In an act of ignorance and hypocrisy, Regina’s city council has voted to remove the monuments of the two people most responsible for the city’s existence: Prime Minister John A. MacDonald and Edgar Dewdney. .The statue of John A. will soon be mothballed, and Dewdney’s name will be wiped from a city pool and park. Whatever faults these men had, erasing their memories is premised on “two wrongs make a right”. .Regina, Saskatchewan’s capital with over 200,000 residents, was once nothing but a pile of buffalo bones. And so the Cree named it “oskana kâ-asastêki” (“Bones that are piled”). It would still be if it weren’t for Macdonald and Dewdney. .In 1879, Macdonald, father of confederation and Canada’s first prime minister appointed Conservative MP and surveyor Edgar Dewdney to his cabinet as Indigenous Commissioner of the North-West Territories (NWT). On Macdonald’s advisement, Dewdney also became the Lieutenant-Governor for the NWT in 1881. Dewdney, Macdonald, and Mounted Police comptroller Frederick White joined a syndicate that bought land at Pile O’ Bones. And wouldn’t you know it—the CPR passed by and the place was chosen to be the new NWT capital..The name Assiniboia was proposed, but Macdonald didn’t like it. He suggested the Governor General choose the name. Then Princess Louise, daughter of Queen Victoria and wife of the Governor General, named the city “Regina.” The Latin word for ‘Queen’, was chosen in honour of her mother and so the Queen City was born..To Dewdney’s dismay, the CPR laid the tracks north of his land and put the train station close to land co-owned by William Scarth, a Tory and friend of Macdonald’s. The customs office, land office, and the post office went up nearby. Dewdney helped his own business interests by putting the Mounted Police barracks and Lieutenant Governor’s residence further west near his own land..Macdonald could not please one friend without offending the other, so he put the offices of the Indian Commissioner and North West Council halfway between Scarth and Dewdney’s lands. The registry office went up on a block of its own. As Pierre Burton wrote in The Last Spike, “The queer community straggled for two and a half miles across the prairies, the various clusters of official buildings standing like islands in the prairie sea. Regina was a city without a centre.”.It’s one reason Regina to this day has a less-than-vibrant downtown..In 1870, Riel took over the Red River Colony (later Winnipeg) and had Orangeman Thomas Scott shot by firing squad for insubordination. Macdonald exiled Riel for five years, but Riel came back in 1885 to lead the North-West Rebellion. For that, he was hung for treason in Regina..The land Regina sits on might have become part of the U.S. were it not for Macdonald’s railroad building. Macdonald did not want armies waging war on the indigenous as they had in the U.S. “Indian Wars”. It’s why the first of the numbered treaties was signed four years after confederation. .In 1883, Parliament authorized the Indian Residential Schools, which were patterned after industrial boarding schools in the U.S. Macdonald believed it was helpful to educate children apart from their parents so they would not act like “savages.” They are a shameful legacy, but it’s often forgotten that children were not mandated by law to attend until 1920, long after Macdonald’s death..Macdonald’s statue was erected in Victoria Park in 1967, a location that includes a war memorial and is often chosen for Remembrance Day ceremonies. The decisions that led to its removal began in 2016, when the City of Regina voted unanimously to acknowledge and carry out the actions recommended by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission..Ironically, the commission’s chair, Senator Murray Sinclair has said, “The problem I have with the overall approach to tearing down statues and buildings is that it is counterproductive to…reconciliation because it almost smacks of revenge or smacks of acts of anger.”.Regardless, some activists held repeated demonstrations calling for that very thing. City bureaucrats had a series of meetings with them and others of a similar persuasion to see how they could be appeased. A report was prepared, then made public Friday March 26. Suddenly, on Wednesday the 31st city council voted to remove the statue from the queen’s park in the Queen City. They also voted to remove Dewdney’s name from a city park and pool..The most illuminating motion was the one to change the name of Maple Leaf Pool, the newest in the city. That was voted down, but it showed what kind of appeasement the activists want: the cancellation of Canada’s cultural icons, symbols, and historic figures. This is not truth and reconciliation. It is cultural erasure and politically correct ignorance. Too bad city council and John A’s statue fell for it..Lee Harding is the Saskatchewan Political Columnist for the Western Standard
In an act of ignorance and hypocrisy, Regina’s city council has voted to remove the monuments of the two people most responsible for the city’s existence: Prime Minister John A. MacDonald and Edgar Dewdney. .The statue of John A. will soon be mothballed, and Dewdney’s name will be wiped from a city pool and park. Whatever faults these men had, erasing their memories is premised on “two wrongs make a right”. .Regina, Saskatchewan’s capital with over 200,000 residents, was once nothing but a pile of buffalo bones. And so the Cree named it “oskana kâ-asastêki” (“Bones that are piled”). It would still be if it weren’t for Macdonald and Dewdney. .In 1879, Macdonald, father of confederation and Canada’s first prime minister appointed Conservative MP and surveyor Edgar Dewdney to his cabinet as Indigenous Commissioner of the North-West Territories (NWT). On Macdonald’s advisement, Dewdney also became the Lieutenant-Governor for the NWT in 1881. Dewdney, Macdonald, and Mounted Police comptroller Frederick White joined a syndicate that bought land at Pile O’ Bones. And wouldn’t you know it—the CPR passed by and the place was chosen to be the new NWT capital..The name Assiniboia was proposed, but Macdonald didn’t like it. He suggested the Governor General choose the name. Then Princess Louise, daughter of Queen Victoria and wife of the Governor General, named the city “Regina.” The Latin word for ‘Queen’, was chosen in honour of her mother and so the Queen City was born..To Dewdney’s dismay, the CPR laid the tracks north of his land and put the train station close to land co-owned by William Scarth, a Tory and friend of Macdonald’s. The customs office, land office, and the post office went up nearby. Dewdney helped his own business interests by putting the Mounted Police barracks and Lieutenant Governor’s residence further west near his own land..Macdonald could not please one friend without offending the other, so he put the offices of the Indian Commissioner and North West Council halfway between Scarth and Dewdney’s lands. The registry office went up on a block of its own. As Pierre Burton wrote in The Last Spike, “The queer community straggled for two and a half miles across the prairies, the various clusters of official buildings standing like islands in the prairie sea. Regina was a city without a centre.”.It’s one reason Regina to this day has a less-than-vibrant downtown..In 1870, Riel took over the Red River Colony (later Winnipeg) and had Orangeman Thomas Scott shot by firing squad for insubordination. Macdonald exiled Riel for five years, but Riel came back in 1885 to lead the North-West Rebellion. For that, he was hung for treason in Regina..The land Regina sits on might have become part of the U.S. were it not for Macdonald’s railroad building. Macdonald did not want armies waging war on the indigenous as they had in the U.S. “Indian Wars”. It’s why the first of the numbered treaties was signed four years after confederation. .In 1883, Parliament authorized the Indian Residential Schools, which were patterned after industrial boarding schools in the U.S. Macdonald believed it was helpful to educate children apart from their parents so they would not act like “savages.” They are a shameful legacy, but it’s often forgotten that children were not mandated by law to attend until 1920, long after Macdonald’s death..Macdonald’s statue was erected in Victoria Park in 1967, a location that includes a war memorial and is often chosen for Remembrance Day ceremonies. The decisions that led to its removal began in 2016, when the City of Regina voted unanimously to acknowledge and carry out the actions recommended by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission..Ironically, the commission’s chair, Senator Murray Sinclair has said, “The problem I have with the overall approach to tearing down statues and buildings is that it is counterproductive to…reconciliation because it almost smacks of revenge or smacks of acts of anger.”.Regardless, some activists held repeated demonstrations calling for that very thing. City bureaucrats had a series of meetings with them and others of a similar persuasion to see how they could be appeased. A report was prepared, then made public Friday March 26. Suddenly, on Wednesday the 31st city council voted to remove the statue from the queen’s park in the Queen City. They also voted to remove Dewdney’s name from a city park and pool..The most illuminating motion was the one to change the name of Maple Leaf Pool, the newest in the city. That was voted down, but it showed what kind of appeasement the activists want: the cancellation of Canada’s cultural icons, symbols, and historic figures. This is not truth and reconciliation. It is cultural erasure and politically correct ignorance. Too bad city council and John A’s statue fell for it..Lee Harding is the Saskatchewan Political Columnist for the Western Standard
