Sadly, we know how it ends: on a street in Ottawa in 1868, a bullet to his head, his skull so damaged that a traditional death mask was not possible. (A cast of his hand was made instead.) The eloquent voice of Thomas D’Arcy McGee was silenced. While admirers tried to keep his story and words alive, his legacy was contentious for some people and then he faded from attention.
We are the real losers in this because McGee’s contribution to the shaping of Canadian values is fundamental to the identity of this country. David Wilson recognizes this and his recent scholarship provides us a brilliant opportunity to renew our knowledge of McGee.
In 2008, Wilson published the first volume of a biography, D’Arcy McGee: Passion, Reason and Politics, 1825–1857. It explored the evolution of McGee’s early ideas as he moved between Ireland, Britain and America. These Atlantic crossings were also intellectual journeys as he shifted from secular Irish revolutionary...
Victor Rabinovitch is a fellow with the School of Policy Studies at Queen’s University.
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