Although he was born in Scotland, Sir John A. Macdonald called Kingston home from his early childhood.
His name and image can be seen just about everywhere in the city of Kingston.
And while he helped build a nation, he’s also tied to the dark history of residential schools.
The question the nation is wrestling with now is what to do about a man whose name appears in so many public places.
Professor Patrice Dutil is a historian at Ryerson University and he says if Macdonald’s name is going to be removed from schools and public places there should be a proper debate.
“There should be a logical process to this there should be a logical discussion, people should be involved but we can’t be just doing this in the shade all the time.”
Paul Fortier owns Sir John’s Public House, in Macdonald’s time, it was his law office.
“You know maybe his hands aren’t so clean but we can’t really look back and judge the man using 21st-century values either,” Fortier said.
Rick Revelle is an author and says, as a native man, he has no love for Macdonald, but he isn’t calling for his name to be removed.
He says he just wants the full story told: “If you practised your religion — a pow wow a potlatch — you went to jail for six months, he passed all these laws took away my ancestors’ children.”
City Hall has a room named after Macdonald and his statue stands prominently in the city park.
Kingston Mayor Bryan Paterson says progress is being made but more still has to be done.
“Certainly that’s what I’ve heard from a number of people in the Indigenous community. They just want the stories that haven’t been told in the past to be told and I think that’s absolutely something that we need to do is have that conversation,” Paterson said.
How Macdonald should be remembered and what is appropriate will be a debate for some time to come but it’s a conversation that has to happen.
If true reconciliation is to occur, the city of Kingston and the country will have to deal with the history of residential schools and colonization.