By Adam Prudhomme
Staff Reporter
A group of local history buffs looking to get a statue of Sir John A. Macdonald installed in Greater Napanee’s Market Square now has town council’s support in their corner.
Deputy Mayor Marg Isbester mentioned the group’s intentions to fundraise for a statue of Canada’s first prime minister at the June 27 council meeting. She made a successful motion that council would support their efforts and listen to a deputation by the group at an upcoming council meeting.
“I know that we looked at this during Sir John’s (200th) birthday and it was just too much money,” said Isbester, who will serve as council’s liaison to the outside group. “But this group has found a sculptor, is willing to fundraise and they’ve been very active. What they need is council’s endorsement.”
Isbester says the process of designing and paying for the statue would be done much in the same way that Picton did their statue. They would have a vote on the final design.
“Once the information and costing and the requirements for infrastructure and everything would be set, they need to know it would be supported by the town and the council,” said Isbester. “I’m not going to say it won’t cost anything. It wouldn’t be done until 2018 when the town could finally designate this to Sir John A. Market Square. To me it would be very fitting.”
The group looking to fundraise for the statue is expected to appear before council with more details either later this month or in August.
Macdonald has plenty of ties to Greater Napanee. He studied as a lawyer in Napanee between 1832 and 1833 and practiced law in town in the 1840s and 1850s. He visited the Allan Macpherson House on several occasions as well as other Napanee establishments such as the Red Lion Inn, the Ramsay Store, the Quackenbush Tavern and the Paisley Hotel, among others. After serving as Canada’s Prime Minister from 1867 to 1873, he returned to this area and successfully ran for MP for Napanee and Lennox in 1881. A plaque outside Napanee’s town hall also denotes it as the site of where he delivered his last political speech on Feb. 25, 1891.
He became ill and never recovered, dying in June of that year at the age of 76. Greater Napanee council renamed the town square after him in 2014.