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Today in Canada’s Political History: Sir John A. Macdonald’s statue unveiled in his home community of Kingston

  • Arthur Milnes

  • October 23, 2022

On this day in 1895 forty per-cent (!) of the population of Kingston, Ontario gathered in a municipal park to witness the unveiling of a statue to their native son, the great Sir John A. Macdonald, the very Father of Confederation, and our nation’s first and founding Prime Minister.

A half-day civic holiday had been declared and farmers, industrial workers, and people from all other walks of life gathered to honour the greatest Canadian Prime Minister (along with Laurier) of them all.

For more than 100 years after the statue unveiling, the site was one of national and local celebration of good citizenship and Canada itself.  Prime Ministers Mackenzie King, Arthur Meighen, R.B. Bennett, John Diefenbaker, Lester Pearson, Paul Martin and John Turner – another was British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin in 1927 – have visited the statue over the decades to pay tribute to Sir John A. Macdonald of Kingston.

In 2021, City Councillors in Kingston had the statue torn down. What they missed, however, in doing so, is the fact that they – temporary local leaders of little historical importance now or in the future (unlike Macdonald) – cannot ever tear down Sir John A. Macdonald’s greatest monument.

It is called Canada itself. caption id="attachment_1311007" align="alignleft" width="347" Statue of Sir John A Macdonald, Kingston/caption Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist.  He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy.  A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.



Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.