To paraphrase Omar al-Bashir, "The evil that men do lives long after they are gone; but the good they do dies with them." This is certainly true of our first prime minister. We should not ignore the hardships and misery resulting from the residential school systems Macdonald's government initiated, but let's not forget some of the good things. For example (from AaronGunn.ca), (1) Macdonald was the primary architect of our constitution; (2) He promoted a national railway system; (3) He extended the right to vote to Black Canadians; (4) He extended the right to vote to many Aboriginals (later repealed by the Liberal government); (5) He was an early proponent for extending voting rights to women; (6) He provided food aid to Aboriginals over the objections of the opposition.
Bert Christie,
Stratford
