Sir John A Macdonald was the first prime minister of canada, and was one of the driving forces of confederation.
He was also a drunk, often going on massive binges and, even for the time, extremely racist, this is the guy behind the residential schools, the Chinese head tax, and a number of other 'fun' policies.
Oh and he was PM for the first railroad across Canada (indeed his second government fell because of a corruption scandal involving the construction of the canadian pacific railway)
He is Canada's second longest serving prime minister (yes he was reelected four years after the aforementioned corruption scandal) only beaten by William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canada's Deppression/wartime PM and guy who talks to ghosts to make policy decisions.
What can I say, we like our crazy prime ministers
by Frankishe1
42 Comments
I say we dig ’em up and make him the new PM!
There are two stories about John A. MacDonald that I always remember.
During one session of Parliament, he got so drunk he passed out. Unfortunately for him, he fell asleep onto one of the candles lighting the chamber, and lit his football hair on fire.
During a speech, he drank so much that he threw up standing. His opponent jumped on this opportunity. “Look at you! You’re so drunk that you’re throwing up” to which the first PM fired back “I threw up not due to the drink, but because I have to listen to you.”
I thought I’d add a bit about Mackenzie King, our longest serving PM.
In 1929, right after the market crash, he promised to do nothing about the incoming great depression. Obviously, he lost to the Conservative candidate, (pretty sure it was R.B. Bennet?). The conservatives fucked up the first 5 years of the depression *so* fucking bad that they weren’t elected again for over a decade. So maybe there’s something to be said for the seances….
Chinese head tax? Lmao
I got the sense in history class that he was quite a sad man. Driven to drink by the extreme stress of politics, the death of his wife and baby, caring for his disabled daughter, and supporting the rest of his family.
Not exactly the fun kind of degeneracy, a la Churchill.
Being a drunkard was hardly out of the ordinary in those days and he was of Scottish heritage after all (relax my grandmother was Scottish), but was he that much more racist than other politicians at the time? He was just a product of British colonial thinking that held that the “Anglo Saxon” race was superior and that it was its mission to “civilize” less advanced races.
Also, even if he might have been a racist motherfucker, he was only one man, and all of his policies – as racists as they may have been, required the participation of hundreds if not thousands of other people across Canadian society at the time.
A quick look at other political leaders around the 1870s shows a bevy of not so great policies in many European countries and the U.S., you can also up folks like Rudyard Kipling. If you think MacDonald was bad, then don’t have a look at the policies of the Canadian Government (and other western countries) in the 1930s.
**Canada:** “We’re polite to hide the fact that our nation is built on genocide.”
“But guys, he built a railroad. Okay, well, it wasn’t him, it was the Chinese people he hired for cheap, dangerous labour, who he then expelled once it was done, but still. He’s the reason we got the railroad! Is it really fair to judge him for his acts of genocide and rampant racism?” – actual arguments I hear all the time from conservatives.
How… How did you know I’d read the circle of characters in that exact order?
2 out of 5 I can get behind
Double Stuffed racism? Damn…
Trains are kinda cool though
What a piece of shit
Wow an old white man from 200 years was racist. I’m shocked.
Wait til you find out how many are racist now.
And?
Holding historical figures to today’s standard is foolish
The older I get them more I understand our ancestors!
Canada wouldnt exist without him.
He also tried to get voting rights for women and minorities (who owned land)
How much blackface did he wear?
**Presentism** is the term for interpreting or judging historical events, figures, and actions through the lens of modern-day values, knowledge, and ethical standards. It is a form of cognitive bias that often ignores the context of the time in which an event occurred. [[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presentism_(historical_analysis)), [2](https://www.cbc.ca/radio/sunday/the-past-is-not-the-present-do-food-animals-have-rights-alberto-manguel-s-curious-mind-the-great-hunger-1.3497315/the-allure-and-the-dangers-of-presentism-1.3497463), [3](https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/sociology/presentism-and-cultural-bias), [4](https://limeai.net/learning/content/d3f08ccc-1665-43e6-a4c8-a736d0bb5e77)]
Remember kids, history occurred for a long time before the year 2000. But that seems to fall on numb ears more and more…
That being said, he would be doing A LOT more drinking seeing the state of humanity now.
People always forgot his love of medium and others paranormal believe.
You’ll have to cope with the fact imperfect people contribute to progression. Be thankful we are where we are and have what we have because of people like him.
Never did blackface tho
I, a black native american man, will happily take that drunk bigot, Sir John A MacDonald as PM over Carney and Trudeau.
My Goat
And the corruption… The telegram he sent to the CP CEO “I need 10’000$, this is the last time” is so fucking cringe.
Someone explain what he did that was racist?
Bring back Macdonald
I only like two of those things(Not what you think)
People look at this now like it’s abnormal how racist the guy was when it’s really society was super racist at the time and this guy just reflects that.
hes a dude from the 1800s man what do you expect? He wasnt the exception he was the rule.
Itd be harder to find a nonracist person back then
He was a hero, I just couldn’t see it.
The funny thing about this is that in Canada, there is no shared culture of lionising the founders of our country like the USA. We all know Sir John A. was a perpetually drink racist.
He’s also been dead for 135 years. So what? Don’t we have enough *livin*g crooked racist politicians to worry about?
John A. Macdonald held views that are clearly racist by today’s standards, but that wasn’t unusual in the 19th century. All societies had racial, ethnic, or class-based hierarchies at the time. That context doesn’t excuse his policies, but it does help explain how common those attitudes were globally.
I like that BC damn near seceded during that 4 year period (their legislature even passed the bill saying they’re out if the railway doesnt get started by 1879), but then MacDonald was back in power and they went nvm.
ITT: A lot of “putting aside the racism, we love him!”
Mackenzie King. The guy who made residential school mandatory and turned the head tax into a total ban.
I dont see any movement to tear his name off anything.
We need more memes like this
Look hard enough at almost any notable historical figure and you will find traits many of us would describe as repugnant. Just racism piled on top of more racism inside a massive racism sandwich.
$5!
Sometimes you have to thread the needle between too racist and not racist enough. Not sure he was successful there.