Commentary
It’s interesting how talent in a family gets passed down—or doesn’t. Sir Winston Churchill’s father, Lord Randolph, was a brilliant statesman who rose rapidly but died at 45. Sir Winston lived twice as long, was considered a failure until the crisis of 1940, and was then seen as the saviour of England for the rest of his life. His son Randolph, in turn, was a hard-drinking hack whose only achievement was getting started on the official biography of his father, most of which was completed by Sir Martin Gilbert.
Potential greatness and its burdens are “a subject of perennial fascination and enquiry,” according to Debrett’s Peerage. Just as Canada’s most compelling prime minister was Sir John A. Macdonald (no amount of Bolshie muckraking can change that), so the most interesting progeny was his noble and independent-minded son, Sir Hugh John Macdonald. Hugh served as an MP and cabinet minister and was briefly the premier of Manitoba, but he could never escape the shadow of his father. Still, he deserves an article all to himself—next time….