10 facts about john a macdonald
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John A. Macdonald
(1815—1891)
Sir John A. Macdonald – The Man
Sir John Alexander Macdonald was Canada’s founding prime minister and the second-longest serving prime minister since Confederation. Macdonald’s achievements are many and significant. He helped create the Liberal-Conservative party in the 1850s as the dominant political party of his era. Despite being a late convert to the cause, he also shepherded the process of British North American Confederation through to completion from 1864 to 1867. When British North America united as the new nation of Canada, Macdonald became the obvious choice as first prime minister. With one important interruption from 1873 to 1878, Macdonald served as prime minister from 1867 until his death in office in 1891. He helped to unite the new fledgling nation together with the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway – expanding the nation westwards, signing treaties with Indigenous peoples across the prairies, and removing the threat of American annexation. Macdonald’s ability to dampen ethnic and religious conflicts, especially between Fren
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MACDONALD, JOHN, merchant, churchman, philanthropist, and politician; b. 27 Dec. 1824 in Perth, Scotland, son of Elizabeth Nielson and John Macdonald; m. in 1850 Eliza Hamilton (d. 1856); m. secondly in 1857 Annie Elizabeth Alcorn; d. 4 Feb. 1890 at Toronto, Ont.
Raised on floggings and Presbyterian prayer-meetings to be an intensely serious lad, John Macdonald came to Canada in 1837 when the regiment in which his father was an officer was sent out in response to the colonial disturbances. He briefly attended Dalhousie College in Halifax, then Bay Street Academy in Toronto, before entering the firm of C. and J. McDonald of Gananoque as a clerk in 1840. In 1842 he joined the Toronto dry goods house of Walter Macfarlane whereupon he fell into worldly habits until his conversion to Methodism in 1843 through the influence of a fellow clerk. He became a local preacher, but instead of entering the ministry as planned he left his job in 1847 and went to Jamaica for reasons of health. After a year, during which he was appalled by the licentiousness
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Sir John Alexander Macdonald GCB, KCMG, PC lived from 11 January 1815 to 6 June 1891. He was the dominant figure of Canadian Confederation and became the first Prime Minister of Canada. The wider picture in Scotland at the time is set out in our Historical Timeline.
Sir John A. Macdonald was born in Glasgow, the son of Hugh Macdonald, an unsuccessful merchant, and Helen Shaw. He was one of six children. In 1820 Hugh Macdonald and his family, including the five year old John, emigrated to Canada, settling in Kingston, Ontario. John was educated in Kingston until leaving school at 15. By the time his father died in 1841, John had already built up a range of lucrative business interests, and had become the director of the wealthy Commercial Bank of the Midland District as well as its lawyer. He also invested in property and ended up as a director of a dozen Kingston companies.
In January 1842 Macdonald met his first cousin Isabella Clark during a trip to Britain, and the two returned to Canada together, marrying in Sept
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