Джон Сэндфилд Макдональд: Онтарионың тұңғыш премьер-министрі

Canadian politician and 1st Premier of Ontario

John Sandfield Macdonald, (December 12, 1812 – June 1, 1872) was the joint premier of the Province of Canada from 1862 to 1864. He was also the first premier of Ontario from 1867 to 1871, one of the four founding provinces created at Confederation in 1867. He served as both premier and attorney general of Ontario from July 16, 1867, to December 20, 1871. He was referred to by his middle name, Sandfield, and often signed his correspondence and documents as J. Sandfield Macdonald.

Macdonald's brothers, Donald Alexander Macdonald and Alexander Francis Macdonald, were also politicians, and served as federal Members of Parliament. Donald, who served as an MP the longest of the three brothers, was in the House of Commons concurrently with both Sandfield and Alexander, although Sandfield and Alexander did not serve concurrently with each other.

Sandfield Macdonald would be the last Roman Catholic Premier of Ontario for 132 years; not until Dalton McGuinty became premier in 2003 would another Roman Catholic assume the office. After Macdonald's tenure, sectarian tensions in the province rose, and the Conservative Party increasingly became identified with the Orange Order and sectarian Protestantism. Even though most of the party's leaders were not sectarian themselves (with a few notable exceptions), Orange Ontarians became a core constituency of the party that leaders were loath to neglect. Catholics, meanwhile, increasingly voted for the Liberal Party. While the Liberals could never be called a Catholic party, the Catholic vote became as important a constituency to the Liberals as the Orange vote became to the Conservatives. Nineteenth century religious tensions aside, Macdonald's election as Ontario's first Premier makes his Catholicity an important historic symbol. Similarly the selection of John Thompson, Canada's first Roman Catholic Prime Minister only twenty five years after Confederation, was indicative of the ambitions of Roman Catholics to be full and equal participants in the newly created country. Macdonald is buried in historic St. Andrews Cemetery in St. Andrews West, South Stormont, Ontario. The gravesite is marked by a bronze plaque, the first under an Ontario Heritage Trust program to honour Ontario premiers at their burial sites, similar to a national program to mark the graves of prime ministers. The Macdonald Block Complex, a major set of four office towers which house ministries of the Ontario government, is named after Macdonald. A statue of Macdonald stands in front of the east side of the Ontario Legislative Building in Toronto. The monument, unveiled in 1909, was sculpted by Walter Allward. He was portrayed by Aidan Devine in the 2011 CBC Television film John A.: Birth of a Country.