I think it is absolutely appropriate to remove the statue of Sir John A. Macdonald from in front of city hall. I think we can hardly brush off as “quirky,” as one writer suggested, the man who thought it was OK to starve the peoples on the Prairies into submission for the capital gains of the colonizers.
If we are looking for a hero who had a vision for the country beyond acquisitiveness, it might be Louis Riel, who saw Rupert’s Land as an opportunity for people of all religions and creeds to live in peace. Macdonald vilified Riel, and he was no friend to Indigenous peoples. Which is why Indigenous people of the city we call Victoria asked for the statue’s removal.
The statue, as it stood in what might be called “pride of place,” no longer represents what we are proud of in 2018.
Let’s put Macdonald in a garden of statues of the European invasion, so we don’t forget what the country was founded on, and let’s start representing our ideals and aspirations.
Paula Jardine
Victoria
