A Christian influence on Canada’s first prime minister
From 1971 to 2018 Sir John A. Macdonald’s likeness was on our $10 bills. Since then eight of Macdonald’s ten statues have been vandalized and removed. However, the statue in Toronto’s Queen’s Park was recently returned.
A complicated, flawed man, he is unavoidably Canada’s most famous leader. Some of his tragic mistakes were hanging Louis Riel, creating Indigenous residential schools, and the 1885 Electoral Franchise Act, which removed the right of Chinese people to vote.
Born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1815, he moved with his family to Kingston, Upper Canada, at age 5. He became a lawyer, then a politician, ultimately serving as Canada’s prime minister for 19 years. He lived to see the impossible dream come true of a united nation with a railway from sea to sea.
"We should accept as men and brothers all those who think alike of the future of the country and wish to act alike for the good of the country," he said, although for him Confederation was mainly seen as a spiritual marriage between francophones and anglophones. "God and nature have made the two Canadas one – let no factious men be allowed to put them asunder."
On June 1, 1866, Fenians from the United States invaded British North America. They were an Irish organization that wanted Britain to withdraw from Ireland. After crossing the Niagara River, 750 of them occupied Fort Erie, killing nine militia and injuring 38 others. When promised American reinforcements didn’t turn up, the Fenians left, but such attacks were motivations for Confederation and the building of the nationwide railway.
In person Macdonald was an amazing storyteller and humorist, always telling jokes in Parliament and when out canvassing for reelection, although he didn’t like formal speeches.
In 1888, during six weeks of revival meetings in Ottawa, Macdonald had a deep encounter with Jesus Christ.
His family life had some tragedies. His first wife Isabella became ill in 1844 and then an invalid. Their first son, born in 1847, died in 1848, although they had a second son Hugh in 1850. Macdonald became a heavy drinker before Isabella died in 1857.
Macdonald briefly met Agnes Bernard around this time. Her brother Hewitt Bernard was John’s head of staff and roommate. Agnes and her mother had come up from Jamaica after the death of Agnes’ father, who owned a sugar plantation there.
Although the ladies moved to England, John reconnected with Agnes on Dec. 8, 1866. He had travelled to London for political conferences. After a short courtship they were wed at St. George’s Anglican Church in Hanover Square, London, on Feb. 16, 1867. All her family came along to live in the newly established country, proclaimed the Dominion of Canada on July 1.
She wrote in her diary, "I have found something worth living for – living in – my husband’s heart and love. I often look in astonishment at him." The couple loved chatting about literature and ideas.
Agnes spoke better French, a real asset in bilingual Canada. She adored him and worked tirelessly on his behalf – allowing him to invite Conservative MPs to his place for dinner rather than out to bars.
As a devout Anglican Agnes influenced her husband to stop drinking and start attending church. Macdonald was deeply impressed by the beatitudes and read his Bible nightly. Biographer E. B. Biggar argues Agnes may have extended his life by two decades.
In 1888, during six weeks of revival meetings in Ottawa, Macdonald had a deep encounter with Jesus Christ. John Hunter and Hugh Crossley were the Canadian Billy Grahams, leading 200,000 Canadians and Americans to Christ.
As one journalist put it, "When the well-known form of the Honourable Prime Minister arose in the centre of the church, many strong men bowed their heads and wept for joy." After dining at the prime minister’s home, Hunter confirmed that "Sir John is a changed man."
Agnes possessed a genuine sense of fun and adventure, as when she rode the CPR train’s cowcatcher through the Rockies. A month after Macdonald’s death in June 1891, Lady Agnes was appointed by Queen Victoria as first Baroness Macdonald of Earnscliffe, Ottawa.
Rev. Dr. Ed and Janice Hird of Surrey, B.C., are coauthors of God’s Firestarters: Healing Pioneers (HIS Publishing, 2026). Read more columns at FaithToday.ca/HistoryLesson. Photos: Studio portraits of Sir John A. Macdonald and Lady Agnes Macdonald at William Topley's studio in Ottawa; public domain.