Robert R.M.

A Teapot, My Grandma, and John A Macdonald

Robert R.M.
Anglophone West School District Regional Heritage Fair
Fredericton, ON

The week before Leo Hayes High School’s Heritage Fair, I was floundering around helplessly like a chicken with its head cut off, looking for some fragment of an idea of what to do my project on. It then came into my knowledge that my grandma was in possession of a teapot that once belonged to Sir John A. Macdonald and, being an even half-interesting concept, I instantly latched onto it as my project. My original trifold had been particularly focused on the life and times of Sir John A. Macdonald himself and his great political successes and failures, which got me admission to the regional heritage fair, at which point, my social studies teacher, Mr. Wilson, came to me with a revised vision for the project. What if I turned the focus of my project to the teapot itself instead of its past owner? He argued that showing the historical significance of stories passed down through generations would set this project apart from the hundreds of others about Sir John A. I was convinced and decided to dig deeper into the story of the teapot. I had already received a long, rambling message from my grandmother explaining the origin of the teapot with several unconnected stories, but it was up to me to figure out which one of them was true. Turns out that Google is incredibly useful for such things, and, in fairly short order, (on and off research for ~3 weeks) I had narrowed down the origins of the teapot to one of two potential sources. With that out of the way, I progressed to the regional level of the heritage fair with great success, winning the Judge’s Award and being invited to the national heritage fair and thanked my grandmother profusely (via email). The End. 

What sources and evidence did you consult for your project? What different perspectives did they provide on your topic?

In my original project on Sir John A. Macdonald, I stuck mostly to the internet for sources. I didn’t do a lot of research on the origins of the teapot and mostly focused on condensing widely known facts about Sir John A. Macdonald from news stories, and published articles looking at effects of his actions. The second go around of my project, I needed to look much more at fine details, or sidenotes of stories to find all the lesser known figures surrounding John A.’s personal life, such as his wife and children, which was much harder to verify as none of them are incredibly important on the grand scale of Canadian history. One of the primary sources I consulted was a book Sir John A. Macdonald’s wife wrote titled “By Car and By Cowcatcher” about her travels along the Canadian Pacific Railway, showing a more unique perspective on the era and developments surrounding it than a secondary source could have provided. Another major source for this project was my grandparents’ stories that they’ve kept alive over the years to pass onto me. In addition, I consulted the following websites for further information: 

• Thecanadianecyclopedia.ca 
• Communitystories.ca 
• Friendsofdalnavert.ca 
• Biographi.ca 
• Nctr.ca
• Spacing.ca 
• MacdonaldLaurier.ca 
• Wordpress.com 

What is the historical significance of your topic?

The historical impacts of said teapot are minimal, though the conversation around its previous owner is immensely different. Sir John A. Macdonald’s legacy has left immense impacts on Canadian history and perspectives making him a somewhat contradictory figure in modern context. If looking solely at the positive side of his impacts, he may in fact be one of the best prime ministers in Canadian history. From another lens, he was a drunken, racist buffoon with too much power and money in his hands. Either way, Canada would look significantly different, for better or worse, without his influence on governmental decisions. Residential schools would have been built up much more slowly, and the Chinese head tax may never have been put in place, but also the nation wouldn’t have received the Canadian Pacific Railroad and Canada as we know it probably wouldn’t have united in the first place. 

Why did you choose this topic? 

Sir John A. Macdonald has resurfaced in relevance recently with talk of removing his legacy from our national view, so it’s somewhat of a double-edged sword to be in possession of an artifact of his. On one hand, having an item that belonged to such an important person is a great honor, but with a modern outlook on his actions, it should be considered very carefully whether or not such a thing should be valued. In addition, I find Sir John A. Macdonald's story an ideal example of how we need to learn from our past to improve future behaviours. If we strive to acknowledge and move on from our mistakes, we can put together a better society for everyone without causing the same issues to resurface again.