2 politicians defending John A. Macdonald's name get his name wrong
Kathleen Wynne, Brad Wall both issue statements giving Macdonald's name the wrong capitalization
What's in a name? In the case of John A. Macdonald, there are two ds, both of them lower case.
Rushing to John A. Macdonald's defence over the use of his name in public schools, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall both got his last name wrong, spelling it "MacDonald" in separate statements.
"Sir John A. MacDonald was a father of confederation, our first Prime Minister, and he contributed greatly to the creation of a stable federal government for Canada," a statement attributed to Wynne on Thursday read.
Her press secretary later issued a corrected version that included an apology for "some grammatical issues."
Common mistake
Wall, meanwhile, made his thoughts known on Facebook in a post titled, "Beware the slippery slope of removing historic names."
It begins, "For what they are worth, I offer words of caution to the group of Ontario teachers and perhaps others who apparently wish to remove Sir John A. MacDonald's name from schools."
It's a common mistake (CBC has done it), but is perhaps ironic in a debate over the use of his name.
The Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario passed a motion at its annual meeting last week that called on all school districts to rename schools and buildings named after Macdonald.
With files from The Canadian Press