It is now no longer fashionable to celebrate and commemorate the greatness of Sir John A. Macdonald of Kingston. Our first and founding Prime Minister, he remains, in my view, the greatest First Minister -- along with Sir Wilfrid Laurier -- Canada has ever seen. Or, will ever likely see again.It was on this date in 1891 that Sir John A. died at Earnscliffe, his home in Ottawa. He was 76.For the Canadians of his day, it was seemingly impossible to imagine the young Dominion without Macdonald of Kingston at the helm. As his opponent, Laurier, told a hushed House of Commons in his eulogy of his fallen foe on June 8, 1891, “The life of Sir John Macdonald is the history of Canada.”It remains so today when considering his role in the run-up to Confederation and the quarter century that followed. It was Sir John A.’s vision and skill that took a young nation all the way to the Pacific Coast, defying geography, religion, language and so much more along the way. Through raw political skill, cunning and everything in between, Macdonald had united the Dominion of Canada from sea-to-shining-sea.Those who have now made an ahistorical industry of toppling statues of Macdonald and renaming anything they can find fail to realize how futile, in the end, their campaigns truly are. Macdonald’s greatest monument is one even his critics of today cannot ever tear down. No matter how they may try.It is called Canada.On this day in 1891 our nation lost its Father of Confederation. I will honour him – warts and all -- today and I don’t care who knows it.[caption id="attachment_583607" align="alignleft" width="400"]
Portrait of Sir John A. Macdonald[/caption]Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.
Portrait of Sir John A. Macdonald[/caption]Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.