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Honouring Ontario’s premiers

Photo: J. Sandfield Macdonald (Archives of Ontario, RG 4-114)

From left: Bryan McGillis, Mayor of the Township of South Stormont; Father Bernard Cameron, St. Andrews Church; Jim Brownell, MPP, Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry; Alan McDonald Sullivan, Board member, Ontario Heritage Trust; and Michel Labreque, descendant of John Sandfield Macdonald (Photo: Kevin Lamoureux)

Photo: From left: Bryan McGillis, Mayor of the Township of South Stormont; Father Bernard Cameron, St. Andrews Church; Jim Brownell, MPP, Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry; Alan McDonald Sullivan, Board member, Ontario Heritage Trust; and Michel Labreque, descendant of John Sandfield Macdonald (Photo: Kevin Lamoureux)

By

Liane Nowosielski

Community

Published Date: Feb 12, 2009

The Ontario Heritage Trust launched the Premiers’ Gravesites Program at a memorable ceremony last November in Cornwall to commemorate the province’s first premier – The Honourable John Sandfield Macdonald. This initiative was created to ensure respectful recognition at the final resting place of Ontario’s premiers.

To acknowledge the premiers’ significant contributions to the history of our province, the Trust has designed distinctive bronze markers inscribed with the premier’s name and dates of service. These will be placed at each gravesite, accompanied by a flagpole flying the Ontario flag. The Trust will endeavour to commemorate these gravesites in chronological order based on each premier’s term of service. The Honourable John Sandfield Macdonald was the first of 18 premiers to be commemorated through this program.

A lawyer from the Cornwall area, Macdonald was elected to the first Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada. He went on to serve important roles in all eight assemblies before Confederation. An ally of first Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald, he was appointed premier of Ontario at Confederation. He held the position until 1871, and died soon after at Cornwall.

The marker unveiling ceremony took place at St. Andrews Catholic Church in St. Andrews West. Immediately following the ceremony, guests were invited to attend the raising of the flag at nearby St. Andrews Roman Catholic Pioneer Cemetery, Macdonald’s final resting place. To ensure a successful and meaningful event, the Trust worked with the local community and cemetery board. Descendants of John Sandfield Macdonald were consulted as well, some of whom were on hand to pay homage to an ancestor who played an important role in shaping Ontario’s history.

For details of upcoming unveiling events, and for more information on the Premiers’ Gravesites Program, visit the Trust’s website.

Funding for this program was announced in 2007 by the Minister of Culture. The initiative was inspired by a private member’s bill – an Act to Preserve the Gravesites of Former Premiers of Ontario – introduced in the legislature in 2005 by Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry MPP Jim Brownell.