John A. Macdonald

Sir John Alexander Macdonald GCB KCMG PC PC QC was the first Prime Minister of Canada . The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, he had a political career which spanned almost half a century. He drank heavily, and in 1873 was voted out during the Pacific Scandal, in which his party took bribes from businessmen seeking the contract to build the Pacific Railway. Macdonalds greatest achievements were building and guiding a successful national government for the new Dominion, using patronage to forge a strong Conservative Party, promoting the protective tariff of the National Policy, and building the transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway. Economic growth was slow during his years in office, as Canada verged on stagnation many residents migrated to the fastgrowing United States. He fought to block provincial efforts to take power back from Ottawa. His most controversial move was to approve the execution of Mtis leader Louis Riel for treason in 1885 it alienated many Francophones

Macdonald was born in Scotland when he was a boy his family immigrated to Kingston in the colony of Upper Canada . As a lawyer he was involved in several highprofile cases and quickly became prominent in Kingston, which elected him in 1844 to the legislature of the colonial United Province of Canada. By 1857 had become premier under the colonys unstable political system.

Source: Wikipedia