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{{otherpeople|John Alexander Macdonald}}
{{Infobox Prime Minister
| honorific-prefix =<small>]</small><br>
| name =Sir John A. Macdonald
| honorific-suffix =<br><small>] ] ] ]</small></br>
| image =JaMAC.jpg
| caption =Macdonald in 1868.<br>''(age 53)''
| order = 1st
| office =Prime Minister of Canada
| term_start1 =July 1, 1867
| term_end1 =November 5, 1873
| predecessor1 =
| monarch =]
| successor1 =]
| term_start2 =October 17, 1878
| term_end2 =June 6, 1891
| predecessor2 =]
| successor2 =]
| birth_date =10 or 11 January 1815
| birth_place =], ]
| death_date ={{death date and age |1891|6|6|1815|1|11}}
| death_place =], ], ]
| party =]
| religion =]; later ]
| spouse =] (1st wife)<br>] (2nd wife)
| children = John Alexander (died in infancy) and ] by Isabella;<br>Mary by Agnes.
| alma_mater = none (articled with a lawyer in Kingston)
| occupation = Politician, statesman
| profession = ]
| signature = John A MacDonald Signature-rt.svg
}}

'''Sir John Alexander Macdonald''', ], ], ], ], (January 11,<ref name="Pope">Pope, Sir Joseph (1930) ''Memoirs of The Right Honourable John Alexander Macdonald''. Toronto: ON: The Musson Book Company Ltd., p.3. Pope relates that Hugh Macdonald recorded the time of Sir John's birth as 4:15, January 11, 1815.</ref> 1815 &nbsp;– June 6, 1891) was the first ] of ] and the dominant figure of ]. Macdonald's tenure in office spanned 18 years, making him the second longest serving Prime Minister of Canada. He is the only Canadian Prime Minister to win six ]s. He was the major proponent of a national ], the ], completed in 1885, linking Canada from the ] to the ]. He won praise for having helped forge a nation of sprawling geographic size, with two diverse ] colonial origins, numerous ] nations, and a multiplicity of cultural backgrounds and political views.

==Early years, 1815–1835==
John Alexander Macdonald was born in ], ] on January 11, 1815. Although January 10 is the official date recorded in the Glasgow Registry Office, January 11 is the day Macdonald and his family celebrated his birthday.<ref name="Waite">Waite, P.B. (1976) ''John A. Macdonald''. Don Mills: ON: Fitzhenry and Whiteside Limited, p.7.</ref> His father was Hugh Macdonald, an unsuccessful merchant, who had married Helen Shaw, on October 21, 1811.<ref>Phenix, Patricia. (2007) ''Private Demons: The Tragic Personal Life of John A. Macdonald''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart Ltd. p.6.</ref> Together, they produced five children. The first-born, William died in infancy. The next was Margaret who was followed a year and a half later by John Alexander, then a younger brother, James and a baby sister named Louisa. After the failure of Hugh Macdonald's business ventures, the family immigrated to ], ] in 1820 along with thousands of others seeking affordable land and promises of prosperity.<ref>Swainson, Donald. (1989) ''Sir John A. Macdonald: The Man and the Politician''. Kingston, ON: Quarry Press, p.17.</ref>
Bad luck followed the family to their new country. Macdonald watched as his younger brother James was struck and killed by a drunken servant who was supposed to be looking after them.<ref>Pope, Joseph. (1894) ''Memoirs of the Right Honourable Sir John Alexander Macdonald'', vol.1. Ottawa: J. Durie and Son, p.5. The death was treated as an accident.</ref> Hugh Macdonald's business ventures in the Kingston area were scarcely more successful than they had been in Scotland.<ref>Pope, p.3.</ref> The family managed to scrape up the money to send Macdonald to Kingston's Midland Grammar School where, according to biographer ], he studied subjects such as Latin, French and mathematics. "Already he was a voracious reader," Creighton writes, "and he would sit for hours deep in a book, almost oblivious to what was going on."<ref>Creighton, Donald (1952) ''John A. Macdonald: The Young Politician''. Toronto: The Macmillan Company of Canada Limited, p.14–15.</ref> At 14, Macdonald switched to a school for "general and classical education" founded by a newly arrived ] minister from Scotland. It was one of the few schools in Upper Canada that taught both boys and girls.<ref>Creighton, pp.17–18</ref>
Macdonald's formal schooling ended at 15, which was common when only the most prosperous were able to attend university.<ref>Creighton, p.18.</ref> Nevertheless, Macdonald later regretted leaving school when he did, remarking to his private secretary ] that if he had attended university, he might have embarked on a literary career. "He did not add, as he might have done," Pope wrote in his biography of Macdonald, "that the successful government of millions of men, the strengthening of an empire, the creation of a great dominion, call for the possession and exercise of rarer qualities than are necessary to the achievement of literary fame."<ref>Pope, pp.4–5.</ref>

==Law career, 1830–1843==
===Professional training, 1830–1836===
Macdonald's parents decided he should become a lawyer after leaving school.<ref name="SW19">Swainson, p.19.</ref> As Donald Creighton writes, "law was a broad, well-trodden path to comfort, influence, even to power." It was also "the obvious choice for a boy who seemed as attracted to study as he was uninterested in trade."<ref>Creighton, p.19.</ref> Besides, Macdonald needed to start earning money immediately to support his family because his father's business ventures were failing. "I had no boyhood," he complained many years later. "From the age of 15, I began to earn my own living."<ref>Pope, p.6.</ref>
]

Macdonald travelled by steamboat to ] (then known as ]), where he passed an examination set by the ].<ref>Gwyn, p.34.</ref> In 1830, there were no law schools, so prospective lawyers wrote the entrance exam, then learned the trade through on-the-job training by articling with an established lawyer. Macdonald was extremely fortunate to begin his apprenticeship with George Mackenzie, a young lawyer who was a prominent member of Kingston's rising Scottish community. Mackenzie practised corporate law, a lucrative specialty that Macdonald himself would later pursue.<ref>Gwyn, pp.46–47.</ref> A promising law student, Macdonald was managing a branch office for Mackenzie in ] at age 17. It meant much more independence and responsibility.<ref>Creighton, p.25.</ref> In 1833, Mackenzie permitted his articling student to leave his firm to run the law practice of Macdonald's ailing cousin, Lowther Pennington Macpherson, at ]. By all accounts, the 19-year-old Macdonald did well.<ref>Swainson, p.21.</ref> But in the summer of 1835, he decided to return to Kingston to open his own practice after George Mackenzie's sudden death during a cholera epidemic.<ref>Creighton, p.34.</ref> Biographer Donald Swainson writes that Macdonald was determined to step into Mackenzie's shoes as the "leading lawyer within Kingston's Scottish Presbyterian community, a community that was quickly becoming the dominant force in the life of the city."<ref>Swainson, pp.21&23.</ref>

===Early successes, 1836–1837===
Macdonald was then ] on February 6, 1836.<ref>Johnson J.K. and Waite P.B. (2007) "Sir John Alexander Macdonald" in ''Canada's Prime Ministers, Macdonald to Trudeau: Portraits from the Canadian Dictionary of Biography'', p.1. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.</ref> Soon after opening his own law firm he took in two students: ], a future premier of Ontario and like Macdonald himself, a Father of ], and ], future Father of Confederation, federal cabinet minister and ].<ref> Pope, p.8.</ref> With the help of his students, Macdonald "busied himself with lucrative but tedious work, such as chasing down unpaid bills and searching titles."<ref>Gwyn, pp.48–49.</ref> Then suddenly, in 1837, Macdonald switched to criminal law for two years. Biographer ] writes that although there's no documentary evidence, there is a "plausible explanation" for Macdonald's motives:
<blockquote>
As a criminal lawyer who took on dramatic cases, Macdonald got himself noticed well beyond the narrow confines of the Kingston business community. He was operating now in the arena where he would spend by far the greatest part of his life --- the court of public opinion. And while there he was learning the arts of argument and of persuasion that would serve him all his political life.<ref>Gwyn, p.49.</ref>
</blockquote>
Macdonald unsuccessfully defended a man accused of raping an eight-year-old girl but won praise from a local newspaper for conducting "a very able defence." He then won the acquittal of a man accused of murdering a friend after an argument. Alexander Campbell, Macdonald's student, wrote years later that Macdonald had persuaded the jury by his "humour and strong liking for anecdote more than for his professional knowledge."<ref>The details of these cases are recounted in Gywn, pp.49–50.</ref>

===Rebellions of 1837===
The ] in Upper and ] proved to be a crucial turning point in Macdonald's legal career. In fact, biographer Donald Creighton argues that the rebellions "made him as a lawyer," giving him the "reputation of a conservative who was not afraid to battle for liberal principles."<ref name="CR68">Creighton, p.68.</ref> Macdonald showed he was willing to take professional risks first by defending eight political prisoners from nearby counties who had been charged with treason for allegedly participating in the uprisings against colonial authorities. Macdonald succeeded in winning acquittals for all eight earning praise for his "ingenuity and ability" from a Kingston newspaper which also noted that the young barrister "is rapidly rising in his profession."<ref>Quoted in Creighton, p.54.</ref>

Then, Macdonald served as co-counsel for John Ashley, the man in charge of a local military jail, who had himself been arrested and briefly imprisoned for allegedly helping 15 political prisoners escape from custody. Ashley sued Colonel Dundas, the military commander for illegal arrest. Dundas was a popular figure, but Macdonald helped persuade the jury to award Ashley substantial monetary damages. Macdonald, Creighton writes, was now associated "with the defence of the plain people against the encroachments of military power. The solid blue of his inherited conservatism was varied now, in a pleasantly interesting fashion, with a few threads of a different and livelier color."<ref>Creighton, pp.55–58</ref>
]
Finally, Macdonald took his biggest risk of all by agreeing to advise American raiders who had participated in an abortive invasion to liberate Canada from what they saw as the yoke of British colonial oppression. The inept raiders had been captured after the ] (1838, near ]) --- a battle in which 16 Canadians were killed and 60 wounded. Worst of all, the American invaders were accused of mutilating the body of a dead Canadian lieutenant. Creighton writes that Kingston was "mad with grief and rage and horror."<ref>Creighton, p.63.</ref> At least two other lawyers refused to help when the brother-in-law of one of the Americans pleaded with them to provide legal advice. Macdonald must have hesitated, but eventually said yes after the frantic brother-in-law knocked on his door one morning before he was out of bed.
<blockquote>
It was surely wisdom to have nothing to do with the whole affair. And yet, he took the case. Even he might have found it difficult to say why. A curious interest in people, a relish for cases which were odd and difficult, a jaunty recognition of the fact that professional prestige involved publicity, and, perhaps, a certain stubborn, independent conviction that these helpless and deluded men deserved at least the bare minimum of assistance – all these may have helped to move him to his decision.<ref>Creighton, pp.63–64.</ref>
</blockquote>
There was little Macdonald could do to defend the Americans. Under military rules governing courts martial, civilian lawyers were not allowed to question witnesses or address the judge. Macdonald could only give private advice which helped the brother-in-law to ask searching questions during his trial, but did not save him from the gallows. Macdonald also advised "General" ], the brave and charismatic Polish immigrant who had led the American raiders after their real commanders abandoned them at Windmill Point. Von Shoultz insisted on pleading guilty and wanted to leave Macdonald $100 in his will. Macdonald had to refuse it, but he never forgot the tragic story of the tall, handsome Pole.<ref>Creighton, pp.65–68. The information about the $100 legacy appears in Pope, p.10.</ref>

Biographer Donald Creighton writes that although the rebellions and their aftermath helped Macdonald's career, they also had lasting psychological effects. "For him, and for Kingston," Creighton writes, "the 'rebellion' had been not so much a native uprising as a succession of American raids; and from then on he never quite lost a certain lingering anxiety for the problem of British North American defence."<ref name="CR68"/>

==Political rise, 1843–1864==
]
In 1843, Macdonald entered politics, standing for the office of ] in Kingston, a position to which he was elected.<ref name = "CC2">{{cite web|url = http://www.collectionscanada.ca/confederation/023001-2360-e.html|title = Sir John A. Macdonald – Canadian Confederation|publisher = Libraries and Archives Canada}}</ref> In 1844 he was elected to the legislature of the Province of Canada to represent Kingston<ref name = "QHE">{{cite web|url = http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/quebechistory/encyclopedia/SirJohnA.Macdonald-JohnAlexanderMacdonald-CanadianHistory.htm|title = Sir John A. Macdonald|publisher = The Quebec History Encyclopedia}}</ref>, gained the recognition of his peers and in 1847 was appointed Receiver General in ]'s government. However, Macdonald had to give up his portfolio when Draper's government lost the next election. He left the Conservatives, hoping to build a more moderate and palatable base. In 1854, he helped with the founding of the Liberal-Conservative Party under the leadership of Sir ]. Within a few years, the Liberal-Conservatives would attract all of the old Conservative base as well as some centrist Reformers. The Liberal-Conservatives came to power in 1854 and under the new government Macdonald was appointed ]. During his time in cabinet, Macdonald was usually the most powerful minister, even when other men held the premiership. In the next election Macdonald continued his rise in politics by becoming ] with Sir ] of Canada East for the years 1856 and 1857.

Taché resigned in 1857, and ] took his place. In the election of 1858, the Macdonald-Cartier government was defeated and they resigned as Premiers. In an interesting piece of politics, the ] asked Cartier to become the senior Premier, only a week after his defeat. Cartier accepted and brought Macdonald into office along with him. This was legal as any member of the cabinet could re-enter the cabinet provided they did so within a month of resigning their previous position. Macdonald focused on communications and defence, especially the Intercolonial Railway. Canada had to pressure the Colonial Office, ], ], ] and ] to, as one historian notes, "consider an ambitious scheme proposed by their pushing and turbulent neighbour, Canada."

The coalition government was again defeated in 1862. Macdonald then served as the leader of the opposition until the election of 1864, when Taché came out of retirement and joined ranks with Macdonald to form the governing party yet again.

==The Confederation of Canada, 1864–1867==
To resolve the frequent legislative deadlocks in the Province of Canada, ], the leader of the ] (the forerunners to the ]) and an extremely vocal opponent of Macdonald's Conservatives, joined with Macdonald's Conservatives and George-Étienne Cartier's ] in 1864 to form the ]. The coalition sought to reform the political system of Canada, and was a crucial step in achieving a consensus to support future reform. However, the ] of Canada East, led by ], still refused to join the coalition. Macdonald then spent 1864 to 1867 organizing the legislation needed to confederate the colonies into the country of Canada. In September 1864, he led the Canadian delegation at the ] in ], ], to present his idea to the Maritime colonies, who were discussing a union of their own. In October 1864 delegates for confederation met in ], ], for the ], where the Seventy-Two Resolutions were created&nbsp;– the plan for confederation. By 1866, ], ], and the Province of Canada had agreed to confederation. ] and ] were opposed. In the final conference of confederation held in 1866 in ], ] the agreement to confederate was completed.

In 1867 the agreement was brought to the ], which passed the ] creating the Dominion of Canada. Upon the creation of the Dominion of Canada, the Province of Canada was then divided into the individual provinces of ] and ]. Macdonald was asked by the first Governor General of Canada ], to form the first government. He was subsequently ] on ], July 1, 1867, the only colonial leader ever to receive that honour.{{Citation needed|date=July 2009}}

]

==First term as prime minister, 1867–1871==
] knighted John A. Macdonald for playing an integral role in bringing about ]. His appointment as a Knight Commander of the ] was announced at the birth of the Dominion, July 1, 1867. An ] was held in August which put Macdonald and his Conservative party into power.

Macdonald's vision as prime minister was to enlarge the country and unify it. Accordingly, under his rule Canada bought ] and the ] from the ] for £300,000 (about $11,500,000 in modern Canadian dollars). This became the ]. In 1870 Parliament passed the ], creating the province of ] out of a portion of the Northwest Territories in response to the ] led by ].

==Second term and resignation over Pacific Scandal, 1871–1873==
]
In 1871 Britain added ] to Confederation, making it the sixth province. Macdonald promised a transcontinental railway connection to persuade the province to join, which his opponents decried as a highly unrealistic and expensive promise. In 1873 ] joined Confederation, and Macdonald created the ] (now called the "]") on the advice of the Northwest Territories government, to act as a police force for the vast Northwest Territories.<ref name="final">{{cite news|title=The North-West Council|date=February 19, 1876|pages=8|work=Vol II No. 197|publisher=Manitoba Daily Free Press}}</ref>

In 1873, Macdonald was accused of taking bribes to award contracts for the construction of the railway. The ] broke and Macdonald was forced to resign on November 5, 1873. ] leader ] formed a ]. After New Years, 1874, the Liberals called an ]. Macdonald's Tories were unable to recover from the scandal and the Liberals formed a majority government. This election was also the first in Canada to use a ].

==Final years as prime minister, 1878–1891==
]]]
In 1878 on the strength of the ], a plan to promote trade within the country by protecting it from the industries of other nations. He also promised to renew the effort to complete the previously promised ]. Macdonald won re-election as prime minister again in 1882. In 1884, Macdonald introduced a bill that would have given unmarried women with the required qualifications Dominion franchise, but the bill was defeated by the house. The CPR was completed in 1885, after several refinancing plans to cover shortfalls for the very expensive project, plunging Canada heavily into debt. Also in 1885, Louis Riel returned to Canada from exile in the United States, and launched the ] in the ] (at that time part of the ]) in a bid for independence, but now that there was a railway through the area, militia were quickly sent to put it down; troops travelling from central Canada reached the site in eleven days.<ref>''Mr. Prime Minister 1867–1964'', by ], Toronto 1964, Longmans Canada.</ref> The success of this operation gave the CPR enough political capital to garner sufficient support to complete its construction. The trial and subsequent execution of Riel for treason caused a deep political division between French Canadians, who supported Riel (a culturally French ] and devoutly Catholic) and English Canadians, who supported Macdonald.

] election poster from 1891]]

In 1891, Macdonald won the elections again, but by this time, the 76-year-old political warhorse started to feel the years of overwork, stress, drink and several bouts of severe illness, including a gallstone problem in 1870 that turned his office into a sick room for two months. On May 29, 1891, Sir John A. suffered a severe ], which robbed him of the ability to speak, and from which he would never recover. He died a week later on June 6, 1891 at the age of 76. He would ] in the ] Chamber (prime ministers now lie in state in the ] in the ]) where grieving Canadians turned out in the thousands to pay their respects. His ] was held on June 9, attended by hundreds of thousands of people.{{Citation needed|date=November 2008}} He is buried in ] in ]. None of his children left heirs; he is survived by relative Hugh Gainsford.{{Citation needed|date=July 2008}}

==Personal life==
===Tragic first marriage===
]
John A. Macdonald's adult life was marked by sickness, death, drunkenness and tragedy. Yet, he rose above his private unhappiness and personal failings to become a well-loved and highly successful public figure, applying "all his passion to politics".<ref>Gwyn, p. 86.</ref> He officially became head of his family on September 29, 1841, with the sudden death of his father Hugh from a ].<ref>Phenix, p.49.</ref> Now, John was solely responsible for the financial support of his mother and two unmarried sisters. Fortunately, his law practice was going well and his income was supplemented by extensive business activities. He served for example, as a director of the prosperous Commercial Bank of the Midland District as well as its lawyer. The Bank provided him with a large part of his income.<ref>Swainson, p.29.</ref> He also bought real estate and eventually became a director of a dozen Kingston companies.<ref>Gwyn, pp.54–55.</ref>

But at the same time, he frequently suffered from an undiagnosed illness. The symptoms, weakness and listlessness, began in 1840 and continued sporadically throughout 1841.<ref>Swainson, p.31.</ref> Macdonald decided he needed a complete rest, and in January 1842 he set sail for Britain, his pockets full of the money (about two thousand dollars) he had won during three nights of playing a card game called Loo.<ref>Creighton, p.84. The two thousand dollar figure is from Gwyn, p.55.</ref> Macdonald's trip proved to be fateful. He recovered his health and met his first cousin ].<ref>Waite, P.B. (1975) ''Macdonald: His Life and World''. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited, p.24. Waite notes that "strictly speaking" Isabella was "a half-second cousin." The two had a maternal grandmother in common.</ref> Isabella's features were gentle and tranquil, according to biographer ], "her hair brushed smoothly away from its centre part in the demure fashion of the 1840s."<ref>Creighton, p.85.</ref> She also had "large, beautiful blue eyes with an imploring expression that melted more than one observer's heart."<ref>Phenix, pp.56–57.</ref> "Isa," as Macdonald called her, followed him home to Kingston and on September 1, 1843, they were married. Macdonald was 28, ], 34.<ref>Phenix pp.56 & 59</ref>

For the first year, the Macdonalds lived the life of a happy, successful couple. John had been elected city ] a few months before his marriage, so he was now a prominent local politician, and his law partnership with his former student, ], continued to flourish.<ref>Swainson, p.33. Macdonald concluded his partnership agreement with Campbell on the same day as his wedding. See, Phenix, p.61.</ref> In the fall of 1844, Macdonald was elected as a Conservative Member of Parliament for Kingston.<ref>Creighton, p.99.</ref> Then, in 1845, everything changed when his beloved "Isa" got sick. She suffered periodic attacks that included severe headaches and numbness. Biographer Patricia Phenix writes that Isabella was diagnosed "as suffering everything from ], a devastating pain in the fifth nerve of her face, to 'uterine ].'"<ref>Phenix, p.70.</ref>. To relieve the pain, she drank liquid ] as well as sherry. The opium and alcohol combined with the painful attacks left her groggy, exhausted and bedridden.<ref>Phenix, pp.69–71, 82 & 86.</ref> Her chronic illness may also have had psychological causes rooted in an "]" compounded by ] headaches and her dependence on opium.<ref>McSherry, James. (1984) "The invisible lady: Sir John A. Macdonald's first wife." In ''Canadian Bulletin of Medical History,'' pp. 91–97. See also Phenix, pp.71–72 & 77.</ref> As the illness continued, Macdonald feared Isabella would die. "The warm, pleasant edifice of his domestic happiness," Donald Creighton writes, "was crumbling towards utter ruin."<ref>Creighton, p.112</ref>

===Macdonald's two sons===
John responded to his wife's protracted illness by taking her to ] where he hoped the warm climate and the company of her sisters would restore her health. They set off on their journey in the summer of 1845. The trip turned out to be long and gruelling with Isabella often unable to walk and suffering excruciating pain. They first joined Isabella's sisters in ], finally reaching Savannah in late November. John A. was anxious to return home to continue his political career. He had to remain in the American south however, until Isabella's sisters arrived in mid-January 1846. He would not see his wife again until Christmas when they were reunited in New York City.<ref>Phenix gives a detailed account of the couple's arduous travels, pp.72–79.</ref> There, Isabella became pregnant. After Macdonald returned to Canada, she remained under medical care in New York.<ref>Gwyn, p.83</ref> Their first son, John Alexander, was born in New York on August 3, 1847, after a long and agonizing labour.<ref>Phenix, p.85.</ref> "His eyes are dark blue, ''very large'' & ''nose'' to match," Macdonald wrote to his sister-in-law. "When born his length was 1 foot 9 inches & was strong and healthy, though thin."<ref>Johnson, J.K. (1969) ''Affectionately Yours: The Letters of Sir John A. Macdonald and His Family''. Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, p.53.</ref>

]

Macdonald rented ] in Kingston in 1848 in the hope that the fresh suburban air and quiet would help Isabella's condition after her return from New York. This experiment, however, was a failure. Worse still, shortly after the Macdonalds moved into their new home, 13-month-old John Alexander was found dead in his crib, a possible victim of SIDS or ].<ref>Phenix, pp.93–94. Phenix writes: "According to Dr. Josephine Faveraux of the Addiction Research Foundation of Ontario, the rate of SIDS increases in infants and toddlers born to mothers addicted to opiates, especially if alcohol has also played a part in the equation."</ref> Isabella became pregnant again in 1849, yet another miracle for a 40-year-old chronically ill woman.<ref>Phenix, p.100.</ref> Their second son, ], was born on March 13, 1850. "We have got Johnnie back again," Macdonald wrote to his sister. "I don't think he is so pretty, but he is not so delicate. He was born fat & coarse."<ref>Johnson, p.71.</ref>

Hugh John and his father were never close. The boy was raised by Macdonald's sister Margaret and her husband, James Williamson, after Isabella's death in 1857.

===Debt and drinking===
Macdonald's frequent absences from his law practice to care for Isabella and the expenses of providing medical and nursing care drove him into heavy debt. Salaries for politicians during this period were meager stipends. His partner objected to his casual habit of using law firm revenues to pay his expenses and in 1849, Alexander Campbell decided to leave the partnership.<ref>Creighton, pp.147–149.</ref> Macdonald had already turned to the bottle for solace during the 12 lonely years of Isabella's illness. They were years in which, according to Donald Creighton, he had become "a bachelor husband who had to go for companionship to bars and lounges and smoking rooms; a frustrated host who drank too much on occasion, partly because it was the only way he could entertain, and because it passed the empty time, and because it was an easy way to forget."<ref>Creighton, pp.260–261.</ref> According to Richard Gwyn, a biographer, Sir John was not a steady alcoholic but rather a binge drinker. Long periods of abstinence would precede bouts of intense inebriation lasting weeks. Once while debating an opponent the drunken Sir John flooded the speaker's podium with vomit. He apologized to the crowd by explaining that whenever he heard his opponent speak he would lose his stomach.
Macdonald was well known for his wit and also for his alcoholism. 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 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."

===Second marriage and daughter===
In 1867, at the age of 52, Macdonald married his second wife ] (1836–1920). They had one daughter, Margaret Mary Theodora Macdonald (1869–1933), who was born with ] and suffered from physical and mental disabilities. Macdonald always hoped she would recover, but she never did. She died in 1933.

==Supreme Court appointments==
Macdonald chose the following jurists to be appointed as justices of the ] by the ]:
* ] (October 27, 1888&nbsp;– July 24, 1893)
* ] (January 14, 1879&nbsp;– January 7, 1902)
* Sir ] (as Chief Justice, January 11, 1879&nbsp;– September 25, 1892; appointed a ] under Prime Minister Mackenzie, September 30, 1875)

==Freemasonry==
Macdonald was a ], initiated in 1844 at St. John’s Lodge No. 5 in Kingston. In 1868, he was named by the ] as its Grand Representative near the ] (in Ontario) and the rank of Past Grand Senior Warden conferred upon him. He continued to represent the Grand Lodge of England until his death in 1891. His commission, together with his apron and earmuffs, are in the ] at Kingston, along with his regalia as Past Grand Senior Warden. Among the books in his library was a very rare copy of the first Masonic book published in Canada, ''A History of Freemasonry in Nova Scotia'' (1786).<ref></ref><ref></ref>

==Trivia==
{{Trivia|date=January 2008}}
*Macdonald played an integral role in the trial of ], an escaped slave from ].
*Macdonald's temper sometimes got the better of him, such as in one incident in the ] when ] 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!"
*Macdonald resembled British Prime Minister ]. At Disraeli's funeral in 1881, another British official thought that he saw Disraeli's ghost in attendance, although it was actually Macdonald.
*'']'' reported on June 30, 2005, that Macdonald's birthplace in Glasgow, Scotland, was under threat of demolition.
*Macdonald's private train car, which he named ], was given to him by the ] for his work on the railway.
*According to the ], 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.<ref></ref>
*Macdonald's nephew Newton Ford was the father of iconic Canadian-born ] actor ].<ref></ref>
*As of 2008, Macdonald was the first of two Canadian Prime Ministers to die in office (The other was ]).
*Macdonald was the favourite target of the "Grip" magazine's premier cartoonist ], who came to fame by ridiculing Macdonald's government during the ].

==Legacy==
] in ].]]
] to ].]]
Macdonald is depicted on the ]. He also has bridges (]), airports (], and highways (]) named after him, as well as statues and a plethora of schools across the country. In ], Macdonald Park and Sir John A. Macdonald Boulevard are both named in his honour, and a large bronze statue of the man stands at the corner of King and West streets, in the southeastern corner of Macdonald Park. The law building at ] in ] is named in his honour. The ] in Edmonton and ], part of Canada's high commission in London, are also named for him.

Macdonald and his son, ], briefly sat together in the ] before the elder Macdonald's death.

In 1999, after a survey of Canadian historians covering all the Prime Ministers up through ], ] and ] showed that Macdonald was ranked second, only beaten out of first place by ].

In 2004, Macdonald was nominated as one of the top 10 "]" by viewers of the ]. He is considered by some Canadian political scientists to be the founder of the ] tradition.

The ] ] in ] was Sir John Alexander Macdonald's home from 1848 to 1849.

==Biographical and historical studies==
* Bliss, Michael. (1994) ''Right Honourable Men: The Descent of Canadian Politics from Macdonald to Mulroney''.
* Bowering, George. (1999) ''Egotists and Autocrats: The Prime Ministers of Canada''.
* Careless, J.M.S. (1963) ''Canada: A Story of Challenge''. (Revised Edition) Toronto: Macmillan of Canada.
* Collins, Joseph Edmund. (1883) ''Life and times of the Right Honourable Sir John A. Macdonald: Premier of the Dominion of Canada''
* Creighton, Donald. (1952) ''John A. Macdonald: The Young Politician'' vol 1: 1815–1867. Toronto: The Macmillan Company of Canada Limited.
* Creighton, Donald. (1955) ''John A. Macdonald: The Old Chieftain'' vol 2: 1867–1891. Toronto: The Macmillan Company of Canada Limited.
* Creighton, Donald. (1964) ''The Road to Confederation: The Emergence of Canada: 1863–1867''. Toronto: Macmillan of Canada.
* Granatstein, J.L. and Hillmer, Norman (1999) ''Prime Ministers: Ranking Canada's Leaders''. Toronto: HarperCollinsPublishingLtd. P. 15-28. ISBN 0-00-200027-X.
* Guillet, Edwin C, (1967) ''You'll Never Die, John A!''. Toronto: Macmillan of Canada.
* Gwyn, Richard. (2007) ''The Man Who Made Us: The Life and Times of Sir John A. Macdonald''. vol 1: 1815–1867. Random House Canada.
* Hutchison, Bruce. (1964) ''Mr. Prime Minister 1867–1964.'' Toronto: Longmans Canada.
* Johnson, J.K. (1969) ''Affectionately Yours: The Letters of Sir John A. Macdonald and His Family''. Toronto: Macmillan of Canada.
* Johnson, J.K. and Waite, P.B. (2007) "Sir John Alexander Macdonald," in ''Canada's Prime Ministers, Macdonald to Trudeau: Portraits from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography''. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
* McSherry, James. (1984) ''The invisible lady: Sir John A. Macdonald's first wife.'' In ''Canadian Bulletin of Medical History,'' pp.&nbsp;91–97.
* Phenix, Patricia. (2006) ''Private Demons, The Tragic Personal Life of John A. Macdonald''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart.
* Pope, Joseph. (1894) ''Memoirs of the Right Honourable Sir John Alexander Macdonald, G.C.B., First Prime Minister of The Dominion of Canada, Vols. 1&2.'' Ottawa: J. Durie & Son.
* Pope, Joseph. (1915) ''The Day of Sir John Macdonald: A Chronicle of the First Prime Minister of the Dominion''. Toronto: Brook & Co.
* Pope, Joseph (1921) ''Correspondence of Sir John Macdonald: selections from the correspondence of Sir John Alexander Macdonald.'' Toronto: Oxford University Press.
* Sletcher, Michael. (2004) "Sir John A. Macdonald," in James Eli Adams, and Tom and Sara Pendergast, eds., ''Encyclopedia of the Victorian Era''. 4 vols., Danbury, CT: Grolier Academic Reference.
* Swainson, Donald. (1989) ''Sir John A. Macdonald: The Man and the Politician''. Kingston, ON: Quarry Press.
* Waite, P. B. (1971) ''Canada 1874–1896: Arduous Destiny''. Toronto, McClelland & Stewart Ltd.
* Waite, P. B. (1975) ''Macdonald: His Life and World''. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited. ISBN 0-07-082301-4.
* Waite, P. B. (1976) + (1999) ''John A. Macdonald''. Don Mills, ON: Fitzhenry and Whiteside Limited.
* Wallace, W. Stewart. (1924) ''Sir John Macdonald''. Toronto: The Macmillan Company of Canada Limited.

==Notes==
{{Reflist|2}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
*{{cite web|url = http://www.collectionscanada.ca/primeministers/h4-3031-e.html|title = Macdonald-Biography-First Among Equals|publisher = Libraries and Archives Canada}}
*{{cite web|url = http://www.cityofkingston.ca/sirj.asp|title = Sir John A. Macdonald: Father of Confederation|publisher = City of Kingston}}
*{{cite web|url = http://www.kingstonhistoricalsociety.ca/jam/jamkingston.html|title = John A. Macdonald's Kingston|publisher = Kingston Historical Society}}
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*{{cite web|url = http://thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0004867|title = Macdonald, Sir John Alexander|publisher = The Canadian Encyclopedia}}
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<!-- Metadata: see ] -->
{{Persondata
|NAME=Macdonald, John Alexander
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|SHORT DESCRIPTION=1st Prime Minister of Canada (1867–1973, 1878–1891)
|DATE OF BIRTH={{Birth date|1815|1|11|mf=y}}
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|DATE OF DEATH={{death date|1891|6|6|mf=y}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Macdonald, John A.}}
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Revision as of 20:04, 11 January 2010

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