John A. Macdonald/Quotes

Sir John A. Macdonald (11 January 1815 - 6 June 1891) was the first Prime Minister of Canada. He served from 1867-1873, and again from 1878-1891.
==Dated quotes==
=== 1860s===
*"I am like those who hear me, a Canadian heart and soul. I heard the gallant officer who returned thanks for the army and navy say he was. That, I believe, is the feeling that exists in every breast here; and though I have the misfortune, like my friend the adjutant-general, to be a Scotchman, still I was caught young and was brought to this country before I was very much corrupted."
**Speech in St. Thomas, Upper Canada, November 1861John A.: The Man Who Made Us: 1815 - 1867 - Richard Gwyn - Random House Canada - Page 298
*"Since I was five years old, I have been in Canada. All my hopes and dreams and my remembrances are Canadian; not only are my principles and prejudices Canadian but what, as a Scotchman, I feel as much as anyone else, my interests are Canadian."
**Speech in St. Thomas, Upper Canada, November 1861
*“If I had influence over the minds of the people of Canada, any power over their intellect, I would leave them this legacy: ‘Whatever you do, adhere to the Union. We are a great country, and shall become one of the greatest in the universe if we preserve it; we shall sink into insignificance and adversity if we suffer it to be broken.’”John A. Macdonald’s 200th Birthday - 11 January 2015 - Advocates for the Rule of Law - Retrieved 5 September 2020
**From a speech in 1861.The Sir John A. Macdonald Historical Society - Register of Arms, Flags and Badges - 20 August 2010 - The Governor General of Canada - Retrieved 5 September 2020
*"Abe Lincoln, beast as he is, should be elected."
**A joking reference to the incumbent President of the United States, from a letter in November 1864.John A.: The Man Who Made Us: 1815 - 1867 - Richard Gwyn - Random House Canada - Page 242
===1870s===
* "The sight of the immense masses of timber passing my windows every morning constantly suggests to my mind the absolute necessity there is for looking at the future of this great trade. We are recklessly destroying the timber of Canada, and there is scarcely a possibility of replacing it. The quantity of timber reaching Quebec is annually decreasing, and the fires in the woods are periodically destroying millions of money. What is to become of the Ottawa region generally, after the timber is cut away, one cannot foresee. It occurs to me that the subject should be looked in the face and some efforts made for the preservation of our timber."
**Letter to Premier of Ontario John Sandfield Macdonald, 22 June 1871
*"When fortune empties her chamberpot on your head, smile  --  and say ‘we are going to have a summer shower.’"
**ca. 1875Biography - The Right Honourable Sir John Alexander Macdonald - Library and Archives Canada - Retrieved 7 October 2024 - Archived 13 December 2019 
===1880s ===
*"... Canada should have the honour of first placing woman in the position that she is certain, after centuries of oppression, to obtain... of completely establishing her equality as a human being and as a member of a society with man."
**Debating the Canadian Franchise Act, 1885, 27 April 1885.Nation Maker: Sir John A. Macdonald: His Life, Our Times Volume 2: 1867 - 1891 - Richard Gwyn - Random House Canada - Page 521
*"The object I had in extending the privilege of the franchise to the Indians was to put them on a footing of equality with their white brethren. I considered that it was unjust to the original owners of the soil to be prevented from aiding in the election of men who would represent their interests in Parliament. The Franchise Act has now been in power for a year, and the Indians must see that their treaty rights have not been in the slightest degree affected since it became law. You may answer to our Indian friends from me, as Superintendent general of Indian affairs, that the Franchise Act does not in any way affect or injure the rights secured to them by treaty or by the laws relating to the Red men of the Dominion. They may vote with perfect security... I hope to see some day the Indian race represented by one of themselves on the floor of the House of Commons." 
** Letter to Dr. Peter Edmund Jones, 31 August 1886.Macdonald's Relationship with Aboriginal Peoples - Donald B. Smith - Macdonald at 200: New Reflections and Legacies - Edited by Patrice Dutil and Roger Hall - Dundurn Press - Page 79
Nation Maker: Sir John A. Macdonald: His Life, Our Times Volume 2: 1867 - 1891 - Richard Gwyn - Random House Canada - Page 420
===1890s=== 
*"I overworked myself during the campaign and forgot I was 76 and more; hence prostration, from which I am only now recovering." 
**Letter to Sir George Stephen, 31 March 1891.The Correspondence of Sir John Macdonald - Edited by Sir Joseph Pope - 1921 - Doubleday, Page & Company - Page 485
==Undated Quotes==
*"There should be no reason why the red man... should not have the same privileges as the British subjects either White or Black."
**Letter to a correspondent.Nation Maker: Sir John A. Macdonald: His Life, Our Times Volume 2: 1867 - 1891 - Richard Gwyn - Random House Canada - Page 529
*"We cannot as Christians, and as men with hearts in our bosoms—allow the vagabond Indian to die before us." 
**Speaking in ParliamentAn Anecdotal Life of Sir John Macdonald - Emerson Bristol Biggar - John Lovell & Son - Page 176
*"Let us be English and let us be French... Above all, let us be Canadians."
**Date and context unknown to this wiki.Full Circle: Death and Resurrection In Canadian Conservative Politics - Bob Plamondon - 2006 - Key Porter Books - Chapter 2 - Section: Sir John A. Macdonald
==Quotes about Macdonald==
=== 1870s===
*"The P.M. of the Dominion of Canada arrived yesterday & departed by early train this morning... He is gentlemanlike, agreeable, and very intelligent: a considerable man, with no Yankeeisms except a little sing-song occasionally at the end of his sentences… By the bye, the Canadian Chief is said to be very like your humble servant, tho’ a much younger man. I think there is a resemblance."
**Benjamin Disraeli, in a letter to a friend on 2 September 1879, after a visit by Macdonald to Hughenden Manor.The Canadian Disraeli — When Sir John A. met Lord Beaconsfield - Michel Pharand - 16 May 2014 - The National Post - Retrieved 24 September 2020Macdonald, 'a considerable man,' visits Disraeli - Sir John Major - 2 June 2014 - The Kingston Whig-Standard - Retrieved 24 September 2020
===1890s===
* "Sir John Macdonald gave me the impression of being a shrewd leader, a master of the craft of politics, and a man of wide knowledge. He has wonderful shrewdness, wonderful shrewdness."
** Sir Henry Parkes, circa 1890, recalling his 1882 visitSIR HENRY PARKES IN CANADA - 10 March 1882 - The Argus - Retrieved 24 September 2020 to Ottawa.MAKERS OF CONFEDERATION: SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD AND SIR HENRY PARKES - Gilbert Parker - 21 March 1891 - Black and White - Page 203
*"Like President Lincoln, Sir John was an example of the men who are most thoughtful, and yet most cheerful; who perhaps could not carry the heavy burdens of care, had they not a merry heart to keep them." 
** Senator John Boyd, ca. 1891Anecdotal Life of Sir John Macdonald - Emerson Bristol Biggar - John Lovell & Son - Published 1891 - Page 324 - Retrieved 1 January 2022
===1920s===
*"Speaking of Sir John Macdonald it is somewhat curious that though he was for years my chief stock in trade in the cartoon line, I only met him personally on one occasion. This was a brief interview in the Parliament Building at Ottawa brought about through the kindness of Senator J. B. Plumb. The quality in the great leader which impressed me most during those few minutes was his air of shrinking bashfulness!"
**John Wilson Bengough, 1922BENGOUGH'S CHALK-TALKS - Project Gutenberg - Retrieved 20 June 2021
=== 2000s===
*"I still think he was our greatest prime minister. He was a rousing stump speaker; he was riveting in Parliament. He understood, as few people have, the relationship between our two founding peoples. He reached out to Lower Canada, now Quebec, and he made it happen. He also understood our need to remain independent beside the then-overwhelming military power of the United States, now the military, economic and political power of the United States, and he launched his National Policy. In other words, he understood the fabric of the country and our need to remain sovereign and independent from the United States."
**Bob Rae, circa January 2002.Time to honour a national hero - John Turner - 12 January 2002 - The Globe and Mail - Retrieved 24 September 2020
=== 2010s ===
*"The new criticism that Macdonald was a racist is really about the present, not the past. Today, large numbers of Canadians are, justifiably, disgusted by the botch we have made in our relations with aboriginals and are outraged by the appalling treatment, including sexual abuse, of native students in residential schools. In effect, Macdonald is now a scapegoat so that guilt for misdeeds done in one way or other by all Canadians can be transferred to him alone. He does fit that role. He did make mistakes. He did say things that are now shocking but back then were everyday comments — as did Winston Churchill about the people of India and as did Tommy Douglas about euthanasia, which he once advocated. Best of all, he died long ago."
**Richard Gwyn, 9 January 2015Sir John A. Macdonald, the greatest PM of all - Richard Gwyn - 9 January 2015 - The Toronto Star - Retrieved 24 November 2020
*"Before we dismiss Sir John A. as nothing but a racist (an article in the current Walrus absurdly links him to Nazism), we must set these issues within a political career lasting half a century. Macdonald staked that career on persuading the largest groups in 19th-century Canada – French and English, Catholic and Protestant – to accept each other and live together as equals within a single state. Given their bitter mutual antagonism, this required statesmanship of the highest order."
**Author and novelist Roy MacSkimming, 9 January 2015Visionary patriot or hateful embarrassment? The John A. Macdonald debate - 9 January 2015 - The Globe and Mail - Retrieved 22 December 2021
* "Rosalynn and I join with Kingstonians and all Canadians because Sir John A. not only established a great nation in 1867,  but also bequeathed a firm partner and friend that my own fellow citizens and our leaders have relied upon ever since. One of the highlights of my own Presidency was the brave role that Canada’s Ambassador to Iran Ken Taylor and his wife and colleagues played in bringing six American hostages home to safety in early 1980. From Sir John A.’s time onward, Canada and the United States have continued to build a relationship based on peace, mutual prosperity and progress. This relationship between two sovereign countries is an example for the world. We have only to look at a map to realize the daunting challenges Macdonald and the other Canadian Fathers of Confederation faced in forging Canada as one. From Atlantic to Pacific and north toward the Arctic, Canada’s geography must have seemed endless at the time. In between, the citizens of British North America were divided by race, language, geography and religion. To the south of you, our Civil War raged. Unity must have seemed an impossible dream. It took political skill, passion, and vision to accomplish the Canadian dream, and it is Sir John A. and his talents that are being honored today."
**President Jimmy Carter, 11 January 2015JIMMY CARTER: THE CANADIAN UNITY FORGED BY SIR JOHN A. IS AN EXAMPLE TO THE WORLD - Jimmy Carter - 11 January 2015 - The Macdonald-Laurier Institute - Retrieved 26 November 2021
===2020s===
*"He was our first prime minister and I think it's important to recognize the role he played in the creation of this country compared to world we live in now... We must acknowledge where there were comments, perspectives, certain actions that were unacceptable — that's part of recognizing our history as a country."
**Justin Trudeau, following the destruction of the Macdonald Monument, 31 August 2020Trudeau condemns destruction of Sir John A. Macdonald statue in Montreal - John Paul Tasker - 31 August 2020 - CBC News - Retrieved 24 November 2020
==Links==
*John A. Macdonald on Wikiquote
==References==
Category:John A. Macdonald
Category:Quotes
Category:Quotes of real people
Category:Quotes of prime ministers
Category:Quotes of Canadian Prime Ministers