John A. MacDonald

A picture of Mr. MacDonald (from Wikipedia)

A hero is someone who can bring an entire nation together and help it become a healthy thriving country. Sir John A. MacDonald is that hero. He was born January 10, 1815 in Glasgow, Scotland and he came to Canada later on in 1820. He was also a businessman and a commercial lawyer. He later on became the Prime Minister. I picked him because he is an inspiration to many Canadians. I also like how he had the guts to sign up for the job and pull it off with enough respect to be elected again later on.

One of the reasons why he is such a great hero is that he built a nation with the entry into confederation with the Northwest Territories, Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan. He went around and got all these places to join up together to make the true north strong and free. It was not easy to persuade all the different areas of the country to join up but sure enough he came through for all of us. If he hadn't done that then we might not have been that strong, (or free). We all benefited from him joining us all together.

Another reason why he is so awesome is that he opened up settlement in the west so that everybody could live anywhere in Canada. If he hadn't been around it probably would have taken much longer to open settlement in the west. Wouldn`t it be weird to only be living in one side of the country and who doesn't want to live on beautiful Vancouver Island? Because I know I really like it here.

He also had a transcontinental railway built for Canada so that trade could be made between many different places. This helped all the people of Canada get easy access to supplies that might not have been available in the place they lived. He did many other things while he was Prime Minister like create the North West Mounted Police and a policy against tariffs to protect Canadian industry.

Now hopefully you may see why he was such an influence and why I chose him as the hero for my website. He passed away in 1891 in Ottawa, Ontario. He was one of the best prime ministers and he was the first and third prime minister of Canada. He was just that good, He got in twice. The only one to be a prime minister longer was William Lyon Mackenzie King.