Don’t erase name of Sir John A.

EDITORIAL: WHAT OTHERS THINK Canada wouldn’t exist if not for efforts of first prime minister

If there had been no Sir John A. Macdonald, there would be no Canada. It’s that basic, that inescapable. The country that is so cherished by its citizens and respected around the world would not exist as it is today were it not for the vision, drive and toil of an individual who should not simply be remembered as one of the fathers of Confederation but instead as the father of Canada.

Yet despite Macdonald’s unique and indispensable position in Canada’s story, an Ontario teachers’ union is calling for his name to be removed from schools in this province — including a high school in Waterloo.

The request, though well meant, should be rejected by Ontario’s school boards.

It’s as if the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario were gazing on a larger-than-life statue of a wise and noble statesman who bore an unsightly wart on his face.

The only thing the union can see, however, is the wart — which symbolizes for them Macdonald’s mistreatment of Indigenous communities.

To truly understand Macdonald and Canada, it’s necessary to look beyond the wart and view the entire image.

In the middle of the 19th century, many Americans advocated invading the small, isolated British colonies to the north of their country and forcing them to join the United States.

Faced with this existential threat, Macdonald convinced different regional, cultural and linguistic groups to band together and, in 1867, become Canada.

At the time, the deep divisions between Catholics and Protestants and the French and British represented the greatest obstacle to Canadian unity.

Through a generosity of spirit and an advocacy of tolerance striking for his era, Macdonald helped the emerging nation bridge those divides and eventually become independent.

Yes, he committed serious mistakes that are especially evident today.

Most egregiously, he behaved callously toward First Nations communities when opening the West to new settlement and by creating the residential school system that caused lasting trauma to Indigenous Canadians.

Macdonald’s failings should not be ignored. On the contrary, they should be acknowledged, studied and learned from — in our schools and elsewhere.

Yet those who review his record in its totality will realize his achievements made this vast, transcontinental country possible.

There is arrogance in the assumption that we, the citizens of 2017, are so morally superior to those who preceded us that we should denounce giants such as Macdonald and scrub their names from the public consciousness.

We must put the cleaning brushes down and realize the concepts of rights and freedoms that make modern Canada great evolved over centuries.

It took many steps, often laboured and struggling uphill, to get where we are today.

Sir John A., a child of a very different time, helped lead us here.

By all means, let’s distance ourselves from the wrongs he did and commit ourselves to correcting them.

But let’s also see more than the wart on his face.

Those who prize the creation that is Canada should be open to appreciating — and honouring — its creator.

An editorial from the Waterloo Region Record (distributed by The Canadian Press)