Next Ontario government will decide fate of hidden Sir John A. Macdonald statue

The statue of Sir John A. Macdonald at the foot of Queen’s Park has been covered for almost two years.

It was first unveiled in 1894 and created by Hamilton MacCarthy to commemorate Canada’s first Prime Minister, according to the Ontario Legislature’s website.

The statue was damaged in the summer of 2020 during Toronto protests that took aim at controversial figures from Canada’s colonial past. Repairs took place to the statue in 2020 and 2021, and it has been covered with a tall, rectangular box since it was first damaged.

At the top of University Avenue, against a backdrop of Queen’s Park, the box stands out. On its side is a note explaining a decision has not yet been made about its future, while a trail of children’s shoes in front of it makes reference to the tragedy of residential schools in Canada.

“It continues to be covered until a decision can be made regarding its future,” a spokesperson for the Ontario Legislature told Global News.

Macdonald, alongside Egerton Ryerson, alleged to be the architect of Canada’s residential school system, has had his name and likenesses removed around the country.

In April, a school in Brampton joined a growing list of institutions that ditched the former Prime Minister’s name to replace it with an Indigenous reference.

The Peel District School Board, which made the decision, said it had consulted the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Credit River Metis, the Peel Indigenous Network of Employees, the Indigenous Network and the Credit River Metis Council before changing the school’s name.

In Kingston and Waterloo, the respective school boards in both cities moved to change the names of educational institutions associated with Macdonald.

The decision on how to proceed with the Queen’s Park statue — and whether it will ever emerge from its box — will be for Ontario’s next provincial government to make.

“Any decision regarding the statue rests with the Speaker of the Legislature, in consultation with the Minister of Government and Consumer Services (this ministry owns the statue) and the elected Members (who the Speaker represents),” the spokesperson for the legislature said.

“For the meantime, no change is planned to the monument’s status.”

Exactly what Ontario’s main parties intend to do with the statue, displayed on a plinth at the heart of Ontario’s democracy, is unclear.

The Ontario Greens, NDP and Liberals sent Global News details of how they would proceed with the statue, while the PC Party disagreed with the legislature’s characterization that the decision rests with the speaker, Minister of Government and Consumer Service as well as ordinary MPPs.

“The legislative precinct is managed by the speaker and therefore the decision rests with the speaker,” a spokesperson for the PC campaign said.

In response to follow-up questions referencing the Ontario Legislature’s explanation, the spokesperson repeated their response. “The decision rests with the speaker,” they said.

The Speaker of the Legislature is traditionally an MPP appointed by the governing party. From 2018 to 2022, the speaker was PC MPP Ted Arnott.

The Ontario Liberals said “our public monuments should be more reflective of the province and its peoples” and promised to work with the speaker, MPPs and the community to make changes, including adding new statues at Queen’s Park, if elected.

The NDP promised to create a commission to make “binding recommendations on the display of historical figures and symbols in Ontario’s government-owned buildings and public spaces.” The commission would be led by an Indigenous representative, the party said.

“Ontario Greens believe that statues of historical figures with racist legacies should be removed from public spaces as these figures are not representative of our contemporary collective society,” a spokesperson for the party said.

The decision on whether or not to display the statue, covered for close to two years, will rest with the party that forms government and chooses the province’s speaker and Minister of Government and Consumer Service after Ontario’s upcoming election.

Ontario will go to the polls on June 2.

— With files from Ahmar Khan

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