Thousands gathered on the lawn of the Ontario Legislature on this date in 1894 to honour Canada’s first Prime Minister, and Father of Confederation, Sir John A. Macdonald of Kingston as his statue was unveiled. Leading the celebrations was Prime Minister Sir John Thompson.
“May this statue speak to coming generations of the charming personality of the man, his great successful political leadership, his wisdom and his courage,” Thompson told the crowd. “May it speak of the great struggles during which the foundations of this united country laid deep and strong by a master workman, may it speak of one who was great because he loved Canada well and served his empire well, and of whom it was well said in recollection of what he had accomplished for his country and the great example he had set his countrymen; ‘He nothing fears the long tomorrow of the coming years.’"
That statue stands tall and proud once again at Queen’s Park.
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.