The Other John Macdonald—the One Who Opposed Confederation

The Other John Macdonald—the One Who Opposed Confederation

Commentary John Sandfield Macdonald was Canadian born and bred—something that was unusual among his political contemporaries at the time. Born in 1812 in Glengarry, Upper Canada, he died in 1872 in Cornwall, only 30 kilometres from his birthplace. About 500 Scottish Highlanders had settled in eastern Ontario in 1786, in the aftermath of the American Revolutionary War, under the leadership of the Catholic priest Alexander Macdonell, trained at th…