Robert Borden Essay Research Paper I IntroductionPrint
Robert Borden Essay, Research PaperI. IntroductionPrint subdivisionBorden, Sir Robert Laird ( 1854-1937 ) , 8th premier curate of Canada ( 1911-1920 ) . Borden led the Canadian authorities during the critical old ages of World War I ( 1914-1918 ) , when Canada was coming to political and economic adulthood. His wide vision and sound judgement made him an effectual leader in these hard old ages. He was frequently opposed within his ain party, but his equity and his ability to hold on the facts of an issue kept him at the head of political life. He was accused of doing the rift between French-speaking and English-speaking Canadians over the bill of exchange issue.
However, the rift had existed below the surface and had merely been widened. Borden & # 8217 ; s greatest accomplishment was to give Canada new position and influence in international personal businesss.II. Early CareerPrint subdivisionBorden was born in Grand Pr, Nova Scotia. He was educated at the Acacia Villa Seminary in Horton, Nova Scotia, where he did so good that he was appointed the school & # 8217 ; s adjunct classics maestro at the age of 14. At 19 he was apprenticed to a jurisprudence house in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and became a attorney in 1878.
Borden started a jurisprudence pattern in Kentville, Nova Scotia, and in 1882 was invited to fall in one of the largest jurisprudence houses in Halifax. He became the junior spouse of Graham, Tupper and Borden. A difficult worker, Borden was gaining a significant income by the clip he was 28. In 1889 Borden married a local miss, Laura Bond, the girl of a Halifax merchandiser.
In 1890 Borden became the senior spouse of his jurisprudence house.A. Member of ParliamentPrint subdivisionIn 1896 Borden was persuaded by Sir Charles Tupper, the Conservative premier curate, to run for one of Halifax & # 8217 ; s two seats in Parliament. Although the Tupper authorities was defeated at the polls, Borden was elected and went to Parliament as a member of the resistance.
Borden did non like Parliament. The deficiency of rational argument and the lip service he found there were non to his gustatory sensation. Borden & # 8217 ; s first address was an onslaught on the inefficiency and corruptness of the civil service.
He characteristically chose to assail a system that was favored by the majority of his ain party, and one that Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the Liberal premier curate, was seeking to extinguish.B. Party LeaderPrint subdivisionIn malice of his positions, Borden & # 8217 ; s ability shortly made him a taking member of the Conservative resistance. After the Conservatives lost the elections of 1900, Sir Charles Tupper resigned the leading of the party, and Borden was offered the station. He did non desire it because he was comparatively unfamiliar with the concern of political relations. In add-on, taking the Conservatives seemed to be a manner to political self-destruction, because the Liberals were in power during a period of national prosperity and seemed likely to go on at that place indefinitely. However, in 1901, Borden accepted the station out of a sense of responsibility. Once he had done so, he took the occupation earnestly and even gave up actively practising jurisprudence.
Borden took every chance to assail Liberal policies, peculiarly the Liberal statute law that offered loans to some of Canada & # 8217 ; s in private owned transcontinental railroads. However, in the 1904 elections the Liberals won every state except Prince Edward Island. They had about twice as many seats in the new Parliament as the Conservatives had. Borden lost his place in Halifax, but in a 1905 bye-election to make full empty seats he ran for Carleton, Ontario, and won. That same twelvemonth he moved to Ottawa for good, so that he could give better attending to his leading responsibilities.When the new states of Alberta and Saskatchewan were created in 1905, the school commissariats for them angered Protestants and Catholics likewise. Prime Minister Laurier had proposed to follow the system in Ontario, where the provincial authorities supported Protestant schools but allowed separate Roman Catholic schools which were supported by local revenue enhancements.
The Protestants resented this because they didn & # 8217 ; t want to pay for Roman Catholic schools, and the Catholics resented it because they had to pay revenue enhancements for their schools while the Protestant schools were paid for by the authorities. Although the Conservatives could non come up with a better solution, they did derive an advantage from this issue as it helped turn Henri Bourassa, the Catholic Qu bec nationalist leader, against Laurier.C.
Party OppositionPrint subdivisionIn 1906 Borden reorganized the whole Conservative Party in an effort to unite it. Borden at least succeeded in doing his ain place as leader secure. However, in 1907 he lost a certain sum of support within the party by his Halifax Manifesto, in which he stated what he considered the party & # 8217 ; s proper purposes. They included reform of Canada & # 8217 ; s Senate ; stricter supervising of in-migration ; nationalisation, or authorities ownership, of the telephone and telegraph systems ; a committee to pull off public utilities ; a duty, a revenue enhancement on imports to protect Canadian husbandmans and makers ; and authorities control of resources in the West.Borden campaigned in 1908 chiefly on the issue of corruptness in the Broad authorities.
Unfortunately, Sir John A. Macdonald, during his leading of Borden & # 8217 ; s ain party, had accustomed Canadian electors to accept corruptness, provided that they agreed with what the authorities was making. Now most Canadians agreed with Laurier, and Borden himself supported many of Laurier & # 8217 ; s steps. Both Borden and Laurier were honest work forces, and it was Borden & # 8217 ; s misfortune that many of his good purposes were already being put into consequence by his Broad opposition. However, the Conservatives made significant additions in the 1908 election. Borden ran from both Carleton and Halifax and won in both, but he chose to stand for his ain state in Halifax.
D. Liberal DeclinePrint subdivisionThe great issue of 1909 was the continued disbursal of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, the path to the Pacific Ocean that was being supported by the Liberals. When the authorities had to impart the railroad another $ 250 million, Borden suggested that authorities return over the railroad and stop Liberal sponsorship of the undertaking.A Broad licking became probably in 1910. Henri Bourassa had gained a big followers in Qu bec among nationalist French-speaking Canadians, and he decided to do his first electoral onslaught on Laurier, his former ally. He chose to make this in a bye-election in Laurier & # 8217 ; s place country, the Qu bec counties of Drummond and Arthabaska. Bourassa won, chiefly on the issue of Canada & # 8217 ; s right to stay out of British wars.
This point of position was straight opposed to the chief organic structure of Conservative sentiment, but any ally was welcome to the Conservatives if the Liberals could be beaten after 15 old ages in office. This alleged unhallowed confederation developed farther when Borden, despite his trueness to Britain, went into the 1911 election as Bourassa & # 8217 ; s ally.E. Election IssuesPrint subdivisionThe Conservatives had good evidences on which to assail the Liberals, who after so many old ages in power had allowed a great trade of corruptness to infect their disposal. Laurier & # 8217 ; s Naval Service Act of 1910 besides harmed the Liberals in the new election.
To work out the job of what Canada should make to assist in the defence of the British Empire, Laurier proposed making a Canadian naval forces that in instance of war could be incorporated into the British naval forces. The program was opposed by the Conservatives, who thought that Canada should merely supply ships for the British naval forces. The Qu bec patriots besides opposed the program because they did non desire Canada either to take part in the British naval forces or to hold a naval forces of its ain.
At the last minute before election twenty-four hours in 1911 it looked as if the Liberals might win. The authorities negotiated a free trade understanding with the United States, and the Congress of the United States approved it. At first, the understanding was good received, but it shortly came under onslaught. Sir Clifford Sifton, a Liberal who had become Laurier & # 8217 ; s enemy, spoke against the understanding, and many Canadian makers were against it. The most powerful onslaughts were the emotional 1s that the pact was unpatriotic to Britain.
The consequence of these onslaughts was magnified by Americans such as U.S. Representative Champ Clark, who suggested in a address that free trade was a preliminary to the appropriation of Canada by the United States. When the proposal was presented to Parliament for confirmation, the Conservatives delayed it. Laurier took the determination to a popular ballot.
The consequences were black for him. The Conservatives came back to power with a big bulk.III. Prime MinisterPrint subdivisionBorden became the new premier curate on October 10, 1911. However, many Conservatives thought that they had done more than Borden to convey about triumph at the polls. They had to be given cabinet stations but even so they were dissatisfied, and several of them hoped to replace Borden. It was besides inevitable that Conservative members of the new Parliament should often differ with Borden on policy.
The new premier curate & # 8217 ; s first old ages of office were hard.A. CabinetPrint subdivisionBorden & # 8217 ; s cabinet proved really troublesome. The curate of reserves and defence, Samuel Hughes, was an utmost imperialist.
Sir George Eulas Foster, the curate of trade and commercialism, was more responsible but besides imperialistic. Francis Cochrane, the curate of railroads and canals, was so against the Grand Trunk Railway that he had to be restrained by Borden from seeking to get rid of the undertaking.An immediate confrontation in the cabinet was avoided, but non until 1916 could Borden rely on the trueness of his co-workers. Some of the cabinet members from Qu bec made unfastened efforts to coerce him out, but they were unsuccessful.
B. PoliciesPrint sectioNBorden continued some policies of the Liberals, and he carried on the reform of the civil service by spread outing the strategy of promotion based on virtue as opposed to tenure. He even completed the transcontinental railroad system, which he had antecedently attacked. This continuation of many of Laurier & # 8217 ; s policies showed that Borden was every bit committed to the undertaking of nation-building in Canada.However, Borden differed from Laurier on naval policy and made no effort to implement Laurier & # 8217 ; s Naval Service Act of 1910.
Alternatively, Borden tried to explicate his ain naval measure. He went to England in 1912 to discourse the inquiry with the British. His negotiations with First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill led to Borden & # 8217 ; s debut of the Naval Aid Bill. The measure provided that Canada should provide $ 35 million to purchase three ships for the British naval forces, in return for being given a greater say in imperial policy. However, during the 1913 argument over the measure in the Canadian Parliament, Churchill bombarded Borden with letters declaring that merely Britain could construct the new ships, that lone Britishers could staff them, and that the thought of a Canadian naval forces was farcical.
Consequently there followed two hebdomads of uninterrupted argument in Parliament. Borden had to use closing, a jurisprudence that allows the cabinet to coerce a ballot on a measure without argument, to acquire the measure through the House of Commons, although antecedently the Conservatives had attacked the Liberals for sing closing on the free trade understanding. However, when the measure came to the Senate, the mostly Broad organic structure turned it down. Borden could hold called for a popular ballot on the issue and likely could hold won, but he was unwilling to put on the line losing power for the British naval forces, and he allow the affair bead.C. World War IPrint subdivisionThe unagitated period of Borden & # 8217 ; s disposal ended in August 1914. There was no inquiry of Canada & # 8217 ; s non coming into the coming European war on the side of Britain. At the start even the Gallic Canadians were in favour of the war.
Borden had hurried back from vacation before the war broke out in order to reassure Britain that Canada would do every forfeit in its support. When war was declared, a War Measures Act was passed that put most of Parliament & # 8217 ; s power into the custodies of the cabinet.The response of the Canadian people was immediate and great. There were 30,000 voluntaries in the first month of the war. By the terminal of the war in 1918, more than 600,000 people were in the armed forces out of a population of 7,500,000.The war shortly began to convey out the basic differences between French-speaking and English-speaking Canadians, and French Canada bit by bit became alienated by the authorities & # 8217 ; s war attempts. It was less interested in Europe and did non hold the enthusiasm for the war that fired the remainder of Canada.
Furthermore, the defence curate, Hughes, was a Protestant Irishman. He was disdainful of the Catholic French Canadians, and his attitude prevailed in the ground forces. No effort was made to organize French-speaking regiments, although the ground forces was contending in France and many recruits from Qu bec did non talk English. No chances for publicity were offered to Gallic Canadians. The fact that the figure of French-speaking recruits was less than that of English-speaking recruits inspired bitterness among utmost English-speaking groups and was met with an replying choler from the Gallic. To Borden & # 8217 ; s recognition, nevertheless, he refused to ban Bourassa & # 8217 ; s paper, Le Devoir, in malice of its go oning onslaughts on the authorities.Borden had problem abroad every bit good as at place. He went to England in June 1915 and was disturbed by the deficiency of concern the British authorities seemed to experience about the war.
Borden threatened to stop Canada & # 8217 ; s war attempt if the English did non expose greater energy. He was reassured by the British curate of weaponries, David Lloyd George, but Borden in private thought that it would be 18 months at least before anything could be accomplished. He besides had to take a firm stand that Canada be given complete information on war programs, and he demanded that his state be consulted about general policy in war operations.
D. Further Domestic CrisissPrint subdivisionIn 1916 and 1917 several new events accentuated tenseness between the French- and English-speaking Canadians. The Ontario authorities passed a jurisprudence doing English the compulsory first linguistic communication in Ontario schools. This outraged Qu bec, and a het treatment took topographic point in the federal Parliament. Borden did non and likely could non move. The Conservative Party was going increasingly more chauvinistic, as was shown by the passing in 1917 of the Military Voters Act and the Wartime Elections Act, which had been written by Borden & # 8217 ; s immature helper, Arthur Meighen. These measures, which merely caused more jobs, took the right to vote off from painstaking dissenters and anyone speaking German and gave it to servicemen abroad and to their married womans, widows, and other female relations, who until that clip had non been allowed to vote.
In December 1916 Lloyd George, the new British premier curate, formed the Imperial War Cabinet to organize the war attempt throughout the British Empire. As Borden had desired, Canada now had a voice in the behavior of the war. Borden went to Europe to take part in the meetings of the Imperial War Cabinet and stayed there until May 1917.E. Conscription CrisisPrint subdivisionOn Borden & # 8217 ; s return to Canada, he found himself faced with the biggest crisis of the war. Recruitment was non traveling good, and at that place was a strong feeling among English-speaking Canadians that there should be muster, or bill of exchange. In June 1917 Borden introduced the Military Service Act. It was bitterly resented by Gallic Canadians, although it specified so many freedoms that people who truly wanted to avoid being drafted could easy make so.
In readying for the new election, Borden formed a alliance authorities in October 1917. Laurier, the leader of the Liberal Party, felt that he could non fall in a authorities that had offended his French-Canadian compatriots. However, many English-speaking Liberals did articulation. In the election held on December 17, Borden & # 8217 ; s new Union authorities won an overpowering triumph, deriving a larger parliamentary bulk.
In March 1918 there were public violences in Qu bec City, during which bill of exchange officers were attacked and draft lists were burned. However, there was no existent effort to interrupt up the Canadian Confederation, because Laurier & # 8217 ; s prestigiousness was sufficient to maintain Qu bec loyal. When the freedoms in the Military Service Act were canceled in April 1918, the disfavor of the bill of exchange spread throughout the state. Farmers, in peculiar, resented their boies being forced into service.F. Last Years in OfficePrint subdivisionThe concluding months of World War I were feverish for Borden. He spent the summer of 1918 in London, where he was in continual audience with the war leaders.
When Borden returned to Canada at the terminal of August, he decided that his Union authorities should go on even after the war, although the members of the alliance had small in common except for a desire to see the war to its decision.In November 1918 Borden returned to London and remained in Europe until 1919, functioning as Canada & # 8217 ; s main representative at the peace conference in Paris. Canada played a dual function at the conference, because Borden non merely served on the British Empire squad of negotiants but besides represented Canada in its ain right.
Borden insisted that the peace pacts be signed individually by Canada and ratified by the Canadian Parliament. It was the first clip that other states had been forced to take notice of Canada & # 8217 ; s independency. This achievement was about wholly due to Borden. He besides insisted that Canada join the League of Nations, an international confederation to continue peace.
He so threatened to retreat from the League if Canada were non included in the International Labor Organization, which was dedicated to bettering labour conditions.G. ResignationPrint subdivisionWhen he returned to Canada, Borden tried to retrieve some support in Qu bec for his authorities, which had done little in the past twelvemonth. It had completed the nationalisation of the railroads and had passed an act for the exile of nihilists.
Borden made a speaking circuit, and even offered to vacate if it might assist the party. His offer was refused, but he was already sing vacating for other grounds. Borden was in sick wellness.Most of the cabinet wanted Sir Thomas White as Borden & # 8217 ; s replacement. White, nevertheless, who had been the wartime curate of finance, had decided to retire. Sir Clifford Sifton and Borden himself wanted the younger and more capable Arthur Meighen.
Borden thought he should inquire White foremost, but he was relieved when his former curate declined the offer. Borden resigned on July 10, 1920, and Meighen was appointed to win him.IV. Further ServicePrint subdivisionBorden & # 8217 ; s surrender did non intend that he had retired from national and international personal businesss. He regained his wellness and represented Britain at the Washington Conference in 1921 and 1922, and at the arbitration between Britain and Peru that took topographic point in Paris in 1922. He represented Canada on the Council of the League of Nations, and was Canada & # 8217 ; s main delegate at the League & # 8217 ; s 1930 assembly.
Borden delivered talks at the University of Toronto and at the University of Oxford. The Toronto talks were published in 1921 as Canadian Constitutional Studies. The Oxford talks were published in 1929 as Canada in the Commonwealth. In 1912 Borden was sworn in as a member of the imperial Privy Council.
He was Chancellor of the Exchequer of McGill University from 1918 to 1920 and of Queen & # 8217 ; s University at Kingston from 1924 to 1930. Borden died in 1937, and his Memoirs were published posthumously the undermentioned twelvemonth.
