Mayor discusses fate of other references to Sir John A. Macdonald in Kingston

The Sir John A. Macdonald statue isn’t the only reference to Canada’s first prime minister in Kingston. Some are wondering if the city should remove other images as well, which appear everywhere.

While the statue no longer resides in Kingston’s City Park, the name of Canada’s first prime minister is also on major roads, plaques and other monuments throughout the city.

In a media conference at City Park on Friday, a group of Indigenous community members said more still needs to be done.

“All of this kind of stuff is just further glorification of a man who put in a place the structure for our genocide,” says Susan Delisle, a local Indigenous community member.

Kingston’s mayor, however, stopped short of endorsing actions like renaming Sir John A. Macdonald Boulevard, saying education and balance is the path forward.

“We’ve heard a lot from the community about the importance of education so that every resident and visitor and tourist that comes here would learn about both that good and bad,” says Mayor Bryan Paterson.

Many plaques in Kingston fall under the control of Parks Canada and the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.

In an email response, the federal agency said, “the HSMBC and Parks Canada are working to address questions raised about existing designations and plaque texts”.

Kingston’s mayor says there is still a lot of work to be done and conversations to be had about how to provide a boarder context of Macdonald’s legacy that includes residential schools.

He added that further removal of names or imagery of Macdonald are not being discussed by the municipality at this point.