Sir Robert Laird Borden

BORDEN, SIR ROBERT LAIRD Canadian statesman, born at Grand Pre, Nova Scotia, on June 26, 1854 Called to the bar in 1878, he rapidly became a leading figure in the c'ourts of his native province and in 1896 was elected Conserv ative member for Halifax in the Canadian House of Commons. On the resignation of Sir Charles Tupper, in Feb. Igoi, he became leader of the Conservative opposition, Sir Wilfrid Laurier being at that time in office. His policy was one of ardent imperialism and antagonism to Canadian reciprocity with the United States.

At the general election of i9o8 Borden was again returned for his old constituency of Halifax, after an interval during which he had represented Carlton, and in Ica' he undertook a notable cam paign throughout the west in opposition to the Laurier policies. As a direct consequence Laurier's Liberal majority of 5o was turned, at the general election in the autumn, into a coalition majority of 49, and Borden was called to form a government.

He took office on Jan. 1,

1912, and soon became involved in vigorous controversy with President Taft, who had offered Canada a commercial alliance. Borden held that a reciprocity treaty on those lines would make Canada "an appanage of the United States." In regard to the navy, he declined to proceed with the Laurier programme for a Canadian navy to be built in six years, and in June, '9'2, went to London to discuss with the home gov ernment the whole problem of imperial defence. As a result he proposed, at the end of the year, in the Canadian House of Com mons a contribution of 35 million dollars to the imperial excheq uer, earmarked for naval construction, the home government agreeing on their side to welcome a Canadian minister in London and to make him a permanent member of the Committee of Im perial Defence. The vote went through the Commons in Feb. 1913 but, after a campaign of heated criticism, was thrown out in the senate by 51 to 27. In place of the imperial contribution, an acceleration of the Laurier building programme was then arranged.

Borden was created G.C.M.G. in 1914, and remained at the head of the Canadian Government throughout the World War, in which he rendered notable service to the cause of the Allies. In Oct. 1917 he formed a National, or Coalition, Government of Liberals and Conservatives, which was confirmed in office at elec tions two months later. At the Peace Conference he was largely responsible for securing the separate representation of Canada. In 192o he retired from the premiership, and in 1922 published Canadian Constitutional Studies. In 1927 he was Rhodes Memo rial lecturer at Oxford university. He died June io, 1937.