A Dream for Independence: The Story of Canada's First Leader

All the countries that we see today have either, independence, freedom or none of those great things. We should be thankful for living in a country like Canada, but Canada didn't always have its freedom and independence it does today. If it wasn't for sir John A Macdonald, Canada wouldn't have the freedom it does today. John Alexander Macdonald was born in Glasgow, Scotland on January 10, 1815, and grew up in Kingston, upper Canada for most of his life. He became a successful prime minister with the help of his family and friend’s.

Before he did great things, he had to start somewhere, that start was his family and his childhood. Sir John A Macdonald’s family had, his father Hugh Macdonald, his mother Helen Shaw, his sisters Margaret and Louisa Macdonald, and his brother, James Macdonald. In 1820, when sir John .A Macdonald was 5, him and his family immigrated to Canada from Scotland for a better life. Sir John A Macdonald grew up poor, even in Canada, his father tried to run a general mills store and many other stores, but failed to , that's one of the reasons why he was poor. When he settled in Canada, he settled in Kingston where he grew up. Sir John A Macdonald mainly lived in Kingston, upper Canada, but he also grew up in Lennox and Addington, and Prince Edward counties. In 1830, when sir John A Macdonald was 15, he had started training to be a lawyer with George Mackenzie in Kingston. Later in sir John A Macdonald's life, he had gotten his licence to be lawyer and accomplished many other things.

Picture Canada without independence, not everyone getting the rights they deserve, and people rebelling against the law, causing a type of revolution breaking out. If you can picture that than you know how horrific this would be, but thanks to sir John A Macdonald this won't happen. He made Canada independent by uniting many areas of Canada and winning the elections to lead Canada, now let's see what else he did. First of all, he became a politician, businessman, and lawyer. Speaking of lawyer, sir John A Macdonald defended the accused rebels of the rebellion of 1837/ the rebellion of upper Canada. Later into sir John A Macdonald's life, he had united lower and upper Canada into the province of Canada. After uniting lower and upper Canada, he became an attorney general by working hard. In 1956, he was elected to be a co-premier of the province of Canada, but he couldn't of done it without many mistakes and struggles.

Sir John A Macdonald faced many obstacles, including one that wrecked his life completely. The struggle that wrecked his life completely was, the death of his first wife, this led to alcohol problems, that led to health problems that caused his death. Another struggled early was never able to deal with was the death of his first son, his first son died within 19 months of age. One struggle that he was never able to overcome was, that he was able to unite all of the provinces to make Canada a better country. One of the biggest struggles in his career was, he couldn't get the support of the aboriginal people and the French speaking people since he discriminated them, he didn't respect their beliefs and opinion, even though he tried to get the aboriginal people rights about their bills , he did it without hard work and effort. Sadly, sir John A Macdonald was never able to overcome these problems, but he tried his best, that showed a lot about his character.

“I don't care for office for the sake of money, but for the sake power, and for the sake of carrying out my views of what's best for the country.” -Sir John A Macdonald. This quote showed his care for the people of Canada, the country he loved. Sir John A Macdonald was a leader, he led Canada through the race for leader and won giving Canada independence. He was caring, he fought for many rights of others. Sir John A Macdonald was very clumsy, he had left a lit candle in his room whilst he was sleeping, this caused a fire that almost killed him. One trait about him was dedicated, he dedicated his life for the rights of Canada, this dedication of his gave us the rights we have today.

Sir John A Macdonald had a dream, a dream of independence. We all learnt from him, that anyone can change the world by hard work. Another thing we all learnt was, your family is very precious, sir John A Macdonald never really paid attention to his son. Sir John A Macdonald had died of a stroke on June 6th, 1891 in Ottawa. Sir John A Macdonald had the times he succeeded, the time he failed, but overall he did his best to give Canada independence,freedom, and the rights they deserved.