John A's Crusade

Trevor S. Raymond is a teacher and librarian with the Peel Board of Education and editor of Canadian Holmes.

Richard Rohmer, author of several “what if?” contemporary political
potboilers (What if Quebec seceded, or if the United States invaded?),
has written in John A’s Crusade a historical fantasy that takes place
mainly between December 1866 and April 1867. The protagonist, John A.
Macdonald, is in England with other Fathers of Confederation to see the
British North America Act through Westminster. The Confederation
discussions are of some interest, but a factual subplot wherein John A.
meets and woos his second wife, Agnes, is riddled with ludicrous and
unlikely dialogue. The alternative history begins when Macdonald
attempts to prevent what seems likely to be an all-American Pacific
coast by purchasing Alaska. Queen Victoria herself (sounding like
Mission Impossible’s Jim Phelps: “If you do not succeed in your
mission, no record will exist of your attempt”) sends Sir John to see
the Tsar.

In fact, Macdonald, as a colonial, would never have been given the
status he has here—receiving secret cables, for instance, directly
from Britain’s ambassador to the United States. And, by December 19,
1866, the Tsar had decided to sell Alaska to the United States; Britain
was never considered. Indeed, the sale enabled the Russians to deliver a
shrewd blow to the British. None of these realities, however, would be
important if we had an entertaining, thought-provoking scenario that led
somewhere. We do not. The dialogue is often embarrassing and
anachronistic. The characterizations are flat and awkward, and a subplot
involving the priapic Russian foreign minister and a mistress who is a
British informant is irrelevant. Macdonald’s mission fails, leaving
history as we know it. So what is the point?

“What if?” history can be great fun, and no Canadian lends himself
better to a good story than John A. Both are wasted in this pointless,
disappointing book.