John Macdonald was a soldier in the British Army who enlisted in 1796. He was a trusted assistant to the 1st Duke of Wellington, and was appointed Adjutant-General to the Forces in July 1830. He was awarded the C.B. (1815), K.C.B. (1827), and GCB (1847).

Premier of the Province of Canada from 1862 to 1864. The first Premier of Ontario from 1867 to 1871.

Sir John Alexander Macdonald was born on January 11, 1815, in Glasgow, Scotland.

He was the first prime minister of Canada (1867–1873, 1878–1891). In 1820, his family immigrated to Kingston, Ontario. He attended the Midland District Grammar School (1827–1828) and also a private co-educational school. In 1830, he began to article in the office of a Kingston lawyer George Mackenzie and in 1832, he was entrusted with the management of his branch office in Napanee. In 1835, he opened his own firm in Kingston and was called to the bar in 1836. As a lawyer, he quickly attracted public attention, mainly by taking on a number of difficult and even sensational cases. He was also an active businessman involved in land development and speculation. After the British Parliament united Upper and Lower Canada as Canada West (now Ontario) and Canada East (now Quebec) in the Act of Union of 1840, Macdonald was elected to the assembly of the Province of Canada as a Conservative for Kingston in 1844. In 1846, he was made a Queen's Counsel. His first experience as a cabinet member was in 1847–1848. In 1854, he became Attorney General for Upper Canada, a position he held until 1867 except for periods in 1858 and 1862–1864. He became prime minister of the Province of Canada in 1857. He worked at promoting the British America League, designed to unify Canada and strengthen its ties to Great Britain. In June 1864, Macdonald and Cartier joined with their chief opponent, George Brown, in order to further the scheme of the confederation of British North America. After conferences in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, in Quebec, and in London, the British North America Act was passed (1867), creating the Dominion of Canada, and Macdonald became its first leader. He was created Knight Commander of the Bath (KCB) in recognition of his services to the British Empire. Under his leadership, the dominion quickly expanded to include the provinces of Manitoba (1870), British Columbia (1871), and Prince Edward Island (1873). The Pacific Scandal of 1873, in which the government was accused of taking bribes in regard to the Pacific railway contract, forced Macdonald to resign, but he returned as prime minister five years later and served until his death. He was awarded honorary degrees from Queen's University at Kingston (1863), University of Oxford (1865), and University of Toronto (1889).

In 1843, he married Isabella Clark (1809-1857) and in 1867, he married Lady Agnes Bernard (1836-1920). He died on June 6, 1891, in Ottawa, Ontario.

James Ramsay MacDonald was born on October 12, 1866, in Lossiemouth, Scotland.

He was a British Labour politician. When he was fifteen, he left school to work on a farm, and after a few months, he was appointed a pupil-teacher at Drainie. In 1885, he began work as an assistant to Mordaunt Crofton, a clergyman in Bristol. During this time, MacDonald became involved in the Democratic Federation, which later became the Social Democratic Federation. In 1886, he moved to London, where he spent some time being unemployed before finding a job as an invoice clerk in the warehouse of Cooper, Box and Co. MacDonald was very interested in Scottish politics and helped found the London General Committee of the Scottish Home Rule Association. In 1888, he worked as private secretary to Thomas Lough, who was elected to Parliament in 1892. MacDonald also worked as a freelance journalist and delivered lectures on behalf of the Fabian Society. He became the Leader of the Labour Party (1922-1931) and served numerous terms in Parliament. MacDonald was the Leader of the Opposition from 1924 to 1929 and the first Labour Party Prime Minister from 1924 to 1935. As Prime Minister, he advocated for peace, raised unemployment pay, improved wages and conditions in the coal industry, and passed a housing act that focused on clearing slums. In 1935, he retired due to declining physical and mental health. In 1930, MacDonald was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from Wales, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Oxford, McGill, and George Washington universities.

In 1896, he married Margaret Ethel MacDonald (1870–1911). He died on November 9, 1937, onboard the liner MV Reina del Pacifico, in the North Atlantic Ocean and is buried in Morayshire, Scotland.