Sir John A. Macdonald: Father of Confederation Sir John A. Macdonald (b.1815, d.1891) was the first prime minister of Canada. This biographical lecture will explore his background, his political development, and his influence on the Canadian state. Macdonald had a profound influence on his times, but we will also examine how the times influenced him. Back to Lecture Outline

* Lecture Notes * 

PowerPoint Slides

Reading: J.K. Johnson and P.B. Waite, "Macdonald, Sir John Alexander," in Dictionary of Canadian Biography or Bliss, Right Honourable Men, ch.1.

Basic Overview

Term(s) of Office as Prime Minister:

July 1, 1867 - November 5, 1873
October 17, 1878 - June 6, 1891

Born
• January 10 or 11, 1815, Glasgow, Scotland
• Emigrated to Canada in 1820

Education
• Midland District Grammar School and John Cruickshank School, Kingston (Ontario)

Personal Life
• Married 1843, Isabella Clark (1811 - 1856)
• Two sons (one died in infancy)
• Re-married 1867, Susan Agnes Bernard (1836 - 1920)
• One daughter

Occupations
• Lawyer (called to the Bar of Upper Canada in 1836)
• Businessman
• 1837 Private, the Commercial Bank Guard
• 1843 - 1846 Alderman for Kingston, Ontario

Political Party
• Liberal-Conservative (forerunner of Progressive Conservative Party)
• 1867 - 1891 Party Leader

Other Ministries
• 1847 - 1848 Receiver General (Province of Canada)
• 1854 - 1858, 1858 - 1862, 1864 - 1867 Attorney General (Canada West)
• 1861 - 1862, 1865 - 1867 Militia Affairs
• 1867 - 1873 Justice and Attorney General
• 1878 - 1883 Interior
• 1878 - 1887 Superintendant General of Indian Affairs
• 1889 - 1891 Railways and Canals

Political Record
• Joint Premier, Province of Canada, with Etienne-Paschal Tache 1856 - 1857, and with George-Étienne Cartier 1857 - 1858, 1858 - 1862
• Co-leader, Great Coalition, with George-Etienne Cartier and George Brown 1864 - 1865
• Father of Confederation 1867
• Creation of provinces of Manitoba 1870, British Columbia 1871, and Prince Edward Island 1873
• Red River Rebellion 1870
• Building of Canadian Pacific Railway 1871 - 1885
• North West Mounted Police 1873
• Pacific Scandal 1873
• Leader of the Opposition 1873 - 1878
• National Policy 1879
• Northwest Rebellion 1885
• Creation of the first national park at Banff, Alberta 1885

Died
• June 6, 1891, Ottawa, Ontario, while still in office

Source: Canada's Prime Ministers, 1867 - 1994. [Ottawa]: National Archives of Canada, c1994. 20 p.

Further Reading:

The quintessential biography of John A. Macdonald is Donald Creighton’s two-volume study, Macdonald: The Young Politician and Macdonald: The Old Chieftain. These are now available in a single volume with an interesting introduction by P.B. Waite (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998).

Other useful studies include:

P. B. Waite. Macdonald: his life and world (Toronto and New York, 1975)
---. Life and times of confederation

J. K. Johnson. “John A. Macdonald” in The pre-confederation premiers: Ontario government leaders, 1841–1867, ed. J. M. S. Careless (Toronto, 1980), 197–245

---. “John A. Macdonald, the young non-politician,” CHA Hist. papers, 1971: 138–53

---. “John A. Macdonald and the Kingston business community,” To preserve & defend: essays on Kingston in the nineteenth century, ed. G. [J. J.] Tulchinsky (Montreal and London, 1976), 141–55.

Swainson, Donald. Sir John A. Macdonald: The Man and the Politician. Kingston: Quarry Press, 1989.

Waite, P. B.. John A. Macdonald, rev. ed. Markham: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1999.

Printed primary sources on John A. include the following:

Sir Joseph Pope, ed. Correspondence of Sir John Macdonald . . . (Toronto, 1921)

---. Memoirs of the Right Honourable Sir John A. Macdonald, G.C.B., First Prime Minister of the Dominion of Canada (2v., Ottawa, [1894])

J.K. Johnson, ed. Affectionately Yours: the Letters of Sir John A. Macdonald and His Family (Toronto, 1969)..

--- and C. B. Stelmack, eds. Letters of Sir John A. Macdonald . . . (covering the period 1836 to 1861) (Ottawa, 1968–69)

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