The Kingston Heritage Properties Committee will be asked to recommend City Council vote to restore the statue 'as it was and where it was' prior to the removal.

KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA, March 17, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- A comfortable majority (71%) of surveyed Kingstonians either support or somewhat support restoring Kingston’s statue of Sir John A Macdonald to its original location in City Park, according to a recent survey by Nanos Research, commissioned by the Canadian Institute for Historical Education.

The Kingston Friends of the Canadian Institute for Historical Education, a grassroots group of academics, authors and historians, has made a reasoned case to the Kingston Heritage Properties Committee for restoring the statue of Sir John A Macdonald to its rightful place. The submission will be formally presented on Wednesday, March 18th by retired Kingston lawyer, John Ryder-Burbidge and Professor Emeritus of History at Queen’s University, Dr. Duncan McDowall.

The Nanos Research survey show that the opinions of the statue held by residents of Kingston seem to differ from those expressed at City Hall at the time the statue was removed.

It appears in the haste to remove the statue in 2021, checks and balances in place were bypassed. The group believes the Ontario Heritage Act and Kingston’s own Old Sydenham District Conservation By-Law were breached in 12 different ways and that Kingston City Council voted without the full knowledge of how the laws and bylaws were being contravened.

The survey also found that 82% of respondents believe it is important that Kingston residents recognize their history in public spaces. Support for restoring the statue was strong across all demographic categories, including age, education, gender, and length of time living in Kingston, although the support was higher among older residents, and those who have lived longer in Kingston.

The Kingston Friends of the Canadian Institute for Historical Education now ask the Kingston Heritage Properties Committee to recommend that Kingston City Council vote to restore the statue as it was and where it was for 126 years – an important part of Kingston’s heritage.

About the research:
This project was commissioned by the Canadian Institute for Historical Education, and the Research was conducted by Nanos Research. Nanos conducted an RDD dual frame (land- and cell-lines) random telephone survey of 305 Kingstonians, 18 years of age or older, between February 3 and 6, 2026. The margin of error for this survey is ±5.7 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. To view the full report, the tabulations and methodology, please visit the Nanos Research website at nanos.co.

About CIHE: (https://cihe.ca/) The Canadian Institute for Historical Education (CIHE) promotes historical literacy through research, education, and engagement in the public square. The CIHE works with historians to provide decision makers with easy access to relevant existing historical evidence and analysis, commissions original research on Canadian history, and aims to be a catalyst for a more informed understanding of Canadian history among all Canadians.

About Nanos: (https://nanos.co/) As one of North America’s premier market and public opinion research firms, we put strategic intelligence into the hands of decision makers. The majority of our work is for private sector and public facing organizations and ranges from market studies, managing reputation through to leveraging data intelligence. Nanos Research offers a vertically integrated full service quantitative and qualitative research practice to attain the highest standards and the greatest control over the research process.

Contacts:
Mark O’Farrell, Chair, Kingston Friends of the Canadian Institute for Historical Education, 416-399-4078 Kingston.Friends@cihe.ca ;

Allan Williams, Executive Director of the Canadian Institute for Historical Education, 416-467-6335 or allan@cihe.ca, or allanbwilliams@gmail.com;

For questions about the research, please contact Nik Nanos, Founder and Chief Data Scientist of Nanos Research, 613-234-4666 x237 or nik@nanos.co.

Scroll down for “Some facts about Sir John A. Macdonald you may not have known” by Greg Piasetzki



Some facts about Sir John A. Macdonald you may not have known

Macdonald insisted that Indigenous parents have the final say on their children’s schooling.

A system of 300 day and 80 residential schools were constructed beginning under Sir John A. However, most students who attended did so for only one year of basic reading, writing and arithmetic. It was only in the late 1950’s almost, 70 years after Macdonald’s death, that a majority of students began staying in school until grade 5 at their parents urging. And at this point the residential schools were being closed.

Macdonald built a railway, and brought in British Columbia.

By purchasing Rupert’s Land and building a railway to the Pacific, Macdonald fulfilled the promise of Confederation and created a country from sea to sea.
Macdonald made peace, not war, with the West’s Indigenous peoples. Macdonald insisted on negotiating treaties with the western tribes before opening the land to settlers—avoiding the catastrophic Indian wars that devastated the United States.

Macdonald saved tens of thousands of Indigenous lives.

His national campaign to vaccinate every Indigenous Canadian against the scourge of smallpox—and his famine relief program when the buffalo herds collapsed—saved tens of thousands of Indigenous lives.

Macdonald shaped Canada’s first industrial strategy.

Macdonald’s National Policy used tariffs and immigration to foster Canadian manufacturing and agriculture—laying the groundwork for national prosperity.
Macdonald helped make Canada a safe haven for freedom seekers. As Attorney General before Confederation, Macdonald opposed the extradition of escaped slaves to the U.S., reinforcing Canada’s role as a refuge for escaped slaves.

No Macdonald, No Canada. Without Macdonald’s leadership, determination, and vision, Confederation would have failed.

Prepared by Greg Piasetzki June 13, 2025

You may also wish to consult Greg’s article in The Canadian Encyclopedia entitled, “A Few Facts Every Canadian Should Know About Sir John A. Macdonald”.

Mark O'Farrell
Kingston Friends of the Canadian Institute for Historical Ed
+1 416-399-4078
Kingston.Friends@cihe.ca
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