WATERLOO - You wanted to ignite a passionate conversation by welcoming the Prime Ministers Statue Project on the Waterloo campus of Wilfrid Laurier University? You got it.

Minutes after the permanent landing site was announced in front of a bronze Sir John A. Macdonald on Tuesday morning, the dialogue fired up as Canada Day loomed.

Elliot Worsfold, a PhD student in Western University's history department, spoke up in front of Laurier officials and leaders of the citizens group aiming to place as many as 22 statues in various locations at the Waterloo campus by the national sesquicentennial of July 1, 2017.

Macdonald, the first prime minister, got right to work as the stoic ice-breaking, debate-inducing sculpture temporarily placed in the corner of an open campus square.

"Why did we decide to let John A. Macdonald have the conversation?" said Worsfold, a Waterloo native who did his master's at the University of Waterloo.

"Why wouldn't we put an aboriginal figure up here in order to have that conversation. Why are we replicating this idea rather than challenge it?"

Why not Chief Poundmaker to start the collection? Why not Big Bear? Why isn't a pivotal native chief the first 92-per cent copper statue done by Wellesley artist Ruth Abernethy, Worsfold wanted to know. Why Macdonald leaning on two empty chairs and not them?

"I think doing it better would involve not replicating and celebrating a racist politician," he continued politely but forcefully. "I think we should celebrate people who contested and resisted that image."

And, according to Laurier president Max Blouw, that's exactly what might happen.

Worsfold was thanked for his opinions and invited to take part in a future advisory committee that might push to expand the $2-million statues project - which has about $300,000 in donations banked and a couple hundred thousand more in solid commitments, co-chair Dave Caputo said - beyond just Prime Ministers.

"We will also contemplate extension of the prime ministers project by augmenting it with additional national figures including aboriginal leaders, prominent women and other historically significant people," Blouw said.

Even before Worsfold spoke out, Blouw began his statements on the project landing at Laurier with a defensive, almost apologetic stance. Two years ago, Kitchener city council had rejected Victoria Park as an outdoor home for the statues, seen by critics as a tacky waste-of-money tribute to "dead, old white guys".

Now, Laurier was on the historical hot seat.

"Historical figures are rarely neutral in the eyes of the public," Blouw said.

"It's not lost on any of us, as was made clear by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, that our aboriginal peoples have received poor, and in some cases, abysmal treatment from our leaders and from the Canadian public for the entire history of our country."

Blouw acknowledged some will criticize the price tag that comes with Laurier hosting the statues project. But Kitchener, which had been asked to chip in $300,000, had a more elaborate plan for statue bases, Laurier spokesperson Kevin Crowley said. Laurier aims for a simpler "sound, solid base" that will be part of school landscaping.

Cash-strapped Laurier will only provide the location, installation and maintenance of the statues. No dollar figure was provided.

"Costs will be minimal," Blouw said.

And Laurier is a fitting landing site, he argued.

"By providing a home for the prime ministers statues at our university, we believe we can foster a more complete and open discussion and a deeper shared appreciation of our history as a nation," Blouw said.

A new statue of a mature Laurier - a younger version already adorns a campus bench - is planned for prominent display at King Street and University Avenue. The Macdonald figure will eventually adorn the western entrance to the school, Blouw said.

But first the next statues have to be commissioned now that they have a destination.

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Victoria Park is out. Laurier's Waterloo campus is in. Let the conversations and debates with passionate Canadians like Worsfold and others begin.

"Where else would this discussion that just took place here happen?" Caputo said.

"You could have great debate, peaceful protest. You could do all the things that might define a great university experience in conjunction with this. So I actually think this was an odyssey we had to take to get to the right place. And Wilfrid Laurier University is the right place."