| Biographies → Gallery → Features → Quotes → Bios → Timeline → Library → Links → Activities → George-Etienne Cartier |
John A. Macdonald - Trivia and Stories
From
Contents |
Macdonald and Opposition MPs
David Thompson, a Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) representing Haldimand and a Macdonald contemporary, had just returned to Parliament after an extended absence due to illness. According to Turner's story, Thompson reported that: "The first man I met was [Liberal leader Edward] Blake; he passed me with a simple nod as if he had forgotten I was away. Then I met [Liberal MP Richard] Cartwright, who was just as cold. Then I met Sir John, who rushed across the Chamber, slapped me on the shoulder, grasped my hand, and said, 'Davy, I am glad you are back again; I hope you will live many a day to vote against me.' It was pretty hard not to follow a man like that," Turner quoted Thompson as saying.
Source: LAC/BAC
Macdonald and Lord Bury
While serving as Attorney-General for Upper Canada in the early 1860s, John A. Macdonald lived in Quebec. As former Toronto Globe editor Sir John Willison recalled in his memoirs, "he had been absent from duty for a week; public business was delayed, and the Governor-General became impatient. He sent his aide-de-camp, young Lord Bury, to find the absent Minister. Pushing his way past the old house-keeper, Lord Bury penetrated to the bedroom where Macdonald was sitting in bed, reading a novel with a decanter of sherry on the table beside him. 'Mr. Macdonald, the Governor-General told me to say to you that if you don't sober up and get back to business, he will not be answerable for the consequences.' Macdonald's countenance reflected the anger he felt at the intrusion: 'Are you here in your official capacity, or as a private individual?' 'What difference does that make?' asked Lord Bury. 'Just this,' snapped the statesman, 'if you are here in your official capacity, you can go back to Sir Edmund Head, give him my compliments, and tell him to go to hell; if you are here simply as a private individual, you can go yourself!'"
Source: Douglas Fetherling, Broadview Book of Canadian Anecdotes
Macdonald Anecdotes
- "The Vancouver Sun reported on June 30, 2005, that Macdonald's birthplace in Glasgow, Scotland, is under threat of demolition.
- "Macdonald's private train car, which he named The Jamaica, was given to him by the Canadian Pacific Railway for his work on the railway.
- "According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Macdonald's nicknames included Old Chieftain and Old Tomorrow*. *For his habit of putting off any large political problems until conditions were personally favourable to him.[61]
- "Macdonald's nephew Newton Ford was the father of iconic Canadian-American actor Glenn Ford.[62]
- "As of 2006: Macdonald was the first of two Canadian prime-ministers to die in office (The other is John Thompson)."
Source: Sir John A. an anecdotal life of John A. Macdonald, edited by Cynthia M. Smith and Jack McLeod. 1989
Macdonald's Temper
"Macdonald's temper sometimes got the better of him, such as in one incident in the House of Commons when Donald Smith angered him so much, that he charged across the Commons floor to physically attack him. While he was restrained, Macdonald was unrepentant, proclaiming "I'll lick him faster than Hell can scorch a feather!""
Sir John A.: an anecdotal life of John A. Macdonald, edited by Cynthia M. Smith and Jack McLeod. 1989
Macdonald and Lord Dufferin
Canadian prime minister John A. MacDonald and Hector Langevin (the former solicitor general and postmaster for Lower Canada) once attended a meeting at Montreal's McGill University during which Lord Dufferin, the governor general, delivered an address - entirely in Greek. The following day, a newspaper reported that Dufferin had spoken "the purest ancient Greek without mispronouncing a word or making the slightest solecism." "How would the reporter know that?" Langevin asked. "I told him," MacDonald declared. "But you don't know any Greek!" Langevin laughed. "That's true," MacDonald replied, "but I do know a little about politics."
Source: Clifton Fadiman, ed., Bartlett's Anecdotes
Macdonald and His Fondness for Whisky and Spanish Sherry
"Sir John A. Macdonald was a man with his feet on the earth and his head not so far above it. He seldom sought to climb to moral elevations where the footing might be insecure. For a time he drank freely but any whisper of censure only stimulated conservatives to fiercer personal loyalty. He said himself that the country would rather have 'John A.' drunk than George Brown sober. He warned D'Arcy McGee that 'this Government can't afford two drunkards - and you've got to stop.'"
Source: John Willison
"A common story, resting upon no adequate authority, is that a short-hand writer once undertook to make a verbatim report of a speech which [Canadian prime minister Sir John A. Macdonald] delivered at Kingston. When he had examined the manuscript he sent for the reporter, gravely intimated that he had read portions of it with pain and surprise, and with the mild austerity of a grieving father added, 'Young man, if you ever again undertake to report the speech of a public man be sure that you keep sober!'"
[On another occasion, Macdonald was scheduled to speak at a town on Lake Huron, "but he was so long in sleeping off the consequences that the vessel on which he was a passenger dared not put into the harbour."]
Sources: John Willison in Douglas Fetherling, Broadview Book of Canadian Anecdotes
"He is known to have been drunk for many of his debates in parliament. Two apocryphal stories are commonly repeated; the first describing an election debate in which Macdonald was so drunk he began vomiting while on stage. His opponent quickly pointed this out and said: "Is this the man you want running your country? A drunk!" Collecting himself, Macdonald replied "I get sick ... not because of drink [but because] I am forced to listen to the ranting of my honourable opponent." The second version has Macdonald responding to his opponent's query of his drunkenness with "It goes to show that I would rather have a drunk Conservative than a sober Liberal." (Montreal Gazette, 30 May 1862)"
Sir John A.: an anecdotal life of John A. Macdonald, edited by Cynthia M. Smith and Jack McLeod. 1989
Macdonald Statues
"At least four bronze public statues of Macdonald stand in Canadian city parks. One in downtown Montreal, one in Kingston Ontario's city park, outside City Hall in Victoria, BC and at Toronto's Queen's Park."
Source: Sir John A. an anecdotal life of John A. Macdonald, edited by Cynthia M. Smith and Jack McLeod. 1989
Macdonald Place Names
- Ontario's Macdonald-Cartier Freeway is named after Macdonald and fellow Father of Confederation George-Étienne Cartier which also was used for Ottawa's International Airport named Macdonald-Cartier International Airport. He also has a bridges (Macdonald-Cartier Bridge) and schools across the country named after him. In Kingston, Macdonald Park and Sir John A. Macdonald Boulevard are both named in his honour.
Macdonald and Disraeli
Macdonald resembled British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. At Disraeli's funeral in 1881, a British official thought that he saw Disraeli's ghost in attendance, although it was actually Macdonald.
