But one year later, fate of statue still unknown
Suggest a new home for the statue of Sir. John. A. Macdonald and you could win a nice crisp $10 bill featuring his likeness.
The Bank of Canada says our Father of Confederation was featured on nine different bank notes since Confederation, including the $10 note pictured above in 1971. Macdonald is currently featured on the Canada 150 Commemorative $10 bank note (2017) along with parliamentarians Sir George-Étienne Cartier, Agnes Macphail and James Gladstone.
Canada’s first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, and first francophone Prime Minister, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, will be honoured on higher value bank notes than $5 and $10 when they are redesigned.
Voters deserve clear Council priorities which they act on in a transparent, accountable manner. But, Macdonald’s statue by the entrance to the Victoria city hall was unceremoniously spirited away to an undisclosed warehouse without adequate public consultation.The removal was conducted behind a black shroud and started in the predawn hours of Nov. 17, 2018, as witnessed by this writer. The removal cost the taxpayer $30,126.
The community outrage about the process prompted in part the Victoria Reconciliation Dialogues, a six-part series of conversations to discuss together what Reconciliation could look like on Lekwungen territory. The fourth in the series – entitled Sir John A. Macdonald in Conversation – “is not to determine or debate the future home of the statue, but rather to help inform Council decision-making on next steps.” It’s scheduled for Mar. 2, 2020.
Both Wikipedia and The Canadian Encyclopedia provide a detailed account of the mixed historical legacy of the Father of Confederation, Canada’s longest serving prime minister and former MP for Victoria.
In 2019 Council approved one-time funding of $10,000 towards the relocation of the Macdonald statue. Any unspent portion at year end (Dec 31, 2019) will be brought forward in the 2020 Final Financial Plan, according to the city.
The City of Victoria does not deserve Sir John, the City is too small to appreciate what he did in the time that he did it. Suggest that Victoria Airport would be an appropriate place for Sir John, in a place where incoming and outgoing travelers could see and learn about him.
I suggest we put the Sir John A. MacDonald statue in Victoria Council chambers as a reminder to all present and future councils of the ignorance of wasting money and time and also on the stupidity of “cleansing” history. Perhaps we could decorate it at Christmas in honour of Ben Isett.