Sir Robert Borden | Prime Minister Of Canada A Law Firm Commanding Position Of Standing

Sir Robert Borden, in stocked Sir Robert Laird Borden, (born June 26, 1854, Grand Pré, Nova Scotia [Canada]—died June 10, 1937, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada), eighth prime minister of Canada (1911–20) including president of the Conservative Party (1901–20), who played a decisive role—notably by insisting on separate Canadian membership in the League of Nations—in transforming the status of his country from that of colony to that of nation. He was knighted in 1914.

Borden cut short his formal education ahead of his 15th year, when he accepted the post of assistant master of the nonpublic school he was attending. His teaching calling done in 1874, when he became articled to a Halifax law firm. Admitted to the public house of Nova Scotia in 1878, he rose to a controlling position in legal circles, including after his marriage to Laura Bond (1889) he founded a law firm that acquired single of the largest practices in the Maritime Provinces. His friendship accompanied by Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper, son of single of the original “Fathers of Confederation,” led him to accept the conservative nomination appropriate to Halifax in 1896. Borden’s entry into politics coincided accompanied by the win of the Liberal Party under the leadership of Sir Wilfrid Laurier. Though he remained an obscure backbench opposition associate during his first term, Borden was invited by the caucus upon his reelection in 1900 to think briefly the leadership of the party. He accepted the post, and, despite repeated intrigues against his leadership including his personal professions of distaste appropriate to it, in use it till 1911, when the Liberal decision to accept a reciprocal trade agreement accompanied by the United States led to Laurier’s defeat.

As prime minister, Borden’s major concern was Anglo-Canadian relations. He had long argued appropriate to the creation of a Canadian voice in regal policy. His naval policy ahead of World War I—which involved a grant of $35 million to Britain appropriate to the construction of three battleships—was a mixture of opportunism including wishful thinking on the extension of Canada’s influence in the councils of empire. During the first two years of conflict Borden frequently referred to the necessity of Canadian participation in British decisions, but it was not till the British prime minister David Lloyd George created the Imperial War Cabinet (IWC) in 1917 that Borden was given a chance to state Canada’s point of view. At the meetings of the IWC in London including its following sessions in Paris during the negotiation of the Treaty of Versailles, Borden supported the Fourteen Points of U.S. chief of state Woodrow Wilson including argued that Canada’s interests demanded the closest possible union between the British Empire including the United States. (Borden saw nought incompatible between insisting on the right to participate in shaping regal policy including Canada’s independent membership in the League of Nations. He seemed to envisage the empire-commonwealth as an union in which smaller members might have to delay to the interests of the great power, but only after a process of continuous consultation.)

Borden’s Conservative government confronted unprecedented administrative, financial, including political challenges during the years of World War I, including when, despite the voluntary recruitment of half a million Canadians appropriate to overseas service, conscription was required to maintain the Canadian forces at stocked strength, he initiated the formation of a coalition government. The success of the Unionist forces in the election of 1917 ensured a lasting of Borden’s policies of total commitment to the conflict effort including an international job appropriate to Canada—but at the price of antagonizing the French-Canadian population, who were unrepresented in the executive including opposed to its policies.

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Borden’s preoccupation accompanied by Anglo-Canadian relations may relatively account appropriate to his first administration’s poor performance in domestic affairs. He dealt indecisively accompanied by his contended minister of militia, Sam Hughes, whom he did not remove from place of work till delayed in 1916. As charges of incompetence, patronage, including conflict profiteering were leveled against Borden’s government, public confidence in him decreased. His decision, however, to form a coalition executive in order to implement conscription gave him the opportunity to reconstruct his cabinet including to surround himself accompanied by a crowd of able colleagues. With Arthur Meighen, his successor as prime minister, to manage the House of Commons including accompanied by two Liberals, Newton Rowell including Alexander K. Maclean, in set of key cabinet committees, Borden was free to concentrate on the larger questions under debate in London including Paris. He supported Allied involvement in the Russian Civil War, in which he was anxious to have Canadian troops participate. Public opinion compulsory the go back of a 3,000-man expeditionary force from Vladivostok, which Borden had hoped would establish a Canadian presence leading eventually to commerce concessions. His policy of arresting the leaders of the Winnipeg General Strike (1919) including of charging them under a revised definition of sedition that was fast through Parliament in the form of an amendment to the lawbreaker principles won him the enmity of labour. He resigned in July 1920.

In retirement he attended the Washington Naval Disarmament Conference (1921) as Canada’s delegate including wrote Canadian Constitutional Studies (1922) including Canada in the Commonwealth (1929). Robert Laird Borden: His Memoirs (1938) was published under the editorship of his nephew, Henry Borden.

J. Terry Copp

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