OTTAWA -- It takes determination to find Sir John A. Macdonald’s final resting place in Kingston, Ontario.
There’s a small sign just off Highway 401, but there are no pointers to the gravesite once you enter the sprawling Cataraqui Cemetery.
It’s suddenly just there off to the side of a dirt roadway; the unassuming grave of Canada’s founding prime minister inside a small fenced-in family plot.
There’s a small plaque to note his political resume and a flag in front of a modest tombstone dwarfed by the obelisk marking the burial location of other long-gone Macdonalds. (By contrast, you have to buy tickets to visit George Washington’s elaborate tomb and family home in Mount Vernon.)
I had pit-stopped there shortly after Sir John’s Public House, located in what was his law firm’s downtown location, had scrubbed his name from their sign to protest Macdonald’s role in creating the residential school system.
I had paused to wonder if the day was coming when the gravesite itself would suffer protests or be desecrated by vandals seeking to avenge selective excerpts from Macdonald’s historical record.
Sadly, given the events of last weekend, it’s probably inevitable.
The Macdonald statue-toppling in Montreal was just the most visually unsettling of the many attacks on his name. Video caught the moment when Macdonald’s head twirled off his felled body to be kicked about by protesters.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was correct to denounce the vandalism and should’ve called for police to identify and charge the culprits.
Yet he also opened the door to political correctness triumphing over history by saying Macdonald, and indeed all former prime ministers, should be scrutinized with a critical eye on their misspoken ways.
Not surprisingly, the Conservatives have a particularly fierce loyalty to the memory of John A. Macdonald.
They named a major Ottawa parkway and parliamentary precinct building after him and road-signed Kingston as his birthplace.
New leader Erin O’Toole immediately came out swinging to defend Macdonald after the statue fell and has vowed to take a stand against so-called “cancel culture”, the expunging of controversial figures from public acknowledgment.
His former cabinet colleague Jason Kenney, now premier of Alberta, offered to elevate the Macdonald statue to a prominent feature on the legislature grounds if Montreal doesn’t want it.
This party loyalty to Macdonald, being the original Conservative prime minister and all, is probably excessive and rooted in partisanship, but their sentiments are correct.
Changing the name of buildings and streets with updated characters worthy of the recognition is a fluid rite of passing time.
But to tear down statues of key figures from our history is a protest too far.
And where will it stop?
Several of the Famous Five, who led the fight for equality and women voting rights, have a sordid sidebar opposing non-white immigration and advocating for the forced sterilization of the mentally challenged.
Should we scrap-heap their famous statues? Not a chance because, first and foremost, they were heroic champions of women’s rights.
Unfortunately, there’s enough shame and blame to render most of Canada’s prime ministers unworthy of statues if judged by their treatment of indigenous people and now-outdated positions on human rights.
That includes Pierre Trudeau, whose government not only tolerated residential schools, but took them away from churches to become government-run.
As hard as it is to understand his assimilation thinking today, Sir John A. reflected voter sentiment in his time. He should be judged accordingly.
So let history remain as written in the books, let monuments stand as symbols of historical accomplishment and let’s not view every utterance by the very-human leaders of our past through the prism of modern sensibilities and sensitivities.
May Sir John A. rest in peace without protest, may his statues stand free of vandalism and may his legacy be viewed, warts and all, primarily as the individual most responsible for the founding of Canada.
That's the bottom line.
