[BRIEF NOTE] On the 200th anniversary of the birth of John A. MacDonald
Yesterday, Sunday the 11th of January, Stephen Harper led Canada in celebrating the bicentenary of the birth of John A. MacDonald, Canada's first prime minister.
Stephen Harper paid tribute to the country's first prime minister Sunday, marking the 200th anniversary of the birth of Sir John A. Macdonald by saying the Scots-born politician "forged Canada out of sheer will."
"Never forget, there was nothing certain or inevitable about what Macdonald and his fellow fathers of Confederation accomplished. It was in fact remarkable," Harper told a room full of dignitaries - including two former prime ministers - under tight security at the historic city hall in Kingston, Ont.
"Without Sir. John A. Macdonald, Canada as we know it - the best country in the world - simply would not exist," Harper said to applause.
Macdonald's political career as a Kingston alderman began the year the cornerstone of Kingston City Hall was laid, 1843, and after his death the first prime minister of Canada lay in state in the same room where Harper delivered his remarks.
Harper called Macdonald "a shining example of modesty, hope and success," that mirrors the country itself.
In April of last year I shared a photograph I took in 2003 of the statue of MacDonald standing in his adopted hometown of Kingston. I'd mentioned at the time that, as Canada approached the bicentennial of his birth, MacDonald was becoming a subject of controversy.
This statue stands outside of Queen's Park, home of Ontario's Provincial Parliament here in Toronto.
These photos I took in 2012, standing outside of Parliament Hill in Ottawa in the middle of a scorching drought.
The National Post's Tristin Hopper defends John A. MacDonald against his critics by arguing that his racism was normative.
In 1887, the first of Vancouver’s many anti-Chinese riots had just broken out when Sir John A. Macdonald stood up in the House of Commons to propose further measures to keep out the Chinese.
The Chinese took white jobs, he said. The Chinese would breed a “mongrel” race in British Columbia and threaten the “Aryan” character of the Dominion. Altogether, the prospect of having white working classes living alongside Chinese could lead only to “evil.”
But in an odd aside, Macdonald admitted that he was supporting the policy largely because he was running a country full of racists.
“On the whole, it is considered not advantageous to the country that the Chinese should come and settle in Canada,” said Macdonald. “That may be right or it may be wrong, it may be prejudice or otherwise, but the prejudice is near universal.”
Although they were laying the groundwork for one of the world’s most tolerant nations, the Canadians of 1867 largely took white supremacy for granted. Blacks were barred from staying in Toronto hotels. The average British Columbian saw Asians as a threat to racial purity. And almost everybody was fine with the expectation that the native way of life would soon be extinct.
On Sir John A. Macdonald’s 200th birthday, the country’s founding prime minister has no shortage of critics to deem him a racist, a colonizer and a misogynist. They’re right on all counts, but the man who founded Canada was the product of an age that made Archie Bunker look like Mohandas Gandhi.
Others disagree.
Stephen Harper paid tribute to the country's first prime minister Sunday, marking the 200th anniversary of the birth of Sir John A. Macdonald by saying the Scots-born politician "forged Canada out of sheer will."
"Never forget, there was nothing certain or inevitable about what Macdonald and his fellow fathers of Confederation accomplished. It was in fact remarkable," Harper told a room full of dignitaries - including two former prime ministers - under tight security at the historic city hall in Kingston, Ont.
"Without Sir. John A. Macdonald, Canada as we know it - the best country in the world - simply would not exist," Harper said to applause.
Macdonald's political career as a Kingston alderman began the year the cornerstone of Kingston City Hall was laid, 1843, and after his death the first prime minister of Canada lay in state in the same room where Harper delivered his remarks.
Harper called Macdonald "a shining example of modesty, hope and success," that mirrors the country itself.
In April of last year I shared a photograph I took in 2003 of the statue of MacDonald standing in his adopted hometown of Kingston. I'd mentioned at the time that, as Canada approached the bicentennial of his birth, MacDonald was becoming a subject of controversy.
This statue stands outside of Queen's Park, home of Ontario's Provincial Parliament here in Toronto.
These photos I took in 2012, standing outside of Parliament Hill in Ottawa in the middle of a scorching drought.
The National Post's Tristin Hopper defends John A. MacDonald against his critics by arguing that his racism was normative.
In 1887, the first of Vancouver’s many anti-Chinese riots had just broken out when Sir John A. Macdonald stood up in the House of Commons to propose further measures to keep out the Chinese.
The Chinese took white jobs, he said. The Chinese would breed a “mongrel” race in British Columbia and threaten the “Aryan” character of the Dominion. Altogether, the prospect of having white working classes living alongside Chinese could lead only to “evil.”
But in an odd aside, Macdonald admitted that he was supporting the policy largely because he was running a country full of racists.
“On the whole, it is considered not advantageous to the country that the Chinese should come and settle in Canada,” said Macdonald. “That may be right or it may be wrong, it may be prejudice or otherwise, but the prejudice is near universal.”
Although they were laying the groundwork for one of the world’s most tolerant nations, the Canadians of 1867 largely took white supremacy for granted. Blacks were barred from staying in Toronto hotels. The average British Columbian saw Asians as a threat to racial purity. And almost everybody was fine with the expectation that the native way of life would soon be extinct.
On Sir John A. Macdonald’s 200th birthday, the country’s founding prime minister has no shortage of critics to deem him a racist, a colonizer and a misogynist. They’re right on all counts, but the man who founded Canada was the product of an age that made Archie Bunker look like Mohandas Gandhi.
Others disagree.