As they say, the best place to start is at the beginning, which is where I will start this list on prime ministers, which brings me to John A. Macdonald, who I will affectionally refer to as JAM from here on out. It is a pretty tasty acronym (I'm sorry).

If you ask most people to name a prime minister, JAM will likely be on the list, because as the first PM to hold office, he also left us with a complicated legacy that is still being debated. He is most reputedly known for his alcoholism and racist sentiments, including his abusive treatment of Canada's First Nations communities. This is what keeps him in current conversations, where his face graces the Canadian $10 bill.

As mentioned, I want to divide each PM into two separate nice blog-sized segments - one a general biography of the PM and a second a more nuanced look at one feature of their time in office. And that nuanced aspect I want to explore with JAM is the Pacific Scandal - because it is the first and arguable the biggest scandal in Canadian political history.

But first, the basics.

The Personal Low Down

John Alexander Macdonald was born on January 10, 1815 in Glasgow, Scotland. At seven years old, he witnessed a tragedy he would carry with him for the rest of his life. JAM, along with his younger brother, James, were left in the care of a babysitter, who forced the boys to chug gin. The babysitter would go on to beat the younger Macdonald with a cane, resulting in his death. According to a biography, penned by Patricia Phenix, while it was never talked about in his youth, it is something that JAM never forgot about.

After becoming a lawyer with a booming practice, JAM married his first cousin (which was a thing they did at that time) Isabella Clark in 1842 until her untimely death in 1857. He remarried 10 years later, this time to Agnes Bernard, who was the daughter of a upper middd class parents - she received the title of the First Baroness Macdonald of Earnscliffe after JAM's death in 1891, However it was a title only bestowed to her, and was not passed down to any of her descendants. And overall, JAM had three children, including Hugh Allan Macdonald, who went on to become the eight premier of Manitoba, and a daughter Mary, who suffered both physical and mental disabilities. And on a personal note, I'm currently dating a guy with the last name Macdonald who says there is family lore that they are, in fact, descendants of JAM. I have no concrete evidence to back this up, just a story and the will to believe, and sometimes, that should be enough. And he does have a resemblance to JAM, as I observed by comparing my boyf to the image on the $10 bill.

One personal aspect of JAM's life that muddled his professional one was his dependency on alcohol. He was known to binge drink, often refusing to get out of bed after sessions. According to a National Post article, there was an incident when JAM was in the military. In 1866, the Niagara Peninsula was invaded by a bunch of Civil War veterans in a weak attempt to gain Irish Independence (I have no clue how it's related, but it's something that happened). JAM was a the minister of militia for what was then the Colony of Canada, and while he was receiving frantic telegrams about he invasion, he was "reportedly too drunk to even read them."

His alcoholism impacted his leadership capabilities and it is kind of interesting to think if Canada would be different today if JAM was sober for more of his time in office - if he was probably able to defend some of the bills he was too drunk to in Parliament.

Macdonald was elected as Canada's first prime minister on July 1, 1867, where he served until 1872, when he was forced to resign over the Pacific Scandal (which I'll get into next week - imagine a bunch of railroads and men who look like the Monopoly man....). However, JAM won over Canadian electors and regained the top job in Canadian politics in 1878, where he served until his death in 1891. Other than William Mackenzie Lyon King, JAM spent the second-longest amount of time at the helm of our country, serving a total of 18 years, 11 months, and four days in office (I did the math).

Those are some of the basic stats on Canada's first, and arguably, most controversial prime minister. The next post will be dedicated to two different things: First, what is regarded as the biggest scandal in Canadian political history, and how JAM was at the centre of it all. And also on that complicated legacy he left us - I'm saving this because I need a bit more time to really delve into this aspect of JAM.