Saskatchewan Senator Denise Batters is asking Regina City Council to keep the statue of Canada’s 1st Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, in Regina’s Victoria Park.

Batters says “We must not erase our history, we should add to it, and we should give it full context.”

Macdonald served as Prime Minister for 19 years and created the residential schools system.

Senator Batters says Canada’s leaders and heroes are not without flaws and Macdonald was no exception but suggests all leaders are in some way a product of their time. She also says that we can’t supplant his historical context, his values, his judgements, with those prevalent in the times in which we live.

She is asking Regina City Council at their meeting Wednesday to keep the statue and focus efforts on creating a more inclusive historical context through additional artworks or monuments.

Batters, born in Regina, practiced law in the province and was at one time Chief of Staff to  Saskatchewan Minister of Justice Don Morgan. Denise Batters was appointed to the Senate in 2013.