This is CBS, I Am The World.

I'm John Bachelor, to Canada.

Sir John Alexander McDonald was the first Prime Minister of Canada serving from 1867

to 1873 and from 1878 to 1891, the dominant figure of Canadian Confederation.

I welcome Conrad Black, distinguished by our GeForRiding of the National Post, about

a phenomenon underway in Canada to rewrite Canadian history on the basis of the Parks Department,

rewriting plaques that identify the heroes and the brave people and the struggle of Canadians

over the last 200 years.

400 years.

A very good evening to you, Conrad.

Thank you very much.

Sir John McDonald is clearly an inspiration to all Prime Minister since.

What to see represent to this new doubting crowd you have in Canada?

Good evening to you.

Yeah, good evening to you, John.

Well, I think everyone concedes that he was instrumental in founding the country.

It was a very complicated thing, getting this group of colonies strung along the northern

border of the United States, getting them together into a country and building a railway

which he sponsored, which was a much more complicated thing than your transcontinental

railways because it had to be built over the Canadian shield north of the Great Lakes.

So, you're in the 19th century putting down a railway straight under rocks.

It was very complicated until you finally got to the Great Plains, west of Lake Superior.

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