page_title: Angus Lewis Macdonald
section_title: Assessment and legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Angus Lewis Macdonald / Assessment and legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: The Angus L. Macdonald Bridge in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
context_page_description: Angus Lewis Macdonald PC QC, popularly known as 'Angus L.', was a Canadian lawyer, law professor and politician from Nova Scotia. He served as the Liberal premier of Nova Scotia from 1933 to 1940, when he became the federal minister of defence for naval services. He oversaw the creation of an effective Canadian navy and Allied convoy service during World War II. After the war, he returned to Nova Scotia to become premier again. In the election of 1945, his Liberals returned to power while their main rivals, the Conservatives, failed to win a single seat. The Liberal rallying cry, "All's Well With Angus L.," was so effective that the Conservatives despaired of ever beating Macdonald. He died in office in 1954.
  Macdonald's more than 15 years as premier brought fundamental changes. Under his leadership, the Nova Scotia government spent more than $100 million paving roads, building bridges, extending electrical transmission lines and improving public education. Macdonald dealt with the mass unemployment of the Great Depression by putting the jobless to work on highway projects.
context_section_description: Murray Beck writes that Macdonald's political appeal to Nova Scotians may have been even stronger than the legendary Joseph Howe's. Like Howe, Macdonald was a passionate and eloquent leader whose elegantly crafted speeches reflected his wit, wide learning and respect for factual accuracy. Beck writes that by scrupulously fulfilling his campaign promises, Macdonald became known as a leader who always kept his word.
  Macdonald's reputation as the premier who led the province out of the Great Depression rested on his commitment to ambitious government projects such as highway construction and rural electrification. He continued to support highway improvements throughout his career. Two projects that he pushed especially hard for, the Canso Causeway linking Cape Breton Island to mainland Nova Scotia and a suspension bridge spanning Halifax Harbour were completed after his death. The bridge, named in his honour, made it possible to travel between Halifax and Dartmouth without having to board a ferry or drive several kilometres around the Bedford Basin.
  Macdonald consistently called for a more equitable redistribution of wealth, so that poorer provinces such as Nova Scotia, could share fully in Canada's prosperity. Biographer Stephen Henderson writes that Macdonald deserves credit for the introduction, in 1957, of an equalization scheme designed to enable poorer provinces to provide comparable levels of services to their citizens. Macdonald's advocacy of provincial autonomy however, fell victim to the centralizing tendencies of a post-war welfare state in which the federal government increasingly assumed greater control over national social programs.
  Throughout his life, Macdonald maintained ties to his alma mater, St. Francis Xavier University. He received an honorary doctor of laws degree from St. FX in 1946. He served as honorary chair and fundraiser for the university's centennial celebrations in 1953 and raised money to support student research into the early history of the Scots in Nova Scotia. Macdonald suggested that the reading room in a new university library be called the Hall of the Clans. St. FX adopted the idea and decided to name the library in his honour. Thus, when the Angus L. Macdonald Library officially opened on July 17, 1965, 50 coats of arms representing both Scottish and Irish clans adorned the walls of its reading room.
caption: The Angus L. Macdonald Bridge. Macdonald turned the sod to begin construction on March 1, 1952. The bridge opened on April 2, 1955.
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