Letter to PM Justin Trudeau on the removal of Sir John A. MacDonald from our Currency by Charles Hooker

Sir: You removed Sir John A Macdonald from the ten-dollar bill and replaced him with a forgotten maritime lady.  That was shameful.

In case you haven’t read your history of Canada, Sir John A Macdonald created Canada when the British government had grown tired of supporting our existence fiscally and militarily.  Your own Liberal party, under Laurier, wanted no part of a united Canada and lobbied against it.  Despite initial rejection from PEI and Newfoundland, Sir John created Canada.

Then, when others were complaining about costs, Sir John looked west and persuaded BC to join the Dominion by building a railroad.  He was again opposed by your Loyal Opposition, the banks and many others including the British government, all of whom were reluctant to lend the necessary funds.  Sir John borrowed millions from Britain, richer Canadians with vision and even the USA to build that railway and accompanied his personal pledges with assurance that few others felt.  He also persuaded the Hudson’s Bay Company to give Canada its vast northern lands.

When Louis Riel, aided and abetted by US interests, tried to remove Manitoba from Canada, Sir John A Macdonald created the Northwest Mounted Police and sent them and the Militia west through raw wilderness via the railroad (still under construction) to restore order.  He succeeded.

The native schools were already in existence when Sir John A Macdonald became Prime Minister.  He didn’t like the assimilation objective, but because attendance was voluntary, he accepted their continuance.  (They became less voluntary, in some cases, when the  government was Liberal.)

You should reconsider your maintenance of Liberal prime ministers Laurier and King on Canadian money while discarding the most important, and probably the best, prime minister Canada ever had.  You might also add Sir Isaac Brock, LtCol de Salaberry, Laura Secord and others who were able to prevent US seizure of Canada militarily in 1812-14 or led Canadian military forces to victory in our many conflicts and peacekeeping operations.  But start with Sir John A Macdonald, our founder.

Here was a Caesar.  When comes such another?