by Doug Owram
University of Alberta
Manitoba History, Number 4, 1982
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This work is a new edition of the 1922 autobiography of one of Canada’s more colourful scientists and civil servants. Added to the original work is an introduction by Richard Glover and a series of editorial notes and a bibliographic essay by W. A. Waiser. Both the introduction and the notes are well done and supplement the work nicely.
The author, and one might say hero, of the work was born in Ireland in 1831. Emigrating to Canada in the wake of the tragic economic and agricultural crises of the 1840’s, Macoun settled near Belleville, Canada West. After trying various professions Macoun soon became interested, then obsessed, with the subject of botany. Though he had little formal education he was soon well enough known in the field to obtain a position teaching the subject in St. Alberts College in Belleville. In 1881, he joined the Dominion government, rising eventually to the post of Assistant Director of the Geological Survey of Canada.
The above material, though covering the greater part of his life, is merely prologue and epilogue for those years which brought Macoun into the public eye and which made him as well known as, and more controversial than, men like George Mercer Dawson. William Logan and others associated through the years with the Survey. In 1872, when Macoun was on a plant collecting expedition to Lake Superior he met Sandford Fleming and George Grant who were then embarking on their famous transcontinental trip to spy out the vast land so recently ceded to Canada. Macoun joined the expedition, became fascinated with the North West and over the next nine years began a concerted campaign both to investigate the region and to convince others of what he felt was its immense potential. By 1881, he had become the leading figure in a major reassessment of the value of the southern prairies. The result was not only a public controversy of some heat but a significant upward revision of the amount of land thought suitable for agriculture. Macoun’s own recognition of the importance of this period is shown by the nearly two-thirds of the autobiography which is taken to cover these years.
The controversies which swirled around Macoun, especially over his views on the West but in other areas as well, were very much the result of his own personality. In fact, one of the most interesting things about the autobiography is the way in which Macoun reveals his combative personality to the reader His scornful condemnation of those who disagreed with him, and there were many, his gleeful remarks upon catching his opponents in errors and the certainty with which he puts forward his views leaves one amazed at this bull in the china shop of public service. Even his frank admissions that many thought him a fool, including at least one Prime Minister, reflects his self-confidence. The reader is invited to pity those who were foolish enough to oppose John Macoun. Finally, and most importantly, the whole work reflects the irrepressible enthusiasm which Glover correctly terms his “first great quality” and which turns a man with more than a touch of obstinacy into a fascinating figure.
Page revised: 1 January 2011
