Cartier, Sir George Etienne, << kahr TYAY, zhawrzh ay TYEHN >> (1814-1873), was a French-Canadian political leader. He was one of the Fathers of Confederation, the men whose plan for a union of British North American colonies led to the formation of the Dominion of Canada in 1867. He played the key role in winning French-Canadian support for the dominion.
Cartier was born on Sept. 6, 1814, at St.-Antoine-sur-Richelieu in Lower Canada (now Quebec). As a young man, he became a critic of British rule in Canada. In 1837, Cartier joined a rebellion against the government and was forced to flee to the United States. Later pardoned, he became a member of the Legislative Assembly and a cabinet minister in the government of the Province of Canada. From 1857 to 1862, he served as joint prime minister of the province with John A. Macdonald.
From 1867 to 1873, Cartier served as minister of militia in the first cabinet of the Dominion of Canada. He strongly supported westward expansion and arranged the government’s purchase of Rupert’s Land, a vast territory in the northwest owned by the Hudson’s Bay Company. Cartier also encouraged the construction of a Canadian transcontinental railroad. He was made a baronet of the United Kingdom in 1868. He died on May 20, 1873.
