Right in the centre - It is amazing

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Published on Monday, August 20, 2018

By Cassandra Wehrhahn

Neepawa Banner & Press

Yes, it is amazing how dumb some of today’s politicians can be. Seems that the mayor of Victoria, B.C. took it upon herself to get all upset about a statue of Canada’s first prime minster, Sir John. A. Macdonald.

The good mayor decided that because she feels MacDonald made some racist political decisions that his statue should go. I have no doubt that Sir John had his faults.

In 1885, Louis Riel was seen in some parts of the country as a murderous rebel and was hung for treason. That is a decision that had some very serious repercussions and certainly Macdonald could have stopped the execution. Considering what Riel did in helping Canada become Canada, he probably shouldn’t have been put to death.

I, personally, am totally opposed to capital punishment but in 1885, by far the majority view was that if you killed a person, you would be hung. Riel was actually responsible for several deaths and by 1885 standards, he was dealt with by the laws of the day. Riel thought he was defending Metis rights and he was, but he and his followers killed people to defend those rights.

Macdonald was no angel either. He was considered a ruthless politician, was known to indulge in a lot of liquor, some political graft and an occasional bit of corruption. He is being condemned now in Victoria for bringing in residential schools, which he did not actually do. The Residential School pre-dated him The amazing thing about the Victoria decision to take away a statue of Macdonald is that if it had not been for Sir John, British Columbia and Victoria might today be wishing they hadn’t voted for Donald Trump in the last U.S election. It was Macdonald who got the Canadian Pacific Railway built and it was that promise of a railway that got BC into confederation in 1871. Without the railway, likely the United States would have absorbed much, or all, of BC. The somewhat liberal minded mayor of Victoria would not have liked that idea at all.

The problem with taking down statues is that it ignores history. Macdonald did what Macdonald did, good and bad. More statues or less statues will not change that. Instead of tearing down statues, this country should seize every moment to teach what the statue stands for. They stand for people, works and accomplishments that have had both positive and negative effects on our country.

We are supposed to learn from studying history. We will never learn from ignoring or hiding the good or the bad that people contributed. Canada was built by people who did both good and bad things. Macdonald, Riel, Laurier, Dumont, the list goes on and on as hundreds more could be added to it. Hiding or ignoring history has no value to us today. Recognizing the mixed contribution of all our historical figures has much greater value.

Disclaimer: The writer serves as a volunteer president of the Manitoba Community Newspaper Association. The views expressed in this column are the writer’s personal views and are not to be taken as being  the view of the MCNA board or Banner & Press staff.