All the countries we see today have independence, freedom, or none of these great things. We should be grateful to live in a country like Canada, but Canada did not always have the freedom and independence that it has today. Without Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada would not have the freedom it enjoys today. John Alexander Macdonald was born in Glasgow, Scotland on January 10, 1815, and grew up in Kingston, Upper Canada for most of his life. He became a successful Prime Minister with the help of his family and friends. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Before he did great things, he had to start somewhere, that start was his family and his childhood. Sir John A. Macdonald's family included his father Hugh Macdonald, his mother Helen Shaw, his sisters Margaret and Louisa Macdonald, and his brother James Macdonald. In 1820, when Sir John A. Macdonald was 5 years old, he and his family left Scotland to emigrate to Canada in search of a better life. Sir John A. Macdonald grew up poor, even in Canada. His father tried to run a general store and many other stores, but was unsuccessful. This is one of the reasons he was poor. When he moved to Canada, he settled in Kingston where he grew up. Sir John A. Macdonald lived primarily in Kingston, Upper Canada, but also grew up in Lennox and Addington Counties as well as Prince Edward. In 1830, when Sir John A. Macdonald was 15, he began training as a lawyer under George Mackenzie in Kingston. Later in Sir John A. Macdonald's life, he became licensed as a lawyer and accomplished many other things. Imagine a Canada without independence, where not everyone gets the rights they deserve and people rebel against the law, causing a revolution of sorts. If you can imagine that, you know how horrible that would be, but thanks to Sir John A. Macdonald, that won't happen. He made Canada independent by unifying many parts of Canada and winning elections to rule Canada. Now let's see what else he did. First of all, he became a politician, businessman and lawyer. Speaking of lawyers, Sir John A. Macdonald defended rebel defendants in the 1837 Rebellion/Upper Canada Rebellion. Later in Sir John A. Macdonald's life, he united Lower Canada and Upper Canada into the Province of Canada. After unifying Lower and Upper Canada, he became attorney general through hard work. In 1956 he was elected co-premier of the province of Canada, but he could not do so without many mistakes and difficulties. Sir John A. Macdonald faced many obstacles, including one that completely destroyed his life. The struggle that completely destroyed his life was the death of his first wife, which led to alcohol problems, which led to health problems which caused his death. Another problem he could never face was the death of his first son, his first son died at the age of 19 months. One struggle he was never able to overcome was when he managed to unite all the provinces to make Canada a better country. One of the greatest difficulties of his career was that he could not gain the support of the natives and the French speakers because he discriminated against them, he did not respect their beliefs and their opinions, even if he tried to get the natives. rights to their invoices, he did it without hard work or effort. Unfortunately, Sir John A. Macdonald was never able to overcome these problems, but he did his best, which speaks volumes.