October 10, 1911 - October 12 1917 (Liberal Conservative)
October 12, 1917 - July 10, 1920 (Union)
Born:
June 26, 1854, Grand Pre, Nova Scotia
Died:
June 10, 1937, Ottawa, Ontario
Education:
Acadia Villa Academy, Horton, Nova Scotia
Occupation:
1868 - Teacher
1874 - Articled law clerk in Halifax
1890 - Head of a Halifax law firm
1924/30 - Chancellor, Queen's University
1928 - President, Crown Life Insurance Company
1930 - President, Canadian Historical Association
Author
Knighted:
1914 - G.C.M.G. (Knight Grand Cross, Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, 1818)
Marital status:
Married, 1889, Laura Bond (1863-1940)
Buried:
Beechwood Cemetery, Ottawa, Ontario
Robert Borden was a self-taught, successful, Halifax lawyer when he decided to enter politics for the first time. He came from a Liberal family but he ran for the Conservative Liberals because the provincial Liberals had threatened, in 1886, to take Nova Scotia out of Confederation. Charles Tupper's Conservative Liberal Government was defeated in the 1896 election, but Borden won his Halifax seat for the party. In Ottawa he made a favourable enough impression that, in 1901, when Tupper resigned, the party chose Borden as the new Leader of the Conservatives.
Borden was an unpolished and practical politician who liked to drive his bicycle to work. He indeed presented a striking contrast to his eloquent and articulate political rival, Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier. Both men were nationalists but Borden's nationalism was very similar to that of Sir John A. MacDonald. Borden believed that Canada's most challenging and meaningful objective was to maintain it's own existence and identity within North America. It was this conviction that enabled him to mastermind his successful campaign against reciprocity in 1911.
The single most important issue of the federal election of 1911 was the Reciprocity Agreement which the Laurier Government had negotiated with the United States. The Reciprocity Agreement of 1911 would have provided for free trade on natural products and reduced tariffs for a variety of other goods. The Americans approved the Agreement, but the Canadian electorate rejected it, and in doing so made Robert Borden the eighth Prime Minister of Canada.
Borden's leadership is most memorable because of what he was able to accomplish in external affairs. Borden believed that the British Empire should present a united foreign policy, but he also believed that all of its member countries should have a voice in that foreign policy. He was a leading force in achieving Dominion status for Canada and the creation of the British Commonwealth of Nations.
His sense of responsibility toward the international community did not end with the British Commonwealth. He also ensured that Canada would do its part for the war effort. Under Borden the War Measures Act (1914) was passed, and government instituted income tax (1917), which was supposed to be a temporary tax. Steps were also taken to nationalize the rail system, and the Military Service Act (1917) was passed. In 1917 Borden also brought about the Union Government of pro-conscriptionists as a means to ensure that compulsory military service, or "conscription", was supported by all Government members. After doing so he fought and won a federal election on the conscription issue.
After his retirement from politics in 1920 he went into business and served as Chancellor of Queen's University. He died in Ottawa in 1937, at the age of 82.
Readings: J.English (1977) Borden : His Life and World; R. Craig Brown (1975, 1980) Robert Laird Brown 2v.; H. Borden, ed. (1938) Robert Laird Borden: His Memoirs.
