Juno News - December 31, 2024


Reviving Sir John A. Macdonald’s legacy with a new children’s book (Ft. Lindsay Shepherd)

Mentioned
John A. Macdonald Lindsay Shepard John Yoo Greg Piazetsky Don Jr. Harrison John A. You Egerton Ryerson Kelly Walker Tom Flanagan Mary
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Episode Stats


Length

15 minutes

Words per minute

163.56

Word count

2,570

Sentence count

161

Harmful content

Hate speech

1

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Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

A Day With Sir John A. Macdonald is now a bestseller in the children s book category, and Lindsay Shepard joins us to talk about her new book about our first Prime Minister. In this episode, we discuss: Why Lindsay Shepard s new book A Day with Sir J.A. Mcdonald Why she wrote it What motivated her to write it What s wrong with mainstream history?

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Well, it feels as though everywhere you look in this country, John A. Macdonald's legacy is being attacked.
00:00:05.660 His statues are being torn down.
00:00:08.460 City councils are voting to remove his monuments all across the country.
00:00:13.300 We have national historic sites that are just flat-out demeaning to our first Prime Minister.
00:00:19.980 And our current Prime Minister stripped him from the dollar bill.
00:00:24.040 And it's not just Macdonald, other historical figures are being attacked.
00:00:27.140 Wouldn't it be nice if young Canadians, the future of this country, were taught at an early age the truth about John A. Macdonald and the truth about Canadian history?
00:00:35.080 That there would be a way for parents to teach their children about this country without the bias of the radical left?
00:00:40.640 Well, that's exactly what has happened with True North's latest book.
00:00:45.120 Authored by former True North writer Lindsay Shepard, A Day with Sir John A. is now a bestseller in the children's book category.
00:00:54.500 And Lindsay Shepard joins us now to talk about this new book.
00:00:58.060 Lindsay, the first and the most obvious question is what motivated you to write this children's book about our first Prime Minister, about John A. Macdonald?
00:01:06.680 Yeah, so we know that in the K-12 education system, children are going to learn about Canada in a way that is meant to make them feel shame and guilt.
00:01:19.780 They're going to feel like they have to apologize. And so we wanted to kind of get in there before all that happens or at the very early stages,
00:01:29.580 because this book is aimed at ages three to seven and say, look, actually, the founding prime minister of this country and the father of Confederate,
00:01:42.060 one of the fathers of the confederation, Sir John A. Macdonald, he was actually a pretty, pretty good guy, a guy with spirit, vision, a progressive mindset.
00:01:53.340 And so we're hoping to, you know, get in there and say, you don't have to buy into all that guilt and shame and apologizing stuff.
00:02:03.260 And what is it about Macdonald that mainstream historians seem to get so wrong?
00:02:09.520 And perhaps I can expand that question to include what it is about Macdonald that it seems to be so polarizing in this country?
00:02:17.600 Sure. So I think all that people learn about Macdonald is about the Chinese head tax and about residential schools.
00:02:26.540 And that's all that they associate with him. And maybe, sure, yes, he built the railroad that crosses the country and united this country and made us Canada.
00:02:36.460 And who knows what we would have been without him and without that railroad.
00:02:42.100 But, you know, oh, he was such a bad person. Well, it turns out he's very unfairly maligned.
00:02:47.560 And when I was writing this book, I actually anticipated, like, maybe I'm going to have to do a lot of defending or maybe I'm actually going to have to kind of apologize for him in some ways.
00:03:00.080 But I didn't have to do that at all because his his record is pretty outstanding.
00:03:06.700 He was an early advocate for women's suffrage, for giving the vote to indigenous people.
00:03:13.660 And, yeah, at the time, there were property requirements.
00:03:18.700 However, he was still very, very far ahead of the game.
00:03:22.220 And even things like the first national park that was established by him in what we now know as Banff.
00:03:31.800 And so, yeah, his his record really speaks for itself.
00:03:35.540 And that was that was one of the things I was going to ask you about, which was in the description of the book.
00:03:40.960 You mentioned that, you know, readers will learn about Johnny McDonald's progressive worldview.
00:03:46.960 Now, in today's context, I think many conservatives see the word progressive and think, you know, the ideology of progressivism.
00:03:53.580 Right. But in McDonald's context, what does that mean?
00:03:57.400 Is that about women's suffrage and native vote as well?
00:04:00.840 Look, what what is what is McDonald's progressive? What was McDonald's progressive worldview?
00:04:06.900 It's that. Yeah, of course, I don't mean in the context of today's leftism and that, you know, and DEI principles and all that.
00:04:15.580 I don't mean that. I just mean he was really someone who had vision and that he could see far ahead.
00:04:21.800 And even when it comes down to things like his daughter, Mary, who had a severe disability, she was in a wheelchair, she couldn't speak.
00:04:34.060 And he loved her unconditionally throughout her whole life.
00:04:39.160 And a lot of historians say this is why she lived so long, despite her severe illness.
00:04:44.360 And this is at a time when we looked at disability or when, you know, disability was looked at very differently than it is today.
00:04:53.120 And so for him, it was just really about being able to put principles ahead of what was maybe fashionable at the time.
00:05:04.180 You know, so much of the attacks that we hear about McDonald and the I guess you call them the slights on his legacy, like we've seen at at his home, Bellevue House in Kingston, the toppling of his monuments, the the erasing of his monuments all over the country.
00:05:21.580 So much of it is justified by cherry picking piece of pieces of his legacy or even just not even telling the truth about McDonald's legacy.
00:05:30.040 I'm curious, as an author of this book about McDonald's, do you feel like the attacks that we've seen on McDonald's are really designed to be attacks on Canada and to try to attack the the foundation of our country?
00:05:44.040 Because I'll tell you, that's that's kind of the way I look at it.
00:05:47.700 Yeah, absolutely.
00:05:49.520 And for me, you know, I don't really remember when I was in school going into a lot of depth about McDonald's.
00:05:57.180 And still, I've kind of always carried this feeling of of knowing that if it weren't for him, I probably wouldn't we wouldn't be Canadian and this country wouldn't exist without him.
00:06:09.440 And it was really because of his determination.
00:06:11.420 And you bring up Bellevue House.
00:06:14.140 And interestingly, that was the catalyst for this book, because the publisher of this book is True North at True North.
00:06:22.360 We had known for a long time that we wanted to kind of look at how we could publish a children's book about history.
00:06:28.980 And it had just kind of been an idea form for maybe even a couple of years for a while.
00:06:36.880 And then the Bellevue House thing happened in May 2024.
00:06:41.200 And we learned that after years of closure, Parks Canada had revamped Bellevue House, which is somewhere where McDonald had lived for a year.
00:06:52.260 And they had infused Indigenous elements into every single room of the house, even where it didn't belong.
00:07:00.780 I know you've been there, Harrison, and you did a video about all this, and you've interviewed Gregory Piazatsky, who also was a historical reviewer of my book.
00:07:11.180 But yeah, that was the catalyst, because it was like, okay, perhaps the only true artifact from Sir John A.'s life was his son's crib, his son John's crib, which is in Bellevue House.
00:07:26.900 That is where his son died.
00:07:29.960 That is where John Jr. died when he was only one year old.
00:07:32.640 And in this room where that crib is, when you're supposed to be feeling grief and sympathy, you actually have a loop of Indigenous teachings or something that is just interrupting your thoughts.
00:07:51.560 And that's just kind of the theme of Bellevue House, right, is it's all about they're trying to put into your head colonialism and genocide.
00:07:59.260 And it's all about residential schools.
00:08:01.700 Call this hotline.
00:08:04.420 Right.
00:08:05.000 I mean, I had the exact same thought.
00:08:07.120 And I remember going into John Jr.'s room.
00:08:09.820 And if I recall, you basically got the room is dedicated to Indigenous children and their mistreatment at residential schools.
00:08:17.840 And every room in the house is dedicated to Indigenous people and their suffering in this country. 1.00
00:08:22.860 And as you point out, I think, you know, that was the most I really, you know, I would use the word disgraceful.
00:08:29.400 Disgraceful of the Macdonald legacy to do that in the room in which his son died was really just really gross.
00:08:36.740 You mentioned something there.
00:08:37.720 You said you had historical reviewers.
00:08:40.020 Take me through that.
00:08:40.980 So you had you had Greg Piazetsky.
00:08:42.720 Did you just Greg or did you have other people that went through the book to make sure that what you've written is is accurate?
00:08:47.600 Yes, we also had Dr. Tom Flanagan, who is a co-author of Grave Error, which is another one of True North's books, maybe our most prominent.
00:08:59.360 And then also Kelsey Walker, who who I know, and she did her master's thesis about Macdonald.
00:09:07.220 And so these three individuals were so helpful.
00:09:11.580 And otherwise, yeah, I mean, just months and months of research went into creating a setting for the book, making sure everything was accurate.
00:09:20.960 I mean, even when I was working with the illustrator, right, you have to be so particular about things like sometimes I would notice that she did the wall trim a little bit different in this image or this image that we have to correct that.
00:09:33.720 So, yeah, everything was very, very reviewed and perfected, hopefully.
00:09:41.800 Well, it appears as though it all paid off because the book has experienced a lot of success in very quick fashion, right?
00:09:48.680 I mean, I think it's at the top of an Amazon bestseller list, if I'm not mistaken.
00:09:52.520 Are you are you pleasantly surprised about the the appeal and the reception that Canadians have had to the book so far?
00:09:58.540 Yeah, so we're a number one bestseller in all of our categories, which is amazing.
00:10:04.600 And you know what? It's because there's a gap.
00:10:07.260 There's really a need for this kind of book, because a lot of people have pointed out to me that in the States, kids are taught from a very early age who their founding fathers are, you know, the the Mount Rushmore guys.
00:10:20.200 But in Canada, we don't really have that same tradition.
00:10:23.920 And actually, there was no picture book about Sir John A. MacDonald out there.
00:10:32.460 And what I mean by that is there are nonfiction books for kids, you know, like kind of visual encyclopedia type of books for older readers.
00:10:40.480 But in terms of illustrated storybooks that are fictionalized nonfiction, it just didn't exist.
00:10:49.840 So this is the first one.
00:10:51.180 Wow. Amazing.
00:10:53.720 And, you know, one of the things that I wanted to ask you, as this is your your debut book into the children's category.
00:11:01.240 One thing that's been obvious is that, you know, these children's books that we see now, a lot of them are very political.
00:11:08.120 Right. The authors are trying to inject critical race theory into these books, transgenderism into some of these books for a very young audience.
00:11:15.760 What is that about and why is it that there really aren't many books that are appealing to, frankly, not not the right side, but just apolitical children's books?
00:11:27.740 Yeah, I mean, in terms of history, like I said, it's it's all about shame and guilt.
00:11:37.480 I mean, I thought there was just one book about Orange Shirt Day for kids, but I was in a museum recently and there's actually like 10 now.
00:11:46.240 And though the thing is, like, those are the books that are being featured, right?
00:11:50.980 Those are the ones that get the displays and are meant to catch your eye right away.
00:11:56.580 And yeah, same thing about with the books about gender, you know, me and my two dads, all that kind of stuff that that's also very prominently displayed at libraries and and bookstores.
00:12:12.400 And with our book, we're not necessarily trying to counter that we're just trying to write about Sir John A. Macdonald and Canadian history in the way that it deserves and in a way that actually was you would think about history in the late 90s or the early 2000s before everything got infected.
00:12:34.260 So I think we achieved that and we were very fair.
00:12:38.540 Yeah, well, that was another question was going to be, you know, to play the devil's advocate and to say, you know, to people who who might say that this book is simply the the other the other side of the same coin.
00:12:51.880 Right. It's trying to it's trying to be political on the other side.
00:12:55.680 What would your response be to that? Would it be, as you've just stated, that this is right down the middle and you can't really you can't really take issue with the history in it?
00:13:03.280 Yeah, exactly. I mean, we were just the goal was really just to be fair.
00:13:10.460 And like I said, I was prepared to when I was reading about Sir John A and doing that initial research,
00:13:17.860 I thought I'd have to be apologizing for a lot more or that there'd be a lot more difficult material for me to deal with.
00:13:27.600 And there just really wasn't. And so people who haven't really here's the thing when you're a parent or a grandparent or an aunt or uncle and you're reading with the children in your lives.
00:13:39.360 You know, like me, I read a lot of picture books. It's basically all I read now.
00:13:45.720 And you you actually end up learning from your children's books, partially because it's the things that you'll pick out for them.
00:13:53.400 Partially, it's because they'll pick something out. You know, like my son will pick out books about dinosaurs.
00:13:58.180 Now I can name 20 dinosaurs because of him.
00:14:00.680 So you you end up learning a lot from children's books as a parent, and it'll also refresh your memory and remind you of things like, oh, hey, yeah, I remember learning about that 20 years ago.
00:14:14.000 And so we also have a very comprehensive note for parents at the end of the book.
00:14:21.420 And so hopefully parents can also this can be a launch point for them to learn about the true legacy of Sir John A and really spark that appreciation of Canada again for kids and adults.
00:14:38.420 So the the reception has been, you know, very impressive.
00:14:42.380 A lot of people seem to seem to love this idea, love this book.
00:14:45.700 They're buying it. There's a market for it.
00:14:47.420 Are you planning to do another book? Are you planning to, you know, try to tell the true story of other historical figures that have been maligned in Canada?
00:14:56.900 It's definitely been requested.
00:14:59.020 I do have a preliminary list of ideas of figures who may be on that list, but we'll have to see.
00:15:07.640 It may be in the works, but we'll have to see.
00:15:10.020 Well, I think that if the success of A Day with Sir John A is anything to go off of, another attempt and another book that might be able to clear up the legacy of a Wilfrid Laurier or a Negerton Ryerson would be very well received.
00:15:25.380 And I also think just very good for the country.
00:15:28.740 But we'll leave it there.
00:15:30.220 Lindsay, thank you so much for joining the show.
00:15:32.580 The book is A Day with Sir John A.
00:15:34.740 You can buy it now on Amazon by using the link in the description of this video.
00:15:39.500 Lindsay Shepard, thank you so much for joining us.
00:15:42.320 Thanks, Harrison.