It is nearly impossible to tell the history of Kingston without acknowledging the presence of one increasingly controversial figure – Sir John A Macdonald. Canada’s first Prime Minister and a resident of Kingston for several years, Macdonald left his mark throughout the city in a multitude of distinct ways. Not only did Macdonald’s statue stand at the entrance to one of Kingston’s busiest public parks for years, but so too does his name penetrate even deeper into the city. Found on street signs, park signs, and the names of schools, Macdonald’s hold on the city of Kingston is firm and, for the longest time, seemed unchanging.

 

Recently, place names have begun to reconsider their connections to Macdonald. The removal of his statue from city park in summer 2021 sparked unsurprising backlash from conservative individuals who view his presence as integral to the City’s regional narrative. École Sir John A Macdonald Public School experienced a name change on June 30, 2021, to Kingston East Public School, and Queen’s University’s Macdonald Hall was aptly renamed the “Law Building” in 2020.[1] These name changes represent a recent shift in commemorative practices and memory creation. Monuments and place names were created with the intention of being permanent. Indeed, as scholar Kirk Savage writes “public monuments are the most conservative of commemorative forms precisely because they are meant to last, unchanged, forever.”[2] The removal of Macdonald’s monument is especially significant because it demonstrates a noteworthy shift in the values surrounding commemoration and memorialization. Kirk Savage argues that “the impulse behind the public monument was an impulse to mold history into its rightful pattern. And history was supposed to be a chronicle of heroic accomplishments, not a series of messy disputes with unresolved conflicts.”[3] For the longest time, this was true of not only Macdonald’s City Park statue, but also the buildings and public heritage sites that have inherited his name – Macdonald was immortalized in Kingston’s narrative not as a national heroic figure, but also a local protagonist that helped put the city ‘on the map.’ However, Macdonald’s incessant removal from Kingston’s public commemorative landscape reveals that monuments can indeed evolve, losing their influence over historical narratives.

 

Despite these name changes and statue removals, Sir John A Macdonald’s legacy lives on in Kingston, perpetuating settler colonial memory even during disputed times. Sir John A Macdonald Blvd, Macdonald Park, the Spirit of Sir John A, or Engine 1905, and Macdonald’s famous Kingston dwelling, the Bellevue House, continue to commemorate Canada’s first Prime Minister in highly populated public spaces used by both tourists and locals. It is difficult to determine whether these place names and monuments will also become sites of conflict, and communities demand for the removal of Macdonald’s incites change. Macdonald’s presence in Kingston is intertwined with several other historical narratives. For example, the Kingston Dry Dock National Historic Site, which is part of the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston, prides itself on the fact that Macdonald was one of the first to lay a limestone brick into the famous shipbuilding facility.[4] The Bellevue House, also a

National Historic Site, is part of the Kingston Association of Museums, and brings in several tourists and locals a year, contributing to the ongoing economic and cultural development of the City of Kingston. One can speculate that for these reasons, Macdonald’s name will continue to be preserved in local historical accounts, further perpetuating settler colonial memory into public discourse.

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Works Cited

 

[1] Mazur, Alexandra. “Kingston Public School Board Votes to Change École Sir John A. Macdonald Public School Name - Kingston.” Global News. Global News, June 21, 2021.

https://globalnews.ca/news/7957956/kingston-board-sir-john-a-macdonald-school-name/ ;“Law Building.” Queen's Encyclopedia. Accessed April 28, 2022. https://www.queensu.ca/encyclopedia/l/law-building

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[2] Kirk Savage, “Introduction,” Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves: Race, War and Monument in Nineteenth Century America, 2nd edition, (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2018), 4.

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[3] Savage, 4.

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[4] “About the Collection .” About the Collection. Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston . Accessed April 28, 2022. https://www.marmuseum.ca/research/about-the-collection