In his first term, he established the North-West Mounted Police and expanded Canada by annexing the North-Western Territory, Rupert's Land, British Columbia, and Prince Edward Island.

[8] As Donald Creighton (who penned a two-volume biography of Macdonald in the 1950s) wrote, "law was a broad, well-trodden path to comfort, influence, even to power".

[8] One early client was Eliza Grimason, an Irish immigrant then aged sixteen, who sought advice concerning a shop she and her husband wanted to buy.

[45] When elections were held in December 1848 and January 1849, Macdonald was easily reelected for Kingston, but the Conservatives lost seats and were forced to resign when the legislature reconvened in March 1848.

His scheme was adopted, with Canada East support assured by allowing Quebec City to serve a three-year term as the seat of government before the Assembly moved to the permanent capital.

Macdonald resigned, and the governor general, Sir Edmund Walker Head, invited opposition leader George Brown to form a government.

Before Macdonald could act on this, Brown approached him through intermediaries; the Grit leader believed that the crisis gave the parties the opportunity to join together for constitutional reform.

The discussions were not public knowledge and Macdonald stunned the Assembly by announcing that the dissolution was being postponed because of progress in negotiations with Brown – the two men were not only political rivals, but were known to hate each other.

[78] In January 1867, while still in London, he was seriously burned in his hotel room when his candle set fire to the chair he had fallen asleep in, but Macdonald refused to miss any sessions of the conference.

[86] In August 1867, the new nation's first general election was held; Macdonald's party won easily, with strong support in both large provinces, and a majority from New Brunswick.

The local people, including the Métis, were fearful that rule would be imposed on them which did not take into account their interests, and rose in the Red River Rebellion led by Louis Riel.

[99] The Canadian Parliament ratified the terms after a debate over the high cost that cabinet member Alexander Morris described as the worst fight the Conservatives had had since Confederation.

In 1873, when Parliament opened, Liberal MP Lucius Seth Huntington charged that government ministers had been bribed with large, undisclosed political contributions to award the charter.

With eroding support both in the Commons and among the public, Macdonald went to the governor general, Lord Dufferin on 5 November, and resigned; Liberal leader Alexander Mackenzie became the second prime minister of Canada.

[124] These picnics allowed Macdonald venues to show off his talents at campaigning, and were often lighthearted – at one, the Tory leader blamed agricultural pests on the Grits, and promised the insects would go away if the Conservatives were elected.

[125] The final days of the 3rd Canadian Parliament were marked by explosive conflict, as Macdonald and Tupper alleged that MP and railway financier Donald Smith had been allowed to build the Pembina branch of the CPR (connecting to American lines) as a reward for betraying the Conservatives during the Pacific Scandal.

The altercation continued even after the Commons had been summoned to the Senate to hear the dissolution read, as Macdonald spoke the final words recorded in the 3rd Parliament: "That fellow Smith is the biggest liar I ever saw!

It made the case for a cooperative approach between the Canadian government and the church to implement the "aggressive assimilation" pursued by President of the United States, Ulysses S.

"[136] As the budget moved forward, Macdonald found that the railway was progressing well: although little money had been spent on the project under Mackenzie, several hundred miles of track had been built and nearly the entire route surveyed.

[141] When Canadian guarantees of the CPR's bonds failed to make them salable in a declining economy, Macdonald obtained a loan to the corporation from the Treasury – the bill authorizing it passed the Senate just before the firm would have become insolvent.

[145] Following the North-West Rebellion of 1885, Macdonald's government implemented restrictions upon the movement of indigenous groups, requiring them to receive formal permission from an Indian Department Official in order to go off-reserve.

On 7 November 1885, CPR manager William Van Horne wired Macdonald from Craigellachie, British Columbia, that the last spike had been driven, completing the railway.

The British government instructed the governor general, Lord Lansdowne, to reserve the bill for royal assent, effectively placing it on hold without vetoing it.

Nevertheless, Macdonald and his cabinet campaigned hard in the winter election, with Tupper (the new High Commissioner to London) postponing his departure to try to bolster Conservative votes in Nova Scotia.

The Liberal leader, Edward Blake, ran an uninspiring campaign, and the Conservatives were returned nationally with a majority of 35, winning easily in Ontario, Nova Scotia, and Manitoba.

Under Laurier's early leadership, the Liberals, who previously supported much of the National Policy, campaigned against it and called for "unrestricted reciprocity", or free trade, with the United States.

[164] The parties broke even in the central part of the country but the Conservatives dominated in the Maritimes and Western Canada, leading Liberal MP Richard John Cartwright to claim that Macdonald's majority was dependent on "the shreds and patches of Confederation".

[184][185] Bellevue House in Kingston, where the Macdonald family lived in the 1840s, is also a National Historic Site administered by Parks Canada, and has been restored to that time period.

[197] Gwyn said Macdonald's accomplishments of Confederation and building the Canadian railroad were great, but he was also responsible for scandals and bad government policy for the execution of Riel and the head tax on Chinese workers.

A spokesperson for the Scottish government stated: "We acknowledge controversy around Sir John A Macdonald's legacy and the legitimate concerns expressed by Indigenous communities".