Most Canadians are unaware that the country’s first prime minister, now smeared as “racist,” defended Indigenous rights and advocated for their political enfranchisement.
In 2020, a statue of Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada’s founding prime minister, was toppled and decapitated in Montreal. It was the second time the statue had been beheaded; the first had been in 1992; it was periodically vandalized with paint, as well. This time, the city decided not to restore Macdonald’s statue to its pedestal. Montreal isn’t alone—across the country, Sir John A. Macdonald is being purged from public view.
