Even Liberals agree with Tories that Sir John-A’s statue shouldn’t have been removed, poll finds

Stuart Thomson

Seventy per cent of Canadians believe that a statue of Sir John A. Macdonald that stood outside Victoria’s city hall should not be removed from public view

Seventy per cent of Canadians believe that a statue of Sir John A. Macdonald that stood outside Victoria’s city hall should not be removed permanently from public view, a new poll has found — but on the question of exactly what to do with the monument to the country’s first prime minister, Canadians are struggling to find common ground.

A new poll conducted by the Angus Reid Institute finds the country divided on how to handle the question of the Macdonald statue, as well as how to commemorate the legacy of Canada’s residential schools.

• Here is what Sir John A. Macdonald did to Indigenous people

Victoria’s city council voted last month to remove the statue after consulting with Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations about Macdonald’s legacy, particularly his role in building the residential school system in Canada. After a backlash, Victoria mayor Lisa Helps apologized for the lack of consultation and said the statue will be relocated to another public place in the city. That wasn’t a popular move among respondents to the Angus Reid poll.

Forty-four per cent of respondents said the statue should be moved to a museum with information about its history and 37 per cent said it should be placed back in its original spot at city hall. Just 13 per cent said it should be moved another location in the city, with six per cent arguing that it should never be displayed publicly again.

Shachi Kurl, the executive director of the Angus Reid Institute, said the numbers are consistent with recent polling that shows Canadians are heavily in favour of “contextualization,” but reject the idea of removing such statues altogether.

One place there is broad agreement, though, is among past supporters of the Conservative Party of Canada.

Eighty-one per cent of those who voted for the Conservatives in 2015 oppose the statue’s removal in the first place — and, in fact, some 47 per cent of those who voted Liberal in 2015 agree with them, compared to 33 per cent who supported the statue’s removal. With Prime Minister Justin Trudeau having mostly steered clear of the issue so far, the statue issue may provide a line of attack for Conservative leader Andrew Scheer as the country heads toward an election in 2019.