Sir John A. Macdonald by the Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney
November 20, 2008
By the Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney
Sir John A. Macdonald adopted colonial Canada, and as his chief political adversary said on his death,"…without any exaggeration…the life of Sir John Macdonald, from the day he entered Parliament, is the history of Canada."
Sir Wilfrid Laurier’s Commons eulogy was the unanimous view of Canadians then, and time has little diminished his towering place in our history. The Old Chieftain’s powerful definition of the nation speaks across the centuries: "Let us be English, or let us be French, but let us always be loyal, and above all, let us be Canadians." His wisdom about our challenges and our opportunity echo powerfully today. "We are a great country and shall become one of the greatest in the universe. If we preserve it. We shall sink into adversity and insignificance if we suffer it to be broken."
Each generation has the ability to renew Canada and to build a stronger country, to fulfill our obligation to our children – as MacDonald did for us – to bequeath a Canada stronger than we found it. Today people around the world would love nothing more than to be citizens of our strong and humane nation. In 1867, prospects were much bleaker. Thirty years after a failed attempted at union, four million Canadians were scattered across a vast and lonely territory.
It took Macdonald to forge a common purpose and break political deadlock, following six failed governments in as many years. Lord Durham saw only "two nations warring in the bosom of a single state." Sir John’s improbable vision was a prosperous and united country that stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Robert Stanfield, successor to Sir John A. as party leader, and a wry former Premier of Nova Scotia quipped that unity between the disputatious Upper and Lower Canadians was impossible until they had the benefit of Maritime political wisdom to provide stability.
Sir John A. saw his greatest achievement as getting to Confederation. It was only his beginning, however. With it he opened the door to new provinces, new immigrants, and prosperity. He built a system of government based, not on sectarian ideology, but on tolerance and individual freedom.
As Sir John A.’s greatest biographer Donald Creighton observed, that vision was a grand sketch, but it desperately lacked the colour, texture and richness of an established country. As he said, describing Canada in 1886, "The plans, the surveys, the transport routes, the political institutions, the whole machinery of nationalism had all been completed, but the nation itself, the populous nation had not yet come into existence. The meagerness of the accomplishment seemed to be a mocking refutation of the validity of the original design. In the past two years, every circumstance had turned unfavourable. The depression still continued. Immigration had faltered. Most of the Northwest was empty yet and the country was rack with rebellion and cultural conflict."
Macdonald frequently despaired of fulfilling his dream. Our famous regional and political tensions were part of his daily life. The first Canadian Parliament had a Nova Scotia delegation with all but one of the 18 members committed to breaking Confederation. Many New Brunswickers remained skeptical and Newfoundland simply refused to join. Quebec feared for the survival of their language, their culture and their civil law. Macdonald prevailed. First, by maintaining the cohesion and unity of his party that he rightly saw as the institution essential to uniting a fledgling Canada. Second, by forging a party composed of previous opponents, regional antagonists, and personal enemies, now united by a shared vision, he hoped to mirror the nation he was attempting to build. His leadership triumph was to build an institution of men who until his arrival had spent much of their energy in bitter battles.
Sir John A. was a tough and powerful partisan politician, but it was in the service of a generous and open vision of Canada. He named Joseph Howe, the leader of the Nova Scotia block of separatists to the cabinet. He was understood and respected the French majority in Quebec. He listened and accommodated endlessly. In the sometimes dark periods of later years, he was sustained by the party he had created, which remained united and confident, his political bastion.
History ranks Sir John A. a truly great leader, a man who accomplished an historic act of leadership: with his wisdom, his vision and his courage, almost with his own hands, he built a nation. As prime minister, I visited Macdonald’s simple Kingston grave. It was a magnificent June day, the centenary of Sir John A’s death in 1891. I recall being moved by the occasion, by the brilliant uniforms of the famous Old Fort Henry Guard, symbols of the richness of our shared history.
I reflected then – and still do – how can we better honour the debt we owe to Sir John A. Macdonald, Laurier and the other incredible men and women who founded this land? The birthdays of Macdonald and Laurier are now marked officially on the Canadian calendar by Act of Parliament, but we owe them and our country much more. We should start by doing more to instill in our children today, a deeper love and appreciation of the Canada that Macdonald of Kingston devoted his life to building, for us and for them.
