Macdonald, John Sandfield (1812-1872), served as joint prime minister of the Province of Canada from 1862 to 1864. The province was in what are now southern Ontario and southern Quebec. Macdonald was joint prime minister with Louis-Victor Sicotte from 1862 to 1863 and with Antoine-Aime Dorion from 1863 to 1864. He also served as the first premier of Ontario from 1867 to 1871.
Macdonald belonged to the Reform Party, which eventually became the Liberal Party. In the early 1850’s, he became a leader of the radical wing of the Reform Party in Upper Canada, the western part of the Province of Canada. But in 1856, control of the wing shifted to his political rival George Brown (see Brown, George ).
Macdonald differed with Brown on several key issues. For example, Macdonald opposed the principle of representation by population–that is, basing the number of an area’s elected representatives on the area’s population. He felt this practice would weaken the rights of the French-speaking population in Lower Canada, the eastern part of the Province of Canada. Most of the province’s people lived in Upper Canada and spoke English. Macdonald supported a double majority system, under which government proposals could be vetoed either by the representatives of Upper Canada or by those of Lower Canada. He also opposed Brown’s goal of uniting the Canadian colonies under a central government. Macdonald was born on Dec. 12, 1812, in what is now St. Raphaels, Ontario, near Alexandria. He died on June 1, 1872.
