January 11, 2015 marked the 200th anniversary of Sir John A. Macdonald's birthday. Given that we haven't really commemorated it yet on this forum, I thought that this would be a worthwhile occasion to reflect on Macdonald's legacy, the good and the bad, and how it has impacted us all as Canadians. As historian Will Ferguson has pointed out, without Macdonald there would be no Canada to begin with at all. His influence on Canada, for both the good and the bad, cannot be understated-Richard Gwyn aptly describes him as "the man that made us".