By 1822, the Catholic population of York had grown to 1,000 and Macdonell moved from Glengarry to York (Toronto) and built a home at the corner of Jarvis and Richmond in 1832. of Upper Canada's Catholic crusade.
That home is barely noticeable today, but at one time it was the center of Upper Canada Catholic crusade.
Macdonell has been described by William Foster Coffin as "a medieval churchman, half bishop, half baron, [who] fought and prayed with equal zeal, by the side of men he had come to regard as his hereditary followers."
Thomas D'Arcy McGee referred to him as the "greatest Tory of Canada."
Macdonell was definitely a man of many talents, despite his allegiance to the Crown and chief among him were his power of political persuasion. As a member of the Legislative Assembly, he would eventually push for government salaries to be paid to Catholic priests and teachers in the colony in return for their loyalty to the Crown.
However, this effort met with resistance from Anglican Church heads of Upper Canada and John Strachan in particular.
It turns out that the political ties between Strachan and Macdonell were not enough to overcome their religious differences.
--Brock-Perry
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