BORDEN 



840 



BORDEN 



century, although the building was not entirely 

 constructed until the fourteenth century. Pop- 

 ulation in 1911, 261,678. 



BORDEN, bawr'den, SIR FREDERICK WILLIAM 

 (1847-1917), a Canadian statesman, for over 

 thirty years a Liberal member of the Dominion 

 House of Commons, and for fifteen years Min- 

 ister of Militia and Defense. He was born at 

 Cornwallis, N. S., and was educated at King's 

 College, Windsor, and the Harvard Medical 

 School. Immediately after his graduation from 

 the latter he practiced medicine for six years at 

 Canning, N. S. At the same time he took an 

 active interest in the Canadian militia, in 

 which he was appointed assistant-surgeon. 

 Some years later he was appointed honorary 

 colonel of the Canadian army medical corps, 

 and in 1911 was made honorary surgeon-general 

 in the imperial army. 



Medicine was his chosen profession, and the 

 militia was his hobby, but Borden was still 

 young when his interests were transferred to a 

 wider field. In 1874, when he was twenty-seven, 

 he was first elected to the House of Commons. 

 Except for a break from 1883 to 1886 he served 

 in Parliament without interruption until 1911. 

 There he quickly became a recognized leader, 

 and in 1896, when the Liberals were returned 

 to power, was appointed Minister of Militia 

 and Defense. In 1899, on the outbreak of the 

 South African War, he was active in raising and 

 equipping troops to be sent to South Africa, 

 and in 1904 reorganized the Canadian militia, 

 which was placed under the direction of a 

 council. Borden was a conspicuous advocate 

 of Canadian participation in imperial defense, 

 and was a delegate to several imperial confer- 

 ences at which this question was discussed. 

 His sen-ices were recognized in 1902 by the 

 honor of knighthood. 



BORDEN, SIR ROBERT LAIRD (1854- ), a 

 Canadian statesman who became Premier of 

 the Dominion in 1911. He was born in the 

 village of Grand Pre, N. S., June 26, 1854. After 

 graduating from an academy in a neighboring 

 town, he taught school for several years, then 

 decided to adopt the law as a profession. He 

 was called to the bar, and for nearly twenty 

 years devoted himself to his practice. It is 

 interesting to note that he became partner in 

 the law firm of which another Conservative 

 Premier, Sir John S. D. Thompson, was for- 

 merly senior partner. The junior partner for 

 several years was Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper, 

 whose father, also a Premier, was succeeded 

 by Borden as header of the Conservative party. 



Borden was the recognized leader of the 

 Nova Scotia bar, when he was persuaded, in 

 1896, to offer himself as a candidate for the 

 Dominion House 

 of Commons. As 

 a young man he 

 had been affil- 

 iated with the 

 Liberal party, of 

 which his cousin, 

 Sir Frederick 

 Borden, was also 

 a member, but 

 long before 1896 

 he had become a 

 Conservative. 

 He was elected 

 one of the mem- 

 bers for Halifax. ROBERT LAIRD BORDEN 

 In Parliament at first he made few speeches, 

 and these were usually confined to the legal 

 aspect of public questions, but his ability was 

 quickly recognized, and in 1901 he was chosen 

 to succeed Sir Charles Tupper as leader of 

 the Conservative opposition. This honor had 

 come unsought to him, indeed somewhat 

 against his wishes, for he realized the diffi- 

 culties of the position. His political career up 

 to this point had been so brief that it is no 

 injustice to say that he was practically un- 

 known to the public outside of the Maritime 

 Provinces. 



After he had accepted the position, however, 

 he threw himself actively into the work of 

 leadership. The first important issue he had 

 to face arose out of the question of establishing 

 provincial governments in the western terri- 

 tories. Under the territorial government the 

 Roman Catholics had secured the right to 

 maintain separate schools. Sir Wilfrid Laurier 

 undertook to preserve this right in the new 

 provincial constitutions. Borden, on the other 

 hand, took the position that the control of 

 education was a provincial matter. This atti- 

 tude cost him for a time the support of the 

 French-Canadians. He was also severely criti- 

 cized for accepting a salary as leader of the 

 opposition, an innovation introduced by the 

 Laurier government. The result of this and 

 other criticism was the loss of his seat in the 

 House of Commons at the general elections of 

 1904. The blow was severe, and Borden was 

 inclined to withdraw from public life, but he 

 was persuaded to accept the representation of 

 an Ontario district, and to retain his party lead- 

 ership. 



