January
11,1815
John
Alexander Macdonald was born in Glasgow, Scotland
1820
After
the failure of Hugh Macdonald's business ventures, the family emigrated to
Kingston, Upper Canada
February
6, 1836
Macdonald
was then called to the Bar
1837
Macdonald
switched to criminal law for two years.
1843
Macdonald
entered politics, standing for the office of Alderman in Kingston, a
position to which he was elected.
1844
He
was elected to the legislature of the Province of Canada to represent
Kingston, gained the recognition of his peers
1847
Was
appointed Receiver General in William Henry Draper's administration.
1854
He
helped with the founding of the Liberal-Conservative Party under the
leadership of Sir Allan MacNab.
1857
Taché
resigned and George-Étienne Cartier took his place.
1858
The
Macdonald-Cartier government was defeated and they resigned as Premiers.
1862
The
coalition government was again defeated
1864
Macdonald
then served as the leader of the opposition until the election
1864
To
resolve the frequent legislative deadlocks in the Province of Canada,
George Brown, the leader of the Clear Grits (the forerunners to the
Liberal Party of Canada) and an extremely vocal opponent of Macdonald's
Conservatives, joined with Macdonald's Conservatives and George-Étienne
Cartier's Parti Bleu to form the Great Coalition.
September
1864
He
led the Canadian delegation at the Charlottetown Conference in
Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, to present his idea to the Maritime
colonies, who were discussing a union of their own.
October
1864
Delegates
for confederation met in Quebec City, Quebec, for the Quebec Conference,
where the Seventy-Two Resolutions were created – the plan for
confederation.
1866
New
Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the Province of Canada had agreed to
confederation. Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island were opposed.
1866
In
the final conference of confederation held in London, England the
agreement to confederate was completed.
1867
The
agreement was brought to the British Parliament, which passed the British
North America Act creating the Dominion of Canada.
July
1, 1867
He
was subsequently knighted on Canada Day, the only colonial leader ever to
receive that honour.
July
1, 1867
Queen
Victoria knighted John A. Macdonald for playing an integral role in
bringing about Confederation. His appointment as a Knight Commander of the
Order of St Michael and St George was announced at the birth of the
Dominion
August
1867
An
election was held, which put Macdonald and his Conservative party into
power.
1870
Parliament
passed the Manitoba Act, creating the province of Manitoba out of a
portion of the Northwest Territories in response to the Red River
Rebellion led by Louis Riel.
1871
Britain
added British Columbia 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.
1873
Prince
Edward Island joined Confederation, and Macdonald created the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police (then called the "North-West Mounted
Police") to act as a police force for the vast Northwest Territories.
1873
Macdonald
was accused of taking bribes to award contracts for the construction of
the railway.
November
5th, 1873
The
Pacific Scandal broke and Macdonald was forced to resign. Liberal leader
Alexander Mackenzie formed a caretaker government
1874
After
New Years, he Liberals called an election. 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 secret ballot.
1878
Macdonald
was returned to power n the strength of the National Policy, a plan to
promote trade within the country by protecting it from the industries of
other nations.
1882
Macdonald
won re-election as prime minister again
1885
The
CPR was completed.
1885
Louis
Riel returned to Canada from exile in the United States, and launched the
North-West Rebellion in the territory of Saskatchewan, 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.
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.
May
29, 1891
Sir
John A. suffered a severe stroke, which robbed him of the ability to
speak, and from which he would never recover.
June
6, 1891
He
died a week later at the age of 76
John
Alexander Macdonald was born in Glasgow, Scotland on January 11,1815 at
4:15 (am or pm is not listed). His father was Hugh Macdonald, an
unsuccessful merchant, who had married Helen Shaw on October 21, 1811.
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, another brother Alexander
Ross who suffered from Mowat-Wilson syndrome, and a baby sister named
Louisa. After the failure of Hugh Macdonald's business ventures, the
family emigrated to Kingston, Upper Canada in 1820 along with thousands of
others seeking affordable land and promises of new prosperity.
Bad luck followed the family to their new country. When he was only seven,
Macdonald watched as his younger brother, James was struck and killed by a
drunken servant who was supposed to be looking after them. And, Hugh
Macdonald's business ventures in the Kingston area were scarcely more
successful than they had been in Scotland.[6] However, the family still
managed to scrape up the money to send Macdonald to Kingston's Midland
Grammar School where, according to biographer Donald Creighton, 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." At 14,
Macdonald switched to a school for "general and classical
education" founded by a newly-arrived Presbyterian minister from
Scotland. It was one of the few schools in Upper Canada that taught both
boys and girls.
Macdonald's formal schooling ended at 15, a common experience at the time
when only the most prosperous were able to attend university.
Nevertheless, Macdonald later regretted leaving school when he did
remarking to his private secretary Joseph Pope 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."
