pulled down or otherwise removed.

Sir John A. was the main architect of the BNA Act which, 158 years later, still provides the core content of our constitution.

MacDonald addressed parliament on April 27, 1885 and offered a rare view advocating that women were persons. He stated, “I am strongly of the opinion, and have been for a good many years, and I hope that Canada would have the honour of first placing women in the position she is certain, and eventually, after centuries of oppression, obtain.” 

He then offered that women should be considered as persons and have the right to vote. The opposition was strong. It took another 44 years for that desire to be realized.

Sir John A. granted voting rights to Indian persons on the same conditions as applied to other British subjects. MacDonald stated that he wanted Indian males to have influence over the laws that would affect them. Then, in 1898 a new Prime Minister, Wilfrid Laurier, rescinded MacDonald’s legislation.

Sir John A. granted the right to vote to black persons living in Canada under the same conditions as all other British subjects.

MacDonald tripled the size of Canada with the most ambitious internal project that Canada has ever undertaken —the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway. That railway prevented an important part of the west from being over-taken by the United States. Imagine building a railway across risky territory while the taxpayers from Ontario to the Atlantic believed there was nothing in the west worth saving.

The major attacks on MacDonald are about the residential school system. MacDonald in a speech stated, “The buffalo are gone, if we do not educate the Indians, they will starve to death.”

During MacDonald’s years in office most Indian schools were day schools without compulsory attendance. What he is now being attacked for is the results of amending legislation during the leadership years of R. B. Bennett in 1930 and William Lyon Mackenzie King in 1933.

Against strong parliamentary opposition, our first prime minister provided food aid for the First Nations people.

It wasn’t just MacDonald’s views that should be considered since the House of Common’s support on Indian legislation was near total.

Mr. Piasetzki wrote in the National Post on July 2, 2023, “John A. MacDonald saved more Indian lives than any other prime minister.” 

MacDonald, against considerable opposition, advocated and delivered vaccinations against smallpox before and after confederation. He saved a huge number of Indigenous lives.

Consideration should also be given for Dundas, Ryerson, Brant, Bishop, Grandin, Sifton and others. If persons were one-time honoured for their contributions, we better not be hunting for an imagined flaw to magnify and exploit. New found values ought not demean an earlier time.

The residential schools, operated by religious institutions, did cause generational harm but that misery cannot be pinned on MacDonald. Given the slow system of communication in the 1880s, how sure are we that MacDonald was aware of what was actually happening in those far-away schools?

Some people won’t like this article but history has been recorded and facts must not be altered to assist an argument.