
After a raging debate this summer on the removal of the statue of John A. MacDonald, Canadians are weighing in on the issue.
After a decision by Victoria, B.C.’s mayor and council to remove a statue of John A. MacDonald, a new public opinion survey from the Angus Reid Institute finds the majority say remembering the trauma of residential schools should not come at the expense of memorializing the country’s first Prime Minister.
Canadians (70 per cent) say the name and image of the first Prime Minister should remain in public view, while 11 per cent held the opposing view.
On the removal of statue from Victoria City Hall, over 50 per cent of those polled said they oppose the decision to remove the statute. The decision prompted both outrage and praise from those who felt it an important gesture for reconciliation.
A few weeks after the statue’s removal, Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps also issued an apology for the process by which the decision was made, but said she believed taking down the statue was the right decision.
A majority of Canadians, however, disagree with her, the poll finds. The city has kept the statue in storage as it decided what to do with it.
MacDonald was Canada’s first Prime Minister and served as the MP for Victoria from 1878 to 1882.
He was also a key architect of the residential schools system that removed Indigenous children from their families and sent them to church-run boarding schools where they were prohibited from speaking their native languages or practicing their traditional customs.
Canadians are also nearly twice as likely to say their country “spends too much time apologizing for residential schools” as to say the harm from that policy continues and cannot be ignored.
Half the country, however, is also supportive of either a statutory holiday commemorating the legacy of residential schools (51 per cent support this) or designated “day of remembrance” that is not a statutory holiday (53 per cent).
David Lassmann says
It would be worth keeping the statue as a perpetual reminder of Canada’s racist past, “Lest we forget.” More important to think about is the extent to which our first nations are still systematically being denied justice. I look forward to the day when we can have rational public discussion about these issues.
Brian Koshul says
While we are removing “Bad Things”, let’s erase all mention of all the wars, the concentration camps, the plagues, Hitler, epidemics, slavery, and on and on!
There…feeling better?
Dave Colwell says
This is from my recent Blog:
History is History and should be preserved. But the issue here is not just John A. Macdonald; it involves ALL the later Prime Ministers who condoned and continued his legacy right up to fairly recent years.
Ask yourself: When did the residential school system actually stop? Maybe we should get rid of all their memorials too!?
Should it be ALL or NOTHING? Or should it be just him? For sure the statue should not be destroyed…no more than all the memorials to all the despots and dictators throughout history….they are landmarks to our triumphs and mistakes, from which we should all learn. What we revere and celebrate is always our choice.
One person said: “Just put them all in a park somewhere with ever evolving descriptive plaques. You could have a revolving park of shame, or a colonial oppression sculpture garden. You could also have a good fellows area when revisionists declare someone worthy again. (Redemption) Replace the original locations with plants, playgrounds, art….whatever.”
Another said: “To all those who say it’s a part of history I say: Was Russia wrong for removing statues of Stalin? Was Iraq wrong for removing statues of Hussein? Was Germany wrong for removing Nazi monuments? Yes we need to acknowledge our history but we shouldn’t glorify past wrongs”.
And I replied: “The point is from where they are removed.They should not be destroyed but kept in an appropriate space to reflect the history in context. Otherwise we would have few 3D records of most politicians….They are not usually known for their saintly dispositions! If they are really bad they should never be revered but still remembered. There are still statues of Nero, Caligula, Napoleon etc. and should be. Anyway History is a subjective interpretation of Chronicles and Chronicles are usually full of inaccuracies.,,,but they are all materials from which we may reflect upon some of our mistakes”.