Commentary What would George Washington say? I can ask, even about modern politics, this July 4 because America’s first president was a man of such studious self-control that his answer, though furiously indignant, would be printable. As a Canadian I should also ask what Sir John A. Macdonald would say about our southern neighbour pondering…

Commentary Happy Dominion Day, from the river to the ends of the Earth. It’s a bit archaic. But it sure beats Canada Day, where they smash statues of Sir John A. Macdonald and lower flags to half-mast because hundreds of bodies weren’t found, but if you say so they want to put you in jail….

Commentary Happy Dominion Day, from the river to the ends of the Earth. It’s a bit archaic. But it sure beats Canada Day, where they smash statues of Sir John A. Macdonald and lower flags to half-mast because hundreds of bodies weren’t found, but if you say so they want to put you in jail….

The editor of a new book examining Canadian history says he wants to challenge the notion that Canada is a “genocidal” nation-state that deserves to have its historical figures cancelled. “Why are we picking on people long dead, as opposed to trying to give them fair treatment or fair understanding and put things into context?” said Mark…

A City of Montreal committee has recommended that a toppled statue of Sir John A. MacDonald not be reinstated. The committee criticized MacDonald for his role in residential schools and said he represented a colonial vision. The statue in downtown park Place du Canada was toppled in August 2020 amid protests calling for the defunding of…

Commentary Many of Canada’s important historical figures have seen their statutes toppled and their names erased from buildings and maps in recent years in an outburst of historical cleansing. Among the victims: Sir John A. Macdonald, Egerton Ryerson, Sir Hector-Louis Langevin, and Samuel de Champlain, all former heroes and nation builders. Whatever good these dead…

Commentary I used to think it was a pretty good thing to be a Canadian. I could see that I lived in a free country, relatively free of violence. The people were prosperous but full of community spirit and charitable to those less well off. We weren’t the kind of country that picked fights but…

Commentary This is Part 5 of a multi-part series examining Macdonald’s legacy. Previous parts can be found in the following links: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4. Up until the last several decades, Western historians took considerable satisfaction in recounting stories about people who strove to become better over time. Teachers were…

Commentary This is Part 4 of a multi-part series examining Macdonald’s legacy. Previous parts can be found in the following links: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. When a handful of sparsely populated British colonies in the northwest corner of the vast American continent came together in 1867, few informed observers of world affairs thought…

Commentary This is Part 2 of a multi-part series examining Macdonald’s legacy. Click here for Part 1.  Throughout the annals of history, countless pieces of art, sculpture, architecture, literature, drama, and poetry have been dedicated to the memory of respected forebears seen to have been vital to the advancement of a particular family, tribe, nation, or…