Guest Blog by Arthur Milnes
“Sir John, you’ll never die!”
This was the shout directed at the Grand Old Man of Canadian politics from supporters during Sir John A. Macdonald’s last election campaign in 1891.
As of Friday September 10, that prophecy has never been truer than it is right now in Kingston.
Arthur Milnes, flanked by the Kingston Town Crier and the Mayor
Last Friday night, the first candidate for Mayor of Kingston in this fall’s municipal election, stepped up and took the John A. Challenge. Councillor Rob Matheson spent the evening guiding folks through Macdonald-related historic sites in the downtown. Along the way, he outlined his own political platform and took questions from voters.
We are confident that Kingston will be the only community in Ontario where mayoralty candidates will be put through their paces as they will here.
It’s called the John A. Challenge.
It’s not a board game or new part of the Ontario curriculum.
Instead, the Challenge is a 90-minute opportunity for voters to engage with their candidates through the vehicle of a John A-themed walking tour of Kingston’s downtown – In Sir John A’s Footsteps! – led by the candidates themselves and open to all.
On Saturday, Councillor Mark Gerretsen took the challenge. It was a beautiful early fall day and he led a group through the downtown. The crowd included the candidate’s father, former Kingston Mayor and current McGuinty cabinet minister John Gerretsen.
The Gerretsens take the John A Tour
Both Gerretsens had a great time and John added his own unique stories and tales from Kingston history. The crowd was impressed. John Gerretsen also helped solve a mystery. As folks here know, the Mayor of Kingston has a special desk to sit behind. After all, what other Canadian mayor can claim to use a desk once owned by Sir John A. himself?
I’ve long wondered how the City got a hold of this special piece of furniture.
It turns out, John reported, that a City of Kingston staffer located the desk, which had been forgotten, during City Hall renovations in the 1970s. It had been tucked away in a basement on site. Before that, the desk and its connections to Canada’s first Prime Minister – who had served as a Kingston Alderman – were forgotten.
Candidates Brian Chalmers (his tour is September 25) and John Last (his date still has to be set but he’s agreed) will soon be doing the John A. Challenge. Agenda viewers are more than welcome to come to Kingston and join in the John A. Challenge.
Yours truly, who researched and wrote In Sir John A’s Footsteps! at the City of Kingston’s behest a couple of years ago, will be there as “Guide-in-Chief” and to assist the candidates at each stop along the walking tour that winds its way through our downtown.
At each stop – Springer Market Square where thousands of Kingstonians gathered on Canada’s first birthday in 1867; the Hotel Belvedere where Mackenzie King met secretly with spiritualists in 1925; various homes where Macdonald and/or his family once lived and others – the candidates will be asked to outline their platforms.
They will take questions from voters throughout the events.
We were able to road-test the John A. Challenge in late July thanks to former Ontario Premier Bob Rae.
He came to town July 29 and with megaphone in hand, guided more than 40 people through downtown Kingston on a beautiful evening. There was so much interest from across Ontario that I had to turn away 50-plus people who tried up until the last minute to purchase one of the $50 tickets. We had to keep the crowd manageable in size, unfortunately.
Bob had so much fun that he’s already said he wants to lead In Sir John A’s Footsteps! again next summer.
I’d like to think that Macdonald, a man who loved to campaign, would approve of this method of electioneering. Out of power in the 1870s, it was Macdonald himself who invented the political picnic. These brought Canadians – gulp, including women! – together for large outdoor social gatherings featuring addresses by Sir John A. They usually took place in a farmer’s field. Thousands would attend and they proved a ground-breaking new tool in Canadian politics.
They were fun too. “This is the first time I’ve ever addressed a crowd from the Grit platform,” legend has Macdonald telling an audience while speaking standing on top of a wagon loaded with dung.
During a debate with another candidate right here in Kingston Sir John A. once employed the earliest known version of Jean Chrétien’s Shawinigan handshake. When heckled Macdonald waded into the crowd and hauled off and punched his heckler in the face.
Prime Minister Jean Chretien with Sir John A
Anecdotes from history are legion concerning John A. the politician.
With the bicentennial of the birth of Canada’s greatest campaigner fast approaching in 2015, Kingston’s 2010 mayoralty candidates are remaining true to the spirit of Macdonald by accepting the John A. Challenge.
Prime Minister Paul Martin with Sir John A
Anyone interested in attending one of Kingston’s 2010 municipal election walks should email me at arthur.milnes@sympatico.ca for further information.
Just a Macdonaldian heads-up to Kingston’s federal and provincial political candidates: You’re next on the John A. Challenge invite list.
And now that Bob Rae has taken the John A. Challenge and led a tour through downtown Kingston, why not Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff, Jack Layton of the NDP, Elizabeth May of the Greens or Gilles Duceppe of the Bloc?
So federal leaders, consider yourselves challenged.
See you in Kingston.
Sir John A. beckons.
Arthur Milnes is a Fellow in Political History, Queen's University Archives, Queen's University at Kingston.
Download your own tour here: http://www.cityofkingston.ca/residents/culture/heritage/macdonald/tour/
