Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada’s first and greatest Prime Minister, was born on either January 10 or 11, 1815 in Glasgow, Scotland. When he was 5 years old, his family immigrated to Kingston in Upper Canada. Kingston was to become the site of his strongest and least wavering support throughout his political career. It was in Kingston that young John, at the age of fifteen, began his legal studies. “John was articled to a young Scottish lawyer, George Mackenzie, late of Ernesttown, and now of Kingston.” It was during this apprenticeship to Mackenzie that he began to exhibit his unique aptitude for camaraderie. “It began to seem probable that this tall, saturnine, rather ugly young man, with his reserved, studious manner,

Macdonald’s success at both the Charlottetown, and Quebec conferences set the stage for a third and final conference, which was to be held in London. It was at the London Conference that Confederation finally came to be, and John A. Macdonald, a Father of Confederation became Sir John A. Macdonald, the first Prime Minister of the Dominion of Canada. Sir John, one of the foremost Fathers of Confederation, was knighted for his eminent role in the crafting of confederation, thus starting the tradition that the head of the British Monarchy would knight Canadian Prime Ministers.

However, his loss of power could be considered a bittersweet coincidence, as it coincided with an economic depression that the majority of Canadians came to blame on his successor, Alexander Mackenzie. The hiatus also allowed him to recuperate mentally and physically, before he began to put together the National Policy which would win him the 1878 election and allow him to dominate the governance of Canada until long after

In 1843, at the age of 28, Macdonald became an alderman for the city of Kingston, thus beginning his career in public service. In 1844, he entered provincial politics as a Conservative for the electorate of Kingston. Following his election, he acted as the Receiver-General until the defeat of this government in 1848. After this defeat, Macdonald displayed his true colors, the integrity that made him the man he was. He did not quit or leave, but remained and spent time in opposition working for the interests of his party and his country. His work helped to form the 1854 coalition, creating the Liberal-Conservative Party, forerunner of today's Conservative Party. Macdonald was subsequently appointed to the office of Attorney General as reward for his efforts and, later, he was a co-premier within the coalition. It was here that Macdonald refined the skills in politics and compromise that made him our foremost Prime Minister. In 1858, a series of brilliant political maneuvers allowed him to regain power mere days after it had been lost to a Brown-Dorion coalition. “The old government was back again; but when, on Friday, August 6, the ex-ministers were sworn in once more, each was appointed to an office different from that which he had held before.” Again he displayed his understanding of the political process, providing desired/ sought after change within the framework of experience and stability.

his death, even after the Liberals took power in 1896. Despite a landslide victory in this election, “for the first time in his thirty-four years of political life, Kingston had deserted her son.”

Macdonald’s National Policy consisted of three main points. First, he called for the construction of a Trans-continental railway, which would satisfy his government’s promise to Amor de Cosmos and his delegation prior to British Columbia’s entrance into the Dominion of Canada. The railway would also aid in carrying out the second of his three points, settling the northwest, and thirdly, he planned to extend the Protective Tariff, to revitalize the Canadian economy. When the election of 1878 rolled around, he had ironed out the intricacies of the National Policy, “He had regained and consolidated that dominion of affec

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