In 2020, a statue of Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada’s founding prime minister, was toppled and decapitated in Montreal. It was the second time the statue had been beheaded; the first had been in 1992; it was periodically vandalized with paint, as well. This time, the city decided not to restore Macdonald’s statue to its pedestal. Montreal isn’t alone—across the country, Sir John A. Macdonald is being purged from public view.
“It’s hard to imagine a reputation being trashed so hatefully, so suddenly, and so thoroughly,” historian Patrice Dutil wrote of Canada’s first prime minister in his new book Sir John A. MacDonald & the Apocalyptic Year 1885, published late last year. Dutil didn’t know it at the time, but the campaign to smear Macdonald goes all the way to the top. New reporting has revealed that the federal government’s Parks Canada Historic Sites and Monuments Board recommended that Macdonald be essentially eliminated from public memory.
“The Board recommended that Sir John A. Macdonald be commemorated by means of information to be made available on the Parks Canada website and that no plaque be erected,” read minutes from a meeting on December 12, 2023. Members concluded that Macdonald is a “polarizing and controversial figure in Canadian history.”
“Given that Macdonald continues to be a polarizing figure, the Board noted the challenge of crafting a statement that views him from multiple perspectives and that there will continue to be a public dialogue about Macdonald’s legacy to present day Canada,” the minutes continued. “The Board then turned to consider whether or not it was appropriate to erect a plaque for Sir John A. Macdonald.” They decided against it.
As Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre put it in response to the news: “It’s very simple: no Macdonald, no Canada. No federal board has the right to cancel the first Prime Minister of our country. Sir John A. Macdonald deserves to be clearly recognized for his role in the foundation of the wonderful country we get to call home.”
But the Board concluded that Macdonald’s gravesite, as well as existing statues, were quite enough of Canada’s founder. Of course, many of those existing statues were toppled, vandalized, or moved during the frequently riotous struggle sessions of the Trudeau years.
The city of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, voluntarily removed its statue after a council vote following five instances of vandalism; it now sits in storage. The Macdonald statue that stood outside City Hall in Victoria, British Columbia, was removed preemptively; the statue in Wilmot, Ontario, was removed after being vandalized with red paint in 2020. The Macdonald statue that stood for 125 years in his hometown of Kingston was removed after vandalism, as was the statue in Regina, Saskatchewan.
The statue at Queen’s Park in Toronto was boarded up in response to vandalism in 2020; it struck me, when I saw it, how much it looked like Canada’s first and third prime minister, who served for a total of 19 years, had been stuffed into a vertical coffin. The statue was finally cleaned up and the hoarding removed last month.
It gets worse. Parks Canada’s reopening of Macdonald’s home in Kingston last year was replete with contemptuous speeches about racism, misogyny, and white supremacy; indeed, it is difficult to tell if Parks Canada regrets the founding of Canada as much as they regret the existence of her founder. Several schools named after Macdonald have been renamed, and the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway along the Ottawa River has been renamed “Kichi Zibi Mikan.”
