By Bruce Bell
The Kingston Whig-Standard
Wednesday, July 1, 2015

“It was a birthday party of epic proportions as thousands of people celebrated Canada’s birthday throughout Prince Edward County. The star of the day without question was the nation’s first Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald who came home to join the party.”

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Programme of Events for July 1, 2015

Dedication and Unveiling Ceremony

Ruth Abernethy’s Holding Court

Armoury Square, Picton, 2015

Dedication

•    Prince Edward County Pipe and Drum Band
•    Master of Ceremony Opening Remarks
•    O Canada led by Jeanette Arsenault
•    Justice Robert Sharpe – Macdonald and Canada’s Constitution
•    Treasurer and CEO Janet Minor Law Society of Upper Canada– Macdonald on Women’s Rights and
the Connection with the Law Society
•    R.H. Thomson — Wilfrid Laurier’s Speech, House of Common June 8, 1891
•    Sir John A. Macdonald
•    Master of Ceremony Introduction to the Unveiling

Unveiling of Holding Court

•    Portrait Artist, Ruth Abernethy
•    Member of Parliament for Hastings and Prince Edward, Daryl Kramp
•    Treasurer of the Law Society, Janet Minor
•    Mayor of Prince Edward, Robert Quaiff
•    Chair of the Macdonald Project, David Warrick

Presentation of Holding Court

Ceremonial gift of Ruth Abernethy’s Holding Court from The Macdonald Project to the
Corporation of the County of Prince Edward
(Chair Warrick and Mayor Quaiff)

This Is My Canada by Jeanette Arsenault while photo ops taking place
1. Dignitaries and special guests
2. Macdonald Steering Committee

MC announces free showing of Rocky Mountain Express at the Regent
Introduced by Stephen Low, Director and Cinematographer showing one of the greatest engineering feats of all time,
the building of a nearly impossible transcontinental railway.

Mayor’s Speech and Birthday Cake to Begin Celebrations

End of ceremony

****

Made possible through the generous donations of friends of Macdonald and the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage.

June 10, 2015 – Picton, Canada

The Macdonald Project of Prince Edward County announced today that the much anticipated unveiling of Canada’s 10th public sculpture of Sir John A. Macdonald will take place in front of the Armoury in historic downtown Picton, July 1st at 2 p.m. as part of the official Canada Day festivities. It’s party time in the County.

The year 2015 not only marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Canada’s first prime minister but also the 50th anniversary of the Canadian flag. In two years, all Canadians will celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday.

David Warrick, chair of the Macdonald Project of Prince Edward County comments: “This sculpture will remind Canadians that the principal architect of Canada and the nation’s first prime minister began his career in law and public administration in Picton. He rose from humble beginnings as the son of an immigrant shopkeeper and miller in the Quinte region to become the principal architect of Canada and the nation’s first prime minister.” At the dedication ceremony at 2 p.m., the Prince Edward County Pipes and Drums will begin the event with a march down Main Street followed by the singing of O Canada led by Jeanette Arsenault.

Patrice Dutil, one of Canada’s leading authorities on Macdonald and president of the Champlain Society of Canada, will act as master of ceremonies for the dedication ceremony. Award winning actor, R.H. Thomson will re-enact one of the most famous speeches in Canadian history: Sir Wilfrid Laurier’s famous speech to the House of Commons celebrating the life of Macdonald.

Brian Porter, playing Sir John A. Macdonald, will remember the good old days in the County and with his wife, Agnes, he’ll stroll down Main St. as a reminder of “some of the happiest days of his life” spent in the County.

Treasurer and CEO of the Law Society of Upper Canada, Hon. Janet Minor will speak on Macdonald’s career as a lawyer and a lawmaker, and his early attempt to grant the vote to women years before other world leaders.

Justice Robert Sharpe of the Ontario Court of Appeal will speak about Macdonald and the Canadian Constitution.

Mayor Quaiff will join Ruth Abernethy, Daryl Kramp, Hon. Janet Minor and David Warrick in unveiling the sculpture. This will be followed by Mayor Quaiff’s acceptance of the gift of the sculpture from The Macdonald Project on behalf of the County of Prince Edward. He will then cut a birthday cake for Sir John A. Macdonald.

To acknowledge Macdonald’s central role in building the CPR railway and in uniting Canadians coast to coast, the Regent Theatre will open its doors to two free showings of Stephen Low’s spectacular IMAX formatted film Rocky Mountain Express at 3:30 p.m. and 5 p.m. Each showing will last one hour.

In addition to the Macdonald activities, the Picton Canada Day Committee, led by members of the Picton Business Improvement Association, Picton Recreation Committee, Picton Legion, Eph*ra Event Design, “Come Alive Outside Program” and Emmanuel Baptist Church will be offering a full lineup of July1st celebrations – everything from sidewalk sales and entertainment to a free kids’ carnival at Benson Park.

Warrick comments: “It is only fitting that this sculpture be located in the heart of historic downtown Picton where people meet and greet one another. Macdonald began his career in law and public administration here as a teenager. He actually became an attorney in Picton and practiced law here before moving to Kingston – something we discovered only recently. He also volunteered as secretary for the first school board, the agricultural society and the young men’s debating association. These civic groups met, interestingly enough, in the popular Hopkin’s Tavern across the street from the Armoury at the corner of Ross and Main.

“The sculpture will be unveiled in front of the Armoury built for the Prince Edward Militia in 1914. Sir John A. Macdonald had a close connection with the early militias as a soldier, and legal counsel after the 1837 rebellion. He also played a vital role in Canada’s defence as Minister of Militia. Many soldiers from the Hastings Prince Edward Regiment known later as the Hasty P’s paid the ultimate price for freedom when they helped liberate Holland from Nazi oppression 70 years ago this month in May 1945. Ask member of the Royal Canadian Legion across Canada what this date means to them and then ask anyone of Dutch ancestry what these soldiers mean to them.”

Local resident Justice George Inrig said, “I support the installation of the work in front of the Armoury built for this proud and much decorated regiment. It’s part of our history.” Wear your red and white proudly on Canada Day — and if you feel proud of your history add a little blue to remind us of where we came from.

“See you at the party!”

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The Story behind the Sculpture:

Ruth Abernethy’s bronze portrait of John A. Macdonald Holding Court captures the moment when Canada’s future prime minister presented his first court case at the Picton courthouse in Upper Canada on October 8, 1834. He successfully defended himself against an indictment for assault occasioned by a practical joke. He won that case before a jury in the magistrates’ court known then as the courts of quarter sessions.

Here he is facing a petit jury in his moment of truth. It’s a moment all lawyers remember well, whether they won their cases or not. They are all players on the world’s stage at this moment in their lives.

Here was Macdonald facing a jury of his peers. He was only nineteen, but he was already well-versed in classical rhetoric and grammar from his elementary school education and he had been reading law since the age of fifteen when he passed his entrance examination to the Law Society of Upper Canada. He had studied trials in Picton and Kingston and knew in principle how to present a case to a jury. But here in this trial, he knew something even more valuable–as his future law partner Alexander Campbell once said of him:

His power before a country jury was always marked chiefly if not wholly owing to his knowledge of the jurymen and his appreciation of their habits of thoughts and ways of speaking. He was in tone of voice and manner as thoroughly a Bay of Quinté boy as if he had been born there.

In fact, from the age of five, John A. learned to speak as a Canadian, rather than as a Scot as his parents did. So he knew his jury of mainly North American Loyalists and he used this knowledge of the people to his advantage.

Four months after winning this first court case in Picton, John A. Macdonald graduated from the Law Society as an attorney. By this time he had turned twenty and he had finally “come of age.”

A few months later, he moved to Kingston to practice law there. When he turned twenty-one, he was called to the bar. For the next two years, he took on four challenging and difficult cases and won two of the three winnable cases. Donald Creighton, the acclaimed Macdonald biographer, summed up his reputation in Kingston in 1838:

Without any question he was the preferred legal advisor of the Scottish community and it might even be argued now that he was one of the most popular lawyers in the town as a whole. He was getting to be known professionally as an ingenious young man, persuasive with juries, adroitly clever in the management of cases—“ a dangerous man to encounter in the courts”, as one of his contemporaries phrased it long afterwards.

He was only twenty-three, but by now his talents were clearly evident. He was a gifted individual destined to play the leading role on a much greater stage.