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Michael Higgins: John A. Macdonald belongs on his pedestal

Kingston must put statue back for the good of all Canada

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Canada’s first prime minister, John A. Macdonald, the Father of Confederation and the man who built the Canadian Pacific Railway, has been much maligned, slandered, attacked and dethroned in the last several years.

Michael Higgins: John A. Macdonald belongs on his pedestal Back to video

One of the most shameful episodes happened in 2021 when the deluded burghers of Kingston, Ont., Macdonald’s hometown, ordered the removal of his statue from City Park where it had stood for 126 years. It’s been in storage ever since.

On Wednesday, a group of academics, authors and historians will be making the case to the Kingston Heritage Properties Committee that Macdonald should be restored to his pedestal.

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The committee will hear from the Kingston Friends of the Canadian Institute for Historical Education that the original vote to remove Macdonald was unlawful and breached several pieces of legislation.

And an overwhelming number of Kingstonians want him back in his proper place.

A poll by Nanos Research reveals that 71 per cent of people support, or somewhat support, the statue being restored to City Park.

It is to be hoped that the tide is now turning in favour of Macdonald whose reputation has suffered since 2020 when protests about the death of George Floyd in the U.S migrated north and morphed into general complaints about perceived historic injustice. A year later, the backlash against Macdonald increased with the discovery of “anomalies” in the ground at a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C. that led to lurid tales and false reports of a mass grave for children.

Across the country, from Victoria to Montreal to Charlottetown, statues of Macdonald have been  either pulled down or boxed up.

Last year, that trend began to reverse. Since 2020, an 1893 statue of Macdonald outside the Ontario Legislative Assembly has been covered up. In 2025, the legislature decided it was time to release Macdonald from his plywood prison.

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“Violence and acts of vandalism will not be tolerated, and the Legislative Protective Service will actively monitor the statue and grounds,” said Donna Skelly, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, in a statement.

It was a victory for Macdonald and for law and order. City councils like Kingston’s should not cravenly acquiesce to mob rule. Councillors should be taking a more reasoned and reasonable approach to these issues.

History isn’t something that can easily be boxed up and put into storage. Or worse, removed from the public consciousness.

In Britain they have recently announced a redesign of banknotes that will see British wartime leader Winston Churchill ousted from the £5 note, a badger has been suggested as a replacement. The legacy of Churchill is saving the free world from the tyranny of Hitler. A badger’s legacy in Britain is tuberculosis.

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It doesn’t mean questions can’t be asked about these people.

Was Macdonald an architect of the residential school system, a villain who starved the Indigenous population, a corrupt politician, a racist and a genocidal tyrant?  Or was he a great statesman who united French and English Canadians, built the transcontinental railroad, championed women’s rights and stopped America annexing this country?

If we insist on honouring only perfect men then we’ll have no monuments at all. By all means, make the statues have feet of clay, but let us still have the statues. Let’s argue and debate the man who should not be proclaimed too loudly a saint nor denounced too vigorously a sinner.

But the statues, the monuments, the plaques are never about the individuals, they are symbols of something far greater.

Historian, author and journalist Richard Gwyn wrote, “Had there then been no Macdonald there would today be no Canada.”

A statue of Macdonald, or his name on a school, is symbolism, a representation of everything this country means and has gone through to become what it is. It’s not about the personal deeds — good or bad — of a 19th century prime minister.

It means more than that; it’s about before Macdonald and after him.

It means celebrating, commemorating, rejoicing and remembering it all: the First Nations who were originally here; Cabot, Cartier, and Champlain; the War of 1812, Vimy Ridge and Dieppe; Nellie McClung, Harriet Tubman, The Persons Case and Kim Campbell; the Winnipeg General Strike and the Halifax Explosion; peace order and good government and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms; the 170-year search for the Erebus and Terror; Leonard Cohen, The Tragically Hip, Joni Mitchell and Drake; Terry Fox, “Henderson has scored for Canada” and the Stanley Cup as well as Mr. Dressup and the Group of Seven.

And yes, it also means: residential schools; the execution of Louis Riel; the Indian Act; expulsion of the Acadians; the appalling treatment of Chinese railway workers in the 19th century and Japanese internment in the 20th; Robert Pickton and Paul Bernardo as well as Montreal’s École Polytechnique and British Columbia’s Tumbler Ridge.

On Wednesday, it is to be hoped that the Kingston Heritage Properties Committee will put an historical artefact back in its rightful place. Because this isn’t about Macdonald, it’s about Canada.

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