A life size bronze statue of Sir John A MacDonald stood beside the Pandora Avenue entrance to City Hall from July 1, 1982 to August 11, 2018. The statue was removed on August 11, 2018 as part of the City of Victoria’s journey of Truth and Reconciliation with the Lekwungen peoples, the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations, on whose homeland the city stands.
The original statue is stored safely in a city facility. A plaque explaining the removal of the statue stands in its place in front of City Hall.
In 2017, the City of Victoria began a journey of Truth and Reconciliation with the Lekwungen peoples, the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations, on whose territories the city stands.
The members of the City Family, part of the City’s Witness Reconciliation Program, have determined that to show progress on the path of reconciliation the City should remove the statue of Sir John A. Macdonald from the front doors of City Hall, while the City, the Nations and the wider community grapple with Macdonald’s complex history as both the first Prime Minister of Canada and a leader of violence against Indigenous Peoples.