Sir John A. in Sharbot Lake

Feb 18, 2015

So just who was that tall, lean, fur-cloaked man who toured Sharbot Lake village, speaking with a Scottish lilt and sparking off this year’s Frontenac Heritage Festival?

He was no one-time, off-the-cuff impersonator. Paul Dyck, who played our famed Scottish first prime minister, Sir. John A. MacDonald, hails from St. Catharines, Ontario. He studied drama at Queens University and recently graduated in 2013. For the last four years he has been working as an actor for the SALON Theatre in Kingston, a company that focuses on the history of Kingston and specifically on Sir John A. MacDonald. Most recently the company has been working on a project called Sir John A . 2015, which gives an account of the life and times of Canada's first prime minister. The company offers up costumed walking tours of Kingston in the summer months and performs in a touring road and rail show for students across Canada. Dyck's height and practiced delivery make him the perfect doppelganger for Sir John A.

When I caught up with him as he toured Sharbot Lake prior to the festival's opening on Friday night, Dyck said that he has been playing MacDonald regularly for the last year and that he thoroughly enjoys the role. “You get to play a politician without actually having to be one”, he said. “I can be jovial and charming and offer up a bit of comedy and a bit of wit, which is always lot of fun”, he said as he posed with the staff at the Sharbot Lake Pharmacy.

As far as the challenges go, Dyck said the difficulties in playing the famed Scot come with MacDonald's “complicated legacy” and the fact that he was such a complex and often polarizing figure. “He had a lot of both positives and negatives associated with his legacy and though the negatives don't often come up, I am totally prepared to deal with them when they do.“

Part of his responsibility in playing the role is knowing both sides of the story and Dyck, who is well read and a Canadian history buff, said he knows his facts and feels confident to be able to respond to any issues that do come up. Some of the more negative aspects of Sir John A.'s legacy, which Dyck cited, include MacDonald's attitude and treatment of Canada's indigenous people and the Chinese migrant workers, and of course MacDonald's well known tendency to overindulge in drink.

But Dyck was also quick to point out that he was also responsible for uniting the country, building the Canadian Pacific Railway, which Dyck cited as “the impossible dream” and “one of the single largest achievements the world has ever seen”, as well as launching the RCMP and the Canadian Coastguard.

Dyck said that the policy at the SALON Theatre is to always play historic roles “with warts and all.” “Our goal is to always bring awareness to both the positives and negatives of these historic persons and we always try to avoid being one-sided”.

Dyck was presented with a print of Sharbot Lake's mural of Sir John A.’s funeral train following the festival’s opening ceremonies and he also performed a couple of songs in the opening night talent show that followed. His appearance definitely made this year’s festival a memorable one.