By Paul Wilson, CBC Hamilton
This article was originally posted on the CBC website. Reprinted with the express permission of the author.
You might have Canada’s first prime minister in your pocket right now. He’s on the purple bill, the ten.
He’s long gone, not forgotten. In Hamilton, for a few more years anyway, there is downtown’s Sir John A. Macdonald high school.
This article was originally posted on the CBC website. Reprinted with the express permission of the author.
You might have Canada’s first prime minister in your pocket right now. He’s on the purple bill, the ten.
He’s long gone, not forgotten. In Hamilton, for a few more years anyway, there is downtown’s Sir John A. Macdonald high school.
Sir John A. Macdonald in Gore Park. Photo Credit: Paul Wilson/CBC
But the tribute that matters is in Gore Park – eight feet of bronze, atop a 10-foot slab of granite. Sir John A. is wearing a Prince Albert coat, buttoned up, right hand outstretched. The morning sun warms his face. He looks to be in tiptop shape.
Good thing, because he has a big event coming up.
Everything going according to plan, Sir John A. will be on the move. But he knows what to expect. He got told to move once before, more than a century ago.
That time it was because he got blamed for the death of a fast-driving fire chief. This time, it’s because he has a job to do.
Died in office
Macdonald was prime minister from 1867 to 1873, and again from 1878 to 1891, when he died in office.
He liked a drink, especially brandy. Liked a good fight too. Said he to Lord Strathcona in the House one day: “I could lick you quicker than hell could fizzle a feather.”
Some said he turned politics into a game without rules. But he did manage to get the railroad stretched across this long and lonely country.
On his death, the idea of a statue surfaced here right away. The money was raised and the job went to an English sculptor named George Wade. It’s said he did it cheaply to build his reputation.
He completed Sir John A. at his studio in London early in 1893. The unveiling was that fall, the first day of November, and 20,000 jammed the core. Hamilton became the first city in the country to erect a Macdonald statue. There are now eight others.
Sir John A. was planted at King and John, looking west, right in the middle of the intersection. Sounds daft, but there were no cars yet. Buggies and bicycles were usually able to navigate around the statue – and it did provide quick shelter for pedestrians trying to get out of the way of runaway horses.
The chief went fast
Good thing, because he has a big event coming up.
Everything going according to plan, Sir John A. will be on the move. But he knows what to expect. He got told to move once before, more than a century ago.
That time it was because he got blamed for the death of a fast-driving fire chief. This time, it’s because he has a job to do.
Died in office
Macdonald was prime minister from 1867 to 1873, and again from 1878 to 1891, when he died in office.
He liked a drink, especially brandy. Liked a good fight too. Said he to Lord Strathcona in the House one day: “I could lick you quicker than hell could fizzle a feather.”
Some said he turned politics into a game without rules. But he did manage to get the railroad stretched across this long and lonely country.
On his death, the idea of a statue surfaced here right away. The money was raised and the job went to an English sculptor named George Wade. It’s said he did it cheaply to build his reputation.
He completed Sir John A. at his studio in London early in 1893. The unveiling was that fall, the first day of November, and 20,000 jammed the core. Hamilton became the first city in the country to erect a Macdonald statue. There are now eight others.
Sir John A. was planted at King and John, looking west, right in the middle of the intersection. Sounds daft, but there were no cars yet. Buggies and bicycles were usually able to navigate around the statue – and it did provide quick shelter for pedestrians trying to get out of the way of runaway horses.
The chief went fast
Sir John’s view in Gore Park. Photo Credit: Paul Wilson/CBC
But there were accidents anyway. And one caught everybody’s attention. Fire chief Alexander Aitchison was rushing off to a blaze. He had a driver, but the chief usually took the reins himself anyway. They say he liked to go fast.
And on that day, April 5, 1905, he was thrown from his rig, struck the statue and died.
So Sir John A. was moved off the road, into Gore Park, looking east to John. He’s been happy there ever since.
But there are changes coming to the park and the area around it, the Gore Master Plan.
The public has provided a great deal of input, says Le’Ann Whitehouse Seely, supervisor of landscape architectural services with the city. And one thing people want for the Gore precinct, she says, “is to have all three of those blocks feel linked.”
That includes the third and most easterly block of the Gore – the skinniest part, between John and Catharine.
Anchor needed in the east
But there’s no anchor there, Seely says. No Queen Victoria, or fountain, or cenotaph. The eastern block needs a PM.
So the proposal is to move Sir John A. across the street and call that portion of the park Macdonald Square. There would be additional greenery, seating, a small water feature. The preliminary budget for this portion of the park project is $1.6 million.
This area will also serve as a forecourt for the Royal Connaught, where the transformation from derelict hotel to smart condos is just getting underway.
“We want to make sure we coordinate our efforts with them,” Seely says.
Downtown councillor Jason Farr thinks the prime ministerial move makes sense. “As long as there’s lots of space,” he says. “Every year there seem to be more people gathering for his birthday.”
He’s right about that. And the Sir John A. Macdonald Bicentennial Commission has already been formed to mark his 200th, on Jan.11, 2015.
Whether he’s on new ground by then depends on progress at the Royal Connaught. Word is that a condo sales office is to open in a few months.
And on that day, April 5, 1905, he was thrown from his rig, struck the statue and died.
So Sir John A. was moved off the road, into Gore Park, looking east to John. He’s been happy there ever since.
But there are changes coming to the park and the area around it, the Gore Master Plan.
The public has provided a great deal of input, says Le’Ann Whitehouse Seely, supervisor of landscape architectural services with the city. And one thing people want for the Gore precinct, she says, “is to have all three of those blocks feel linked.”
That includes the third and most easterly block of the Gore – the skinniest part, between John and Catharine.
Anchor needed in the east
But there’s no anchor there, Seely says. No Queen Victoria, or fountain, or cenotaph. The eastern block needs a PM.
So the proposal is to move Sir John A. across the street and call that portion of the park Macdonald Square. There would be additional greenery, seating, a small water feature. The preliminary budget for this portion of the park project is $1.6 million.
This area will also serve as a forecourt for the Royal Connaught, where the transformation from derelict hotel to smart condos is just getting underway.
“We want to make sure we coordinate our efforts with them,” Seely says.
Downtown councillor Jason Farr thinks the prime ministerial move makes sense. “As long as there’s lots of space,” he says. “Every year there seem to be more people gathering for his birthday.”
He’s right about that. And the Sir John A. Macdonald Bicentennial Commission has already been formed to mark his 200th, on Jan.11, 2015.
Whether he’s on new ground by then depends on progress at the Royal Connaught. Word is that a condo sales office is to open in a few months.
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