It’s been a rough spell for the once-lauded reputation of Canada’s first Prime Minister. Celebrated as the principal architect of Confederation and the founding of the country, Macdonald has most recently been unfavourably scrutinized for his role in Canada’s less-than-praiseworthy relationship with Indigenous people. Most recently, the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario urged that Sir John A.’s name be removed from schools in the province.
It’s a controversial issue, and it’s one that evokes an emotional reaction on both sides. But this isn’t really about Sir John A. Macdonald. It does mean, however, that as a country, we’ve got some difficult issues that we, collectively, still need to resolve. That we’re having a breathless debate over a figure who’s been dead for more than a century illustrates that fact.
Those issues won’t be solved overnight (or in one column here). In that polarized debate, however, we think Senator Murray Sinclair — the former chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission — offers some valuable food for thought.
When asked about the current Sir John A. controversy, Murray suggested that instead of doing things like removing Macdonald’s name from schools, we should be doing more to recognize and celebrate Indigenous figures in Canada’s history.
“The most important thing that I think we should be looking at is that there are a lot of Indigenous people who have made a positive contribution to this country, to their people and to the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people who have largely been ignored by history and who deserve to be honoured and commemorated just as much, and we should be talking about what to do about them,” he said in a CBC Radio interview last week.
That seems like a logical approach to us. While we don’t see a need to re-write history, there is nothing wrong with providing a broader perspective. As Sinclair also told the CBC, “whether or not we now like it or are prepared to condone it or even continue to commemorate it, the reality is that’s not what reconciliation is all about. Reconciliation is really about trying to find a balance in telling the history of this country.”
In other words, kicking Sir John A. to the historical curb isn’t going to solve today’s problems. We can’t change the past, and we can’t punish those long dead. Painting a more complete picture of Canadian history, however, might move us closer to finding solutions to long-standing issues.