# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/john-a-macdonald
# Generated: 2026-09-01T05:03:00.146Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/john-a-macdonald"
name: "John A. Macdonald"
slug: "john-a-macdonald"
description: "He stitched a nation from fractious colonies and held it together through scandal, rebellion, and nearly two decades in power — but the same hand that built the railway and the state also set policies that haunt Canada's reckoning with its Indigenous past."
tagline: "1st prime minister of Canada from 1867 to 1873 and 1878 to 1891"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/JaMAC.jpg?width=1200"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "Canada"
  isoCode: "CA"
category:
  name: "Politicians"
  slug: "politicians"
profileType:
  name: "Politician"
  slug: "politician"
birthDate: "1815-01-11"
deathDate: "1891-06-06"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           56.5
  momentum:             0
  historical:           24.660508
  currentAttention:     0
  sourceConfidence:     60
  profileCompleteness:  70
  trendDirection:       "FALLING"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
tags:
  - name: "Politicians"
    slug: "politicians"
  - name: "Politician"
    slug: "politician"
  - name: "Politics"
    slug: "politics"
  - name: "Law"
    slug: "law"
  - name: "Canada"
    slug: "canada"
  - name: "Americas"
    slug: "americas"
  - name: "19th Century"
    slug: "19th-century"
sources:
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q128702"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_A._Macdonald"
    title: "Wikipedia"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://pantheon.world/profile/person/John%20A.%20Macdonald"
    title: "Pantheon 2.0"
    type:  "DATABASE"
  - url: "https://ay.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Macdonald"
    title: "John Macdonald"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://az.wikipedia.org/wiki/Con_Aleksandr_Makdonald"
    title: "Con Aleksandr Makdonald"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://be.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%94%D0%B6%D0%BE%D0%BD_%D0%9C%D0%B0%D0%BA-%D0%94%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B0%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%B4"
    title: "Джон Мак-Дональд"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Alexander_Macdonald"
    title: "John Alexander Macdonald"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://cy.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_A._Macdonald"
    title: "John A. Macdonald"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Macdonald"
    title: "John Macdonald"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%A4%CE%B6%CE%BF%CE%BD_%CE%9C%CE%B1%CE%BA%CE%BD%CF%84%CF%8C%CE%BD%CE%B1%CE%BB%CE%BD%CF%84"
    title: "Τζον Μακντόναλντ"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_A._Macdonald"
    title: "John A. Macdonald"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_A._Macdonald"
    title: "John A. Macdonald"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_A._Macdonald"
    title: "John A. Macdonald"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_A._Macdonald"
    title: "John A. Macdonald"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%AC%D8%A7%D9%86_%D8%A7%DB%8C._%D9%85%DA%A9%E2%80%8C%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%84%D8%AF"
    title: "جان ای. مک‌دانلد"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_A._Macdonald"
    title: "John A. Macdonald"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_A._Macdonald"
    title: "John A. Macdonald"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://gd.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iain_MacDh%C3%B2mhnaill"
    title: "Iain MacDhòmhnaill"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://gl.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Alexander_Macdonald"
    title: "John Alexander Macdonald"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%92'%D7%95%D7%9F_%D7%90%D7%9C%D7%9B%D7%A1%D7%A0%D7%93%D7%A8_%D7%9E%D7%A7%D7%93%D7%95%D7%A0%D7%9C%D7%93"
    title: "ג'ון אלכסנדר מקדונלד"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_A._Macdonald"
    title: "John A. Macdonald"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://io.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Alexander_Macdonald"
    title: "John Alexander Macdonald"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://is.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_A._Macdonald"
    title: "John A. Macdonald"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_A._Macdonald"
    title: "John A. Macdonald"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A7%E3%83%B3%E3%83%BBA%E3%83%BB%E3%83%9E%E3%82%AF%E3%83%89%E3%83%8A%E3%83%AB%E3%83%89"
    title: "ジョン・A・マクドナルド"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_A._Macdonald"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://pl.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_A._Macdonald"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://simple.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_A._Macdonald"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%AC%D9%88%D9%86_%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%83%D8%AF%D9%88%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF"
    title: "جون ماكدونالد"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://arz.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%AC%D9%88%D9%86_%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%83%D8%AF%D9%88%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF_(%D9%85%D8%AD%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%89)"
    title: "جون ماكدونالد (محامى)"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Born in Scotland, Macdonald immigrated to Kingston as a boy and rose through law to the legislature of the Province of Canada by 1844. When the colony's government collapsed into gridlock in 1864, he joined rival George Brown in a Great Coalition that engineered Confederation, and on 1 July 1867 became prime minister of the new Dominion. His first term saw him expand the country westward — annexing the North-Western Territory, Rupert's Land, British Columbia, and Prince Edward Island, and establishing the North-West Mounted Police — before a railway bribery scandal forced his resignation in 1873. Reelected in 1878, he completed the Canadian Pacific Railway and imposed the National Policy tariff, forging a national Conservative machine through patronage and centralized power. In 1885 he approved the execution of Métis leader Louis Riel for treason, fracturing francophone support, and advanced the residential school system meant to assimilate Indigenous children. He died in office in 1891 after nineteen years as prime minister, the second-longest tenure in Canadian history, leaving a legacy split between nation-building and the violence required to achieve it.