Bruce Hutchison, whose love-affair with the Canadian nation takes many a strange turn, writes this of Sir John A. MacDonald who gave us, he says, “our first portrait of a Canadian.” Here, it appears, is the portrait: “In that strange old man with the wine-red face and fantastic nose, in all the queer clutter, contradiction, comedy and tragedy of his life, we can see ourselves as in a mirror.”… Can we, indeed? I look eagerly to my fellow-Canadians, and not a wine-red face do I behold, except in early spring, when the sun-bathing mania claims its first victims. Fantastic noses, likewise, are all too few. Clutter, contradiction, comedy and tragedy are, I confess, to be met with on every hand, but they are not exclusive to Canadians. …No, I cannot think that Sir John A. Was much like a Canadian, or like anything else, except his excellent self. As well say that Laurier was a mirror of Canadian. If any statesman really epitomized the Canadian character and appearance, it was probably Sir Oliver Mowat. I do not hold with pretending that our exceptional and great men are made in our image. We honour and follow them for the very reason that they are not.
– Robertson Davies, Samuel Marchbanks’ Almanack, 1967
It is a shame that some political parties in Canada think that their leaders and MPs should be average instead of exceptional. It’s worse how many Canadians respond to that kind of thinking.
