Beheading Canada’s History: The Desecration of Sir John A. Macdonald’s image in the Canadian National Memory
Date
2023-06
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Abstract
The image of Canada’s first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, has rapidly deteriorated. In the 1950s, Macdonald was regarded as one of Canada’s greatest statesmen, where both historiographical and public esteem for him was at its peak. However, in the 1970s the desecration of his image began both in the public square and in contemporary debates about his stature in historiography. No figure in Canadian history has seen as drastic and unforgiving of a decline as Macdonald. Fuelled by growing trends of revisionism, presentism, and “wokeism,” Macdonald’s legacy is being destroyed as Canadian history is increasingly studied through the lens of morality, condemning imperfections and ignoring historical context. As a result, the grievances of contemporary Canada are placed on Macdonald as a way to help Canadians come to terms with the elements of Canada’s foundation that do not fit into the narratives of “progressivism,” “tolerance,” and “multiculturalism.” Macdonald’s image has been inaccurately distorted, questioned, and actively diminished, rendering him guilty of committing many of the injustices in Canada’s history. Today’s Macdonald is often viewed as a racist, genocidal tyrant, reduced to a caricature of his shortcomings and diminished as a drunk. However, movements to reclaim the accurate image of Macdonald are being undertaken. This thesis explores the current debate surrounding Macdonald’s legacy and examines how his image has changed throughout Canada’s history. I ultimately argue that to properly understand Macdonald, the two images that dominate contemporary historiography, one of him as a heroic nation builder and the other of him as a genocidal tyrant, must be examined in historical context and in tandem with one another. While the new, distorted image of Macdonald is loudly and viciously proclaimed, it is not welcomed by many.
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Keywords
Canada, Canadian History, Political Science, Sir John A. Macdonald, Confederation, National Memory
Citation
Walker, K. L. (2023). Beheading Canada’s history: the desecration of Sir John A. Macdonald’s image in the Canadian national memory (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.