Tupper, Sir Charles (1821-1915), served as prime minister of Canada for about 10 weeks in 1896. He was the oldest person to hold that office. Tupper, whose fellow Canadians called him the Grand Old Man of Canada, was almost 75 years old when he became prime minister.
Tupper accomplished little as his nation’s leader because he held office for such a short time. He worked hard, but with little success, to unite the Conservative Party, which had been badly divided since the death of Prime Minister John A. Macdonald in 1891.
Before Tupper became prime minister, he served in the Nova Scotia legislature and as premier of the province. Tupper helped establish the Dominion of Canada in 1867 and was one of the Fathers of Confederation. He also played an important part in bringing Nova Scotia into the Dominion. Tupper won election to the Canadian House of Commons in 1867. He held several Cabinet positions under Macdonald, who was prime minister from 1867 to 1873 and from 1878 to 1891.
Tupper, a master politician, became known for his ability to gain the cooperation of other public officials. He was a shrewd, unyielding debater and a skilled public speaker.
Early life
Family background.
Charles Tupper was born on July 2, 1821, in Amherst, Nova Scotia. He was the oldest of the three sons of Charles Tupper, a Baptist minister, and of Miriam Lockhart Lowe Tupper. Charles attended Horton Academy and Acadia College in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. He later studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and earned an M.D. degree in 1843. Tupper then returned to Amherst and entered the practice of medicine. He helped found the Canadian Medical Association in 1867 and served as its first president.
Tupper’s family.
In 1846, Tupper married Frances Amelia Morse, the daughter of the chief clerk of the court in Amherst. The couple had three sons and three daughters. Their second son, Charles H. Tupper, served in the Canadian Parliament from 1882 to 1904 and held Cabinet positions from 1888 to 1896. Tupper’s youngest son, William J. Tupper, served in the Manitoba Legislative Assembly from 1920 to 1922. In addition, he held office as lieutenant governor of Manitoba from 1934 to 1940.
Early public career
Entry into politics.
Tupper became well known in Nova Scotia through his successful medical practice. He entered politics in 1855, when he won election to the Nova Scotia legislature as a Conservative representative from Cumberland. He defeated Joseph Howe, the leader of the Liberal Party in Nova Scotia. Howe had been known for his role in persuading the United Kingdom to grant more control over local affairs to its North American colonies.
The leaders of the Nova Scotia Conservative Party quickly recognized Tupper’s political and debating skills. In 1857, he became provincial secretary in the Cabinet of Premier J. W. Johnston of Nova Scotia, a Conservative. The Liberals gained a majority in the legislature and returned to power in 1860, but Tupper won reelection from Cumberland. In addition to serving as a member of the legislature in Halifax, he practiced medicine and served as the city’s medical officer. He also was editor of the British Colonist, a Nova Scotia newspaper that supported the Conservative Party. Tupper campaigned to help the Nova Scotia Conservatives defeat the Liberals in 1863, and Johnston became premier again. In 1864, after Johnston left office to become a federal judge, the Conservatives named Tupper leader of the party and premier of Nova Scotia.
Premier.
As premier, Tupper worked for government construction of railroads and for a system of nonreligious public schools. Tupper showed great courage when he introduced the School Act of 1864, which established public schools supported by tax funds. This act was unpopular in Nova Scotia.
Tupper also worked to promote a union of the three small maritime colonies—New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. He believed such a union would strengthen those colonies politically and economically. Talk of a confederation of all of British North America began before Tupper’s idea won public acceptance.
Confederation.
Tupper was a delegate from Nova Scotia at the Charlottetown and Quebec conferences of 1864 These conferences led to Confederation. The Quebec Resolutions, prepared at the Quebec Conference, proposed a union of the colonies of British North America. This union became known as the Dominion of Canada.
The Nova Scotia legislature, led by Tupper, approved the plan for the Canadian confederation. Nova Scotia became an original member of the Dominion when the British Parliament approved the resolutions in 1867. However, many people in Nova Scotia opposed the union. They were afraid of losing the increased independence they had gained in 1848, when the United Kingdom granted Nova Scotia more control over local affairs. In the 1867 election, the Liberals, led by Howe, opposed Confederation and won control of the Nova Scotia legislature.
Tupper was elected to the Canadian House of Commons in 1867. He was the only Nova Scotia supporter of Confederation whom the province elected to the House of Commons that year.
In 1868, the Nova Scotia legislature voted to withdraw from Canada. Howe went to London and presented his anti-Confederation views to the colonial office. Tupper also went to the British capital, arguing that Nova Scotia should not leave the Dominion. The British government refused to let Nova Scotia drop out, and so the province remained in the Dominion.
Tupper persuaded Macdonald, the first prime minister of the Dominion, to offer a Cabinet position to Howe. Tupper then persuaded Howe to accept the post. By helping to bring Howe into the Dominion government, Tupper assisted in ending the anti-Confederation movement in Nova Scotia.
National prominence
Federal offices.
Tupper entered the House of Commons, Macdonald offered him a position in the Cabinet. Tupper refused the offer and advised Macdonald to appoint a Roman Catholic from Nova Scotia instead. Tupper, a Protestant, wanted to ensure the rights of the province’s Catholic minority through representation in the national government. Macdonald followed his advice. In 1870, Tupper joined Macdonald’s government as president of the Privy Council, a group formed to advise the representative of the British monarch in Canada.
Tupper held various Cabinet positions under Macdonald. He served as minister of inland revenue in 1872, as minister of finance in 1873 and 1874, and as minister of public works in 1878. Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom knighted Tupper in 1879. From 1879 to 1884, he served as minister of railways and canals, one of the most important government positions. Tupper held that office during most of the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, Canada’s first transcontinental railroad.
Canadian high commissioner.
In 1884, Tupper traveled to London as Canadian high commissioner (ambassador) to the United Kingdom. He returned to Canada in 1887 and again took over the post of finance minister. In 1888, Tupper returned to London to serve again as high commissioner. In this position, he worked to expand trade between Canada and the United Kingdom and to increase emigration from the United Kingdom to Canada. Tupper also encouraged British investment in Canada.
Prime minister
Macdonald died in 1891, three months after the Conservatives won the election that year. Tupper continued to serve as high commissioner in the Conservative governments of Sir John Abbott, Sir John Thompson, and Sir Mackenzie Bowell. Bowell became prime minister after Thompson died in 1894. In 1896, Bowell called Tupper home from London to serve as secretary of state in his Cabinet.
Bowell’s poor handling of a government crisis over Manitoba schools led to the resignation of seven members of the Cabinet. Bowell resigned three months later, in April, 1896. The Conservatives called on Tupper to serve as prime minister and lead the party in the June election. Tupper succeeded Bowell as prime minister on April 27, 1896.
Tupper’s many years spent in England had weakened his political standing at home. As prime minister, Tupper faced a divided party and many political problems. The Manitoba school dispute continued to cause a crisis in the provincial government. This problem had begun when the Manitoba legislature voted in 1890 to stop supporting the province’s French-language Roman Catholic schools. While Tupper was in Bowell’s Cabinet, he supported a bill in Parliament to restore the Catholic schools in Manitoba. However, the Liberals did not allow a vote on the bill before the election. The Manitoba school dispute became the major issue of the 1896 campaign.
The Liberals won the June election, and Tupper left office on July 8. Wilfrid Laurier, the French-Canadian leader of the Liberal Party, became prime minister. Tupper took over as leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons.
Later years
Tupper served as Opposition leader until 1900, when he lost the election for his seat in the House. He then retired from public life and moved to Kent, England. Tupper visited Canada a number of times between 1900 and 1908. In 1908, he became a member of the United Kingdom Privy Council, which is composed of former prime ministers and Cabinet members who advised the British monarch.
Tupper spent much time writing his memoirs and magazine articles on political issues. He died at his home in Kent on Oct. 30, 1915. Tupper was the last surviving Father of Confederation.
