January 11 is Sir John A. Macdonald Day.  Macdonald was Canada’s first Prime Minister; he served from July 1, 1867, to November 5, 1873, and was re-elected for a second term that lasted from October 17, 1878, until his death on June 6, 1891.

According to the MP for Miramichi, Tilly O’Neill-Gordon, “Sir John A. was a trailblazer in Canadian political life, and I think it is important to mark this day in his honour.”

Queen Victoria knighted Macdonald for his central role in making Confederation possible.  His appointment as Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George was announced on the Dominion’s birthday, July 1, 1867.  In August a general election brought Macdonald and his Conservatives to power.  The role he played in the creation of Canada, and the realization of his dream of a transcontinental railway, cemented forever his image in Canadian history books as a nation builder.

“Macdonald may have been controversial, and his behaviour sometimes less than exemplary, but we have to acknowledge everything he did to unify our country,” Ms O'Neill-Gordon said.  “I consider that what he achieved matters to all Canadians, including the people in the riding of Miramichi.”

Sir John A.’s face appears on the Canadian $10 bill, and his name on bridges, airports, highways (the Macdonald-Cartier Freeway in Ontario combines his name with that of another Father of Confederation, George-Étienne Cartier) and a lot of schools across the country.

“Macdonald left us an imposing political legacy, and all these infrastructures throughout Canada that bear his name are evidence of it,” the MP said.