In his second minority government in , MacDonald set an historic precedent by appointing Margaret Bondfield as the first female minister. Economic crises, including the doubling of unemployment levels, persuaded him to also include the opposition leaders in a cross-party national government. However, this step lost him the support of his own party and he resigned in The coalition was considered by many party members to be a cynical betrayal of their hopes and MacDonald subsequently lost his seat.
He then fought to return to Parliament, winning a by-election 2 years before his death on the way to South America in See all Past Prime Ministers. To help us improve GOV. It will take only 2 minutes to fill in. Cookies on GOV.
John A. Macdonald was devastated by the premature deaths of his wife and first son. Courtesy of the National Archives of Canada Despite her illness, Isabella gave birth to their first child, John, in The baby died 13 months later. Macdonald never got over John's death, and he kept a box of the child's toys until his own death almost 50 year later.
Another son, Hugh, survived. In , Isabella died. Macdonald was devastated by their deaths but continued to be one of the dominant politicians in Upper Canada. He played the political game through a combination of charisma, will, and shrewd negotiations.
As Canadian authority reached the Great Plains after , it encountered an Indigenous population facing ecological crisis. Crisis turned to starvation in the early s. In the House of Commons in April , Macdonald offered this explanation of his actions in response to the disaster. When the Indians are starving, they have been helped, but they have been reduced to one-half and one-quarter rations; but when they fall into a state of destitution we cannot allow them to die for want of food.
It is true that Indians so long as they are fed will not work. I have reason to believe that the agents as a whole, and I am sure it is the same with the Commissioner, are doing all they can, by refusing food until the Indians are on the verge of starvation, to reduce the expense. The buffalo has disappeared during the past few years.
Some few came over this year, and although their arrival relieved the Indians, it was rather sorry, looking to the future, that such was the case, as the Blackfeet, Bloods and Peigana who had settled on reserves at once returned to their nomadic habits and abandoned the settlements.
It will occasionally happen that the agents will issue food too liberally … We hope that the Indians will now settle down, but Indians are Indians, and we must submit to frequent disappointments in the way of civilizing them. But the famine on the Plains in the s was not set in motion by Macdonald or anyone else in Canadian government.
The buffalo had genuinely gone, and not for a season or two, but forever. Something new had to be put in place, and again not for a season or two, but forever.
A generation later, Herbert Hoover and the Commission for Relief in Belgium would invent large-scale, long-term food assistance. That huge undertaking would mobilize the resources of the American economy to feed people displaced by the First World War. Grain and other foodstuffs would be shipped by sea into a region well served by ports, canals, and railways.
Nothing like the Hoover effort had ever been attempted in world history—and it still left millions in desperate want. By contrast, the government of Canada in the s was connected to the West by a single unfinished railway line.
From Halifax to Vancouver, the Canadian federal government employed maybe 2, people. Beyond that, Canada had almost zero state capacity in the region of the buffalo crisis. In a book, Clearing the Plains , Daschuk describes Macdonald welcoming the opportunity to relocate nomadic Plains Indians into fixed settlements, using food aid as a tool. Yet Daschuk also makes clear that the leading cause of death among the Plains Indians of the s was not starvation, much less deliberate starvation, but the epidemics that followed the first encounters of previously isolated Native populations with new diseases.
But there were no vaccines yet for tuberculosis, diphtheria, and other epidemic killers. David Frum: Canada got Better. Yet during his time in office Canada moved closer to independence.
Macdonald himself represented Canada on the British commission that negotiated the Treaty of Washington of The last stage of Macdonald's public career was plagued by difficulties. In addition, Ontario Premier Oliver Mowat launched a series of successful legal challenges to the powers of the central government, resulting in a federal system that was much less centralized than Macdonald had intended.
The federal power of disallowance , which enabled the federal Cabinet to cancel provincial legislation, had been freely used during the early days of the Dominion, but was virtually abandoned by the end of the 19th century due to provincial opposition.
Macdonald's contribution to the development of the Canadian nation far exceeded that of any of his contemporaries, yet he was not by nature an innovator. Confederation , the CPR, and the protective tariff were not his ideas, but he was brilliant and tenacious in achieving his goals once convinced of their necessity. As a politician he early developed shrewdness and ingenuity. He kept a remarkable degree of personal control over the functioning of the Conservative party and was adept in using patronage for political advantage.
He was a highly partisan politician, partly because he genuinely believed it was essential to maintain certain political courses. He was particularly concerned with maintaining the British connection to Canada — including the tradition of parliamentary supremacy — against the threat of American economic and political influences, such as the doctrine of constitutional supremacy.
Macdonald was an Anglophile, but he also became a Canadian nationalist who had great faith in the future of Canada. His overriding national preoccupations were unity and prosperity. An speech summed up his lifelong political creed and political goals: "One people, great in territory, great in resources, great in enterprise, great in credit, great in capital. As both prime minister and minister of Indian Affairs , Macdonald was responsible for Indigenous policy, including the development of the residential school system and increasingly repressive measures against Indigenous populations in the West.
To Macdonald, the building of the CPR took priority over almost everything else. According to historian James Daschuk, Canadian officials withheld food from Indigenous people until they moved to reserves, thus clearing the land needed for railway construction — thousands died.
Yet, Macdonald also tried to extend the federal vote to all Indigenous males, as long as they met the same conditions as other British subjects. Under his proposal, they would not have to give up Indian status in order to vote as was the case under previous legislation. However, it excluded all Indigenous men in the West — this was likely influenced by the North-West Resistance of In , the legislation was repealed and many Indigenous men were again disqualified.
Although Macdonald proposed extending the vote to all Indigenous males, he at the same time passed legislation to exclude those of Chinese origin. In the s, around 15, Chinese labourers helped to build the Canadian Pacific Railway — working in harsh conditions for little pay, they suffered greatly and historians estimate that at least died.
Their employment had caused controversy, particularly in British Columbia , where politicians worried about the potential economic and cultural impact of this influx of Chinese workers. Macdonald, however, defended their employment in constructing the railway. While some have accused him of racism , others argue that he was quite progressive by the standards of the time. One of the most influential and important Canadians of all time, Macdonald was not without flaws.
New generations and scholars continue to examine and debate his political ruthlessness, as well as his Indigenous policies and his approach to Chinese immigration. For good and ill, Macdonald helped make Canada what it is today. Creighton, John A.
Macdonald , 2 vols —55 ; Patrice Dutil and Roger Hall, eds. Macdonald and his Family ; P.
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