Canada's Confederation Caricature

For a light-hearted look at Canada's political past check out the cartoon below - I've put the dialogue below. For a real test, do you know who they all are? (A brief answer at the bottom.)

 



"Confederation! The much-fathered youngster"

 

Caricature:

 (left to right: George Brown, Sir Francis Hincks, William McDougall, Sir John A. Macdonald).
© Public Domain
Source: Library and Archives Canada/C-005812

 

George Brown: "Come to your genewine Poppy!"

 

Francis Hincks: "I'm the Father of Confederation."

 

William McDougall:  "Gracious! Me own child don't know me!!"

 

John A. Macdonald:  "Don't it recognize it's real Daddy?"

 

 

Answers of a sort --- from The Moment of Our Conceptions: Canada and Me by Anne McDonald

 

George Brown (November 29. 1818 Scotland – May 9, 1880 Toronto, Canada)

A man of principles – bigot, racist, political idealist. Founder of the Globe, Canada’s national paper now, married at 44 breathing new life into him, making him less crotchety – died of a wound in his leg he didn’t get looked after gotten in a duel. How crotchety is that?

 

John A Macdonald (January 10, 1815 Scotland – June 6, 1891, Ottawa, Canada)

A man who referred to himself as John A, “the public prefers John A drunk to George Brown sober.”

 

William McDougall (January 25, 1822 York Toronto -- May 29, 1905 Ottawa, Canada) 

Failed lieutenant governor of the North-West Territories, starting off the Red River Rebellion and Resistance with his bounded Boundary Commission, Donald Cameron his right hand man in the deal - married to Emma Tupper the only daughter of Charles Tupper, another Father, but that's a different story.

 

C All Rights Reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, all blog content copyright Anne McDonald.



Word on the Street

The Word on the Street in Saskatoon is happening next Sunday September 23, 2012 from 11:00 am to 5 pm.

There are 30 authors reading, 4 tents including a kids and teen tent, music, booksellers and a marketplace - what more could a reader, writer - or savvy Christmas shopper want!

I'll be there reading from my award winning novel. To the Edge of the Sea, set during the Confederation Conferences of 1864 - where the sun is shining, island breezes (Prince Edward Island that is) are blowing, $13,000 worth of champagne is being poured, the circus is in town, and John A, the John A, is falling in love ... and so the story of Canada begins.
     Who knew Canadian history was so fascinating - tightrope walkers, the circus, champagne and love!

Some comments from judges, reviews and readers:

In the mid-19th century, three young Prince Edward Islanders explore their disparate futures at home and away, in a debut novel that is lyrical and precise in its descriptions of land, sea and people, and powerful in its accounts of both personal and political histories of the province and country.

Sask Book Award judges Joan Barfoot, Christine Cowley and Katherine Gordon

"Prince Edward Island is also a character in the story.  Seldom has any writer conveyed its essence so well.  And the beautifully constructed sentences and paragraphs flow like water, read like a prolonged dream, and would be worth reading aloud slowly ..."  Elizabeth Cran for the Charlottetown Guardian

"Anne weaves such an imaginative, descriptive spell in this wonderful story bringing life to Canadian history. It is so suspenseful that I found myself eager to hurry to each subsequent page to see what would happen next. This book is brilliantly written, and ranks with some of Canada's esteemed authors. It has such a poetic quality to it while being a superb narrative. A beautiful piece of writing!"  a reader in Ottawa

It's John A Macdonald's Birthday

John A is nearly 200 - 3 more years and he'll be there! In the meantime, he, I, and Richard Gwyn have had a great year.

Gwyn's 2nd volume of his biography of John A was released this year - as was my novel based around Confederation which features John A as one of the main characters (tricky, very tricky having a real person set in a real historical time - and fun to play with and explore).

In Today in Canadian History they have a wonderful 2 part interview with Gwyn. Before they speak with Gwyn they say the start of Canada was boring - I disagree with that! Read my novel; listen to Gwyn; just the plain facts tell us more than that.

Gwyn refers to Joseph Pope who became John A's secretary - and stayed in Wilfred Laurier's cabinet as he was so knowledgeable and so good at his job. Roy MacSkimming writes brilliantly of both Laurier and Pope in his novel Laurier in Love. For my part, I have a piece with Joseph Pope in To the Edge of the Sea - Joseph was the son of William Pope, one of the PEI delegates for Confederation, and the only one who went to meet the Fathers of Confederation on their steamship the Queen Victoria ... meanwhile, remember the circus was on ... Here is my fictional account of Joseph:

Joseph Pope sat in a tree in the yard, half way up and

hidden by the summer leaves, waiting for his father. He’d

been waiting two hours already. It didn’t matter anymore; the

show had started and still he waited. Today, he’d promised,

today they would go. Joseph took a twig and held it against

the trunk of the tree. Two black ants crawled onto the stick.

They walked up it and he pretended they were the acrobats. He

turned the stick upside down as the ants, unconcerned, went

up and down. He held it so that one ant crawled into his palm,

circled it, searching for what? Joseph sighed. He’d barely eaten

any lunch he was so excited and now it was nearly tea time.

     He shifted, the bark pressed uncomfortably against his

legs. He watched the ant on his palm, felt the slight tickling

of it as it walked. Joseph looked back at the road. Nothing,

no one coming. Holding the twig loosely in his other hand,

he watched the single ant crawl along it and then he held it

out over the open ground and dropped it. He watched as it

hit the ground, the acrobat falling, the crowd below gasping.

Joseph gasping too, as if it were real. Pretending to himself,

wanting the game. He looked back at his palm and reached

his finger out to touch the other ant. So small it tried to crawl

onto his finger. It struggled, then caught hold. With his thumb

he brushed against it, so small he could barely feel it, could

pretend it wasn’t there. He brushed harder, and then pressed

the ant between his finger and thumb. Opened his hand and

looked, only a smudge of black remaining.

Gwyn quotes Pope, "(Macdonald) knew every chord of the human heart."
Richard Gwyn will be reading and signing at McNally Robinson in Saskatoon this coming Mon Jan 16, 2012 at 7:30 pm.
Happy Birthday John A - and my Aunt Fran from Prince Edward Island, who sent me so much history on PEI and was a writer too.

Fact and Fiction Mercy Coles and John A Macdonald

October 1864 is when the Fathers of Confederation met in Quebec to create the 72 resolutions that make up the BNA Act of Canada's constitution - they took along their unmarried daughters and sisters too. Mercy Coles wrote of the events in her diary - I used it in creating her character in my novel and used the timeline to help structure the novel. On Wed Oct 26 she writes of John A at dinner with her - read that note here on my posting on Christopher Moore's history blog

AND FROM THE NOVEL - WHAT I MADE OF THE FACTS ...

When they all returned to their seats the conversation

continued, a little louder, more merry. They talked of

the tour ahead, of Montreal and Ottawa. Of the trip around

the lake, through Kingston and Toronto and on to the Falls of

Niagara. Everyone talked eagerly, looking forward to the trip.

Mercy was eating new potatoes, the taste of home, the first

time she’d enjoyed eating anything in the past two weeks. The

two of them, Mercy and John A, still connected in the dance,

a shift in one causing a change in the position of the other.

A synchronicity of movement though they were turned away

from each other and talked to the people beside them. Mercy

felt how every subtle movement in her changed him, knowing,

with an edge of thrill, that if she were to stand now and leave,

he would follow.

As dinner ended they moved to the drawing room, the

women first as the men lingered behind talking. Mercy sat on

the blue couch by the fire, a silk cushion at her back. She felt

a draft of night air come in through the window; the damp of

it mixed with the smell of the wood smoke in the small room.

Macdonald was the first to enter the room. He walked over to

her bringing her dessert. As if he ought to do it, as if he always

would do it.

He sat with the men and poured himself a drink. The talks

were over, Mowat finished with his finances. Seventy-two

resolutions, the draft completed. Next the tour to convince

the people. He rested back into his chair. He liked the smell

of damp wood, the same as the smell of night in the trees by

his lake and the wet leaves of fall at home. Here it was nearly

winter, rain becoming snow too soon in the season. They

were headed back now, towards home. He closed his eyes for

a moment, smiled. He’d stop, see Hugh John. He raised his

glass, drank.

Mercy sat silent holding her plate. She wished she could

take off her gloves and feel the air on her skin, the coolness of

the fork against her palm, the texture of the plate. She wanted

to touch, feel the air. She could feel the cushion at her back,

was conscious of how her legs touched each other under her

dress, and how her feet rested lightly on the floor, every inch

of skin aware, everything magnified. She watched a drift of

smoke rise to the ceiling, the air quivering in the damp. She

sat eating her cake. There was a crumb at the corner of her

mouth. Raising her hand, she dusted the crumb away, leaving

lemon sugar on her lip. She licked it away, a small indelicacy,

her napkin held in her hand. And she saw Macdonald look up

at her just then, but her small tongue was out of her mouth.

John A watching, smiled as he looked away, the tip of her

tongue sweet in her mouth.

A cartoon about John A and George Brown - true and too funny

In Christopher Moore's History News Blog he has Kate Beaton's comic on John A and George Brown. Quill and Quire have a report on her recent winning of the Harvey Award for comics and sequential art. She has done lots of history comics and is originally from Canada - Cape Breton. Check out her website and Chris' note on her.  
My own take on George Brown from The Moment of Our Conceptions: Canada and Me (a manuscript in progress) follows.

http://christophermoorehistory.blogspot.com/

Kate Beaton's site:   http://harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=184    Scroll down and see the famous photograph and Kate's history notes on the day the picture was taken - Charlottetown, September 1864, many of the Fathers of Confederation hungover as she points out (that's because of their $13,000 worth of champagne they had on their boat).

 -- from The Moment of Our Conceptions: Canada and Me  Anne McDonald

The Fathers of Confederation, twenty-three all together, what a surprise, always thinking there were twelve, like the apostles. All the writers dead and no one left to write for real of the conception of Canada. Canada my religion, Canada my soul.

George Brown

A man of principles – bigot, racist, political idealist. Founder of the Globe, Canada’s national paper now, married at 44 breathing new life into him, making him less crotchety – died of a wound in his leg he didn’t get looked after gotten in a duel – how crotchety is that?

John A is on the move! To the Edge of the Sea BC book tour

John A. Macdonald heads to Penticton June 16, Kelowna June 17, Vancouver June 20 and 21, and Victoria. To the edge of the sea for To the Edge of the Sea, a Novel by Anne McDonald.

Penticton        Hooked on Books, Thurs June 16, 7:00

                        225 Main Street, Penticton

Kelowna         Mosaic Books   Friday June 17, 1:00 Signing

                        411 Bernard St, Kelowna

Vancouver    Café Montmartre  Tues June 21, 7:30

                       4362 Main Street, Vancouver B.C.

                       iQmetrix  Monday, June 20

Victoria          tba in June

FESTIVAL OF WORDS, Moose Jaw, Sk   JULY 16, 5:00 upper lobby Cultural Centre