John A. Macdonald

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Sir John Alexander Macdonald (11 January 1815 – 6 June 1891) was the first prime minister of Canada (1867–1873, 1878–1891).

The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, he had a political career which spanned almost half a century. Macdonald was born in Scotland; when he was a boy his family immigrated to Kingston in the Province of Upper Canada (today in eastern Ontario).

As a lawyer he was involved in several high-profile cases and quickly became prominent in Kingston, which elected him in 1844 to the legislature of the Province of Canada.

By 1857, he had become premier under the colony's unstable political system. In 1864, when no party proved capable of governing for long, Macdonald agreed to a proposal from his political rival, George Brown, that the parties unite in a Great Coalition to seek federation and political reform.

Macdonald was the leading figure in the subsequent discussions and conferences, which resulted in the British North America Act, 1867 and the birth of Canada as a nation on 1 July 1867.

Macdonald was the first Prime Minister of the new nation, and served 19 years; only William Lyon Mackenzie King served longer. In 1873, he resigned from office over the Pacific Scandal, in which his party took bribes from businessmen seeking the contract to build the Canadian Pacific Railway.

However, he was re-elected in 1878, continuing until he died in office in 1891.

Macdonald's greatest achievements were building and guiding a successful national government for the new Dominion, using patronage to forge a strong Conservative Party, promoting the protective tariff of the National Policy, and completing the railway.

He fought to block provincial efforts to take power back from the national government in Ottawa.

His most controversial move was to approve the execution of Métis leader Louis Riel for treason in 1885; it alienated many francophones from his Conservative Party.

He died in 1891, still in office; he is respected today for his key role in the formation of Canada. Macdonald remains a controversial figure in Canadian Politics.

He is criticized for his role in the Chinese Head Tax in Canada and the Canadian Pacific Railway Scandal.

However, historical rankings have consistently placed Macdonald as one of the highest rated Prime Ministers in Canadian history.

Early years, 1815–1830

John Alexander Macdonald was born in Ramshorn parish in Glasgow, Scotland, on January 10 (official record) or 11 (father's journal) 1815. His father Hugh, an unsuccessful merchant, had married John's mother, Helen Shaw, on October 21, 1811. John Alexander Macdonald was the third of five children. After Hugh's business ventures left him in debt, the family immigrated to Kingston, in Upper Canada (today the southern and eastern portions of Ontario), in 1820, as the family had several relatives and connections there.

The family initially lived together, then resided over a store which Hugh Macdonald ran. Soon after their arrival, John's younger brother James died from a blow to the head by a servant charged with taking care of the boys. After Hugh's store failed, the family moved to Hay Bay (south of Napanee, Ontario), west of Kingston, where Hugh unsuccessfully ran another shop. In 1829, his father was appointed as a magistrate for the Midland District. John Macdonald's mother was a lifelong influence on her son, helping him in his difficult first marriage and remaining influential in his life until her 1862 death.

Macdonald initially attended local schools. When he was aged 10, his family gathered enough money to send him to Midland District Grammar School in Kingston. Macdonald's formal schooling ended at 15, a common school-leaving age at a time when only children from the most prosperous families were able to attend university. Macdonald later regretted leaving school when he did, remarking to his secretary Joseph Pope that if he had attended university, he might have embarked on a literary career.

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Legal career, 1830–1843

After leaving school, Macdonald's parents decided he should become a lawyer. "The law was a broad, well-trodden path to glory and esteem, even to power," wrote Dominic Creighton (who penned a two-volume biography of Macdonald in the 1950s). "The obvious option for a boy who seemed to be attracted to study as well as being uninterested in trade." Since his father's businesses were failing, Macdonald needed to start earning money right away to help his family. "I had no boyhood," he yelled many years later. "I began earning my own money from the age of 15."

Macdonald travelled by steamboat to Toronto (known as York until 1834), where he took an examination administered by The Law Society of Upper Canada. In 1830, British North America had no law schools; students were tested at the start and end of their tutelage; They were apprenticed or articled to well-known attorneys at either of the two examinations. Macdonald began his apprenticeship with George Mackenzie, a well-known young lawyer who was a prominent member of Kingston's expanding Scottish population. Mackenzie obtained a corporation license, a lucrative area that Macdonald himself would later pursue. Macdonald was a promising student and was in charge of the Mackenzie office during his employer's business trip to Montreal and Quebec in Lower Canada in the summer of 1833 (today, the southern portion of Quebec's province). Macdonald was sent by the end of the year to manage the law office of a Mackenzie cousin who had fallen ill.

George Mackenzie died of cholera in August 1834. Macdonald stayed at the cousin's law office in Hallowell, Ontario, despite his supervising lawyer's death. (Today, Picton, Ontario). Macdonald, 1835, returned to Kingston, but even though he was not old nor qualified, he began his career as a lawyer, eager to please his former employers. The parents and sisters of Macdonald's returned to Kingston.

Macdonald was summoned to the Bar in February 1836 and he arranged to take in two students; both were called Fathers of Confederation, like Macdonald. Oliver Mowat, the premier of Ontario, and Alexander Campbell, the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, were among the federal cabinet ministers and Lieutenant Governor of Ontario. Eliza Grimason, an Irish immigrant then aged 16, was one of the first shoppers to ask for information about a store she and her husband wanted to buy. Grimason will be one of Macdonald's richest and most loyal followers, and he may have also become his lover. Macdonald has worked with many local businesses in the hopes of making themselves known in the area. He also sought out high-profile lawsuits representing convicted child rapist William Brass. Brass was sentenced to prison for his offences, but Macdonald's defense received accolades from the public. Richard Gwyn, one of his biographers, says he's the author of one of his biographers.

Both male Upper Canadas aged 18 to 60 were active members of the Sedentary Militia, which was called to active service during the 1837 Rebellions. Macdonald served as a private in the 3rd Frontenac Militia, patrolling Kingston, but the town saw no real action, and Macdonald was not allowed to fire on the enemy.

Macdonald's private secretary, Sir Joseph Pope, recalled Macdonald's account of the 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion.

Although the bulk of the trials resulting from the Upper Canada Rebellion took place in Toronto, Macdonald was one of the plaintiffs in the one trial that was held in Kingston. Both of the Kingston prosecutors were cleared, and a local newspaper characterized Macdonald as "one of the province's youngest barristers [who] is quickly rising in his field."

Macdonald's in late 1838 decided to instruct one of a group of American raiders who had crossed the border to liberate Canada from what they saw as British colonial oppression. The invaders had been captured after the Battle of the Windmill near Prescott, Upper Canada, where they had been captured. Public opinion against the prisoners had risen as a result of the accusation of mutilating the body of a deceased Canadian lieutenant. Since the prisoners were tried by court-martial and civilian counsel had no standing, Macdonald was unable to represent them. Macdonald, the paymaster of the ill-fated invasion of Kingston, agreed to advise George, who, like the other prisoners, must defend himself. George was found guilty and hanged. "By 1838, Macdonald's position was secure," Macdonald biographer Donald Swainson said. He was a public figure, a well-known young man, and a senior prosecutor."

Although being appointed director of several businesses, mainly in Kingston, Macdonald continued to develop his career. Macdonald joined the Midland District as both a director and a lawyer. Macdonald's investment in real estate, including commercial properties in downtown Toronto, soared in the 1840s. Meanwhile, he was suffering from some disease, and his father died in 1841. In early 1842, he became sick and mourning and decided to take a long holiday in Britain. He was apprehensive about his trip and was winning a large sum of money when he departed from the card game loot and losing heavily. Isabella Clark, his first cousin, met him in the United Kingdom for about two months. The circumstances of their meeting are uncertain as Macdonald did not mention her in his letters home. Isabella and her sister went to Kingston in late 1842 to visit with a brother. The visit lasted more than a year before John and Isabella Macdonald married on September 1, 1843.

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