Sir John Alexander Macdonald (11 January 1815 – 6 June 1891) was a Canadian politician and Father of Confederation who was the
first Prime Minister of Canada (1867–1873, 1878–1891). The
dominant figure of
Canadian Confederation, he had a political career which spanned almost half a century. He drank heavily, and in 1873 was voted out during the
Pacific Scandal, in which his party took bribes from businessmen seeking the contract to build the Pacific Railway. Macdonald's greatest achievements were building and guiding a successful national government for the new Dominion, using patronage to forge a strong Conservative Party, promoting the protective tariff of the
National Policy, and building the transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway. Economic growth was slow during his years in office, as Canada verged on stagnation; many residents migrated to the fast-growing United States. He fought to block provincial efforts to take power back from Ottawa. His most controversial move was to approve the execution of Métis leader
Louis Riel for treason in 1885; it permanently alienated the Francophones who saw themselves humiliated.