Statue of Limitations

Until recently, Sir John A. Macdonald was among the most honoured Canadians, celebrated as the key founder and long-term prime minister of the confederated, transcontinental nation. Textbooks and biographies sang his praises. His statues studded public places across the dominion, while schools, airports, streets, and highways bore his name.

But much changed during the past two decades as Macdonald came to be redefined as the alleged father of Canadian racism, deemed guilty of hateful rhetoric and genocidal policies toward Indigenous people. Down have come the statues. Buildings and roads have received new names. Macdonald’s sins now replace his accomplishments in textbooks and popular histories. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission endorsed the genocide charge against him, and the Canadian Historical Association disavowed him. Men set up on pedestals as nineteenth-century heroes pay a heavy price, recast as villains for a self-congratulating present. This great...