Poor Old Sir John A.

I was appalled over the removal of the bronze statue of our first Prime Minister, Sir John A. MacDonald from in front of Victoria's City Hall.   I was not upset with the reasoning behind the removal but in the way it was done.  It was announced that the statue would be removed just days before the event.  A crew showed up before the dawn and proceeded to haul it away to storage.  A handful of protesters were on hand but it was so early in the morning, most folks were still in bed when the deed was done! 

There was and still is no plans announced as to where the statue is to be relocated.  Maybe those in charge of the move are hoping people will forget about Sir John A. and the statue can be melted down.

Sir John A. MacDonald is a hero of mine!  I know he drank too much and he discussed political theory with lampposts among other things, but he stitched together the fabric of what was to become the greatest nation in the world; Canada!   Yes I know he screwed up some things but most of what he did led to the creation of this country.

When it came to the natives of Canada, our indigenous people, Sir John A. and his cohorts screwed up bad!  They thought the best thing for our indigenous children was to send them to boarding schools and make little English kids out of them.  Boarding schools were a way of life in Britain back then so it seemed a good idea at the time.  I am sure that had they known of the abuse and cruelty that would take place in those residential schools that they would not have pushed the idea!  As it turned out the residential schools have become a very sad chapter in this nation's history.

If moving the statue acknowledges that the way the indigenous people of Canada were treated back was terrible, then its move was long overdue!  But where's it going?  I think it should it should be rededicated in front of Victoria's federal building, wherever that is.  After all Sir John A. was a federal leader.

Removing his statue cannot rewrite history.  It is what it is!  Removing his statue cannot punish Sir John A. for his screw-up with the residential schools.  I hope that removing his statue might acknowledge that screw-up and declare that all Canadians are now moving on!

Canada strong!