2015 - Sir John A. MacDonald Toonie

2015
Sir John A. MacDonald

As Canada prepares to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation in 2017, the Royal Canadian Mint has released a new toonie coin to proudly celebrates the 200th anniversary of the birth of the nation’s primary architect and first Prime Minister: Sir John A. MacDonald.

This coin commemorates the 200th anniversary of the birth of Sir John A. Macdonald, our first Prime Minister and a Father of Confederation. As such, he will forever be remembered for successfully uniting Canada under one federal government, connecting it from coast to coast with a railway, and shaping it into the country it is today.

About Sir John A. Macdonald

On July 1, 1867, the Dominion of Canada was created, and Sir John Alexander Macdonald, a key architect of Canadian Confederation, became the new nation’s first Prime Minister. Knighted by Queen Victoria for his role in Canadian Confederation, Sir John A. Macdonald led the nation until his death in 1891, with only a single interruption in his leadership, from 1873 to 1878.

John Alexander Macdonald was born on January 11, 1815, in Glasgow, Scotland. He and his family immigrated to Kingston, Upper Canada in 1820. With a successful law practice, and having held political office at the municipal level in Kingston, Macdonald joined the Upper Canada cabinet in 1847, serving as receiver general and commissioner of Crown Lands. In 1854, he entered the cabinet of the United Province of Canada, serving as Attorney General for Canada West. Taking on a heavy portfolio of legislative work and providing important legal counsel to various departments of the government, his responsibilities grew until he and George-Étienne Cartier were jointly leading the Government.

By the 1860s, it was clear that some form of constitutional change was necessary. John A. Macdonald, along with George Brown, Cartier, and their colleagues presented a vision of a united British North America to the leaders of the Maritime colonies at the Charlottetown Conference in September 1864. They ultimately achieved their goal on July 1, 1867, when the Dominion of Canada was created—with Macdonald, its key architect, as the new nation’s Prime Minister.

Macdonald’s tireless work sowed the seeds of the sovereign nation of Canada.